Conservation as Care:Interdisciplinary Approaches to Textile Conservation as an Embodied Practice

This paper explores textile conservation training through an interdisciplinary lens combining care ethics, hands-on pedagogies, and critical museum studies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the University of Amsterdam’s Ateliergebouw, I will examine how conservators-in-training develop embodied, ethical practices in the handling and repair of fragile textiles. Using micro-ethnography and the Curious Hands makers model, the research highlights the interplay of materials, bodies, and techniques in conservation education. By analysing student work, interviews, and restoration processes, the study argues for reframing conservation as a form of care—both practical and conceptual. It positions conservation not merely as preservation but as an active, relational practice shaped by attentiveness, skill, and ethical responsiveness to change.