Joconda

JOCONDA PROJECT

www.joconda.eu

Masterpieces such as Joconda, Venus de Milo, Picasso, Monet, as well as sculptures and paintings are regularly cleaned, restored and kept in good shape. This work is done by professional Conservators from all the countries inside and outside Europe.
Preserving Art masterpieces from time destruction and spoliation is a way to allow the European cultural heritage to be kept and shared all over Europe. But it's not only the Masterpieces at risk!
Health and safety at work is an important issue for Conservators. They daily use dangerous substances such as solvents, flammables and chemical products, as well as dangerous instruments such as cutters, scalpels, electric tools, and they move heavy charges.
Improving Vocational Training concerning safety rules for those jobs is the aim of the JOCONDA project.
JOCONDA will focus on the different risks concerned, conceiving specific guidelines for vocational training implementation which should be respected all over Europe.
The project Consortium, representing major stakeholders in the field of Health and Safety at Work in the sector come from different EU countries, i.e. from France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Italy and Belgium, and will be involved in this 2-year enterprise.

OBJECTIVES

Objectives of the JOCONDA project are improving health and safety at work for professional Conservators of art masterpieces by identifying and categorising risks concerned.
The JOCONDA project aims at identifying all risks incurred by Conservators. Specific training needs will be identified, and concerned vocational training institutions alerted about common guidelines to be respected while training these professionals in the field of safety at work.
JOCONDA will develop and spread all over Europe the following key documents:

List of professional risks issued by type of risks
Recommendations issued by the most important organisations concerned worldwide
Compendium of best practices implemented in managing workload in a healthy and safe way
Basic guidelines to integrate Health and Safety at Work for Curators and Conservators in initial and vocational training
"User manual" for public organisations issuing calls for tenders for Conservation and Curation of art masterpieces, sensitising public officers about the importance of taking into account the Health and Safety at Work policies

During the project lifespan, specific dissemination activities will be implemented in order to create a "network" of interested stakeholders in the sector, which will be invited to join the final international event in South West France.

WORK-STRUCTURE

The main project milestones are:

Identification and categorisation of risks, national laws and approaches in the countries involved in the partnership
Identification of national training courses in Conservation and Curation, focusing on learning outcomes
Definition of guidelines for training Heath and Safety at Work for Conservators and Curators, designed by learning outcomes, including knowledge, skills and competences, evaluated through EQF, with proposal weighting in accordance with ECVET
Collection of Best Practices at European level, to inform and motivate Conservators and Curators to implement Safety measures at Work
Definition of a Manual for "Calls for Tenders" addressed to public organisations aimed at sensitisation about the importance of considering health and safety measures while selecting proposals.

CONSORTIUM MAP

Maison de la Promotion Sociale (the Project Coordinator)
Artigues Pres Bordeaux, FRANCE
www.maisondelapromotionsociale.org

Laboratoire de Conservation, Restauration et Recherches (LC2R Draguignan)
Draguignan, FRANCE
www.art-conservation.fr

Prolog GmbH
Rotkreuz, SWITZERLAND
www.wix.com/PrologGmbH/Prolog

Kulturno izobraževalno društvo KIBLA
Maribor, SLOVENIA
www.kibla.org

Estudios Metodos de la Restauracion S.L.
Valencia, SPAIN
www.emr.es

SwissMedia - Association Suisse des TI & du Multimedia
Vevey, SWITZERLAND
www.swissmedia.ch

Green Tech Innovacio Zrt.
Szombathely, HUNGARY
www.g-t.hu

Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. prof. dra Jerzego Nofera
Lodz, POLAND
www.imp.lodz.pl

Prevenzione Formazione Lazio
Roma, ITALY
www.pflazio.it

Universite Libre de Bruxelles
Brussels, BELGIUM
www.ulb.ac.be

What the LdV evaluators said:
“The proposal clearly falls within the scope of the Leonardo programme and demonstrates that it clearly answers to the call and the needs of the target group. The learning partnership JOCONDA gathers France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Portugal and Belgium and its aim is to clearly identify the risks taken by the professionals in charge of restoring works of art (scaffolding, solvents etc). Improving health and safety in the work place is an innovative initiative for this trade, often forgotten. The partners do not only have a good expertise on the issue but also experience in the management of European programmes. The idea of the project stems from former discussions between partners. The tasks planned are properly scheduled and there is coherence between the activities described in the narrative part and the work plan. The publication of rules, guidelines, good practices will be a very useful tool for future use. The conservation and curation professionals involved are the right people to transfer this knowledge. It is recommended that the applicant develop this project as planned and insist on the transferability strategy to other European countries. This learning partnership is exceptional in its number of partners all involved in the same trade and in the idea of providing health and safety guidelines to those professionals involved in art restoration and conservation. Bravo and good luck!”

A 1.5 day kick off meeting was held at Lausanne, during 20/21 October 2011 at the Hotel Novotel, Bussigny-Lausanne in presence of all the partners from 9 EU countries.

JOCONDA Kick-off meeting was coordinated by Mr Francois Adoue, Project Coordinator from MPS, FR.

The objectives of the meeting in Lausanne were of two folds: (i) to launch the project so as to receive support and details from the partner organisations how implementing project activities and in sustaining its output and tasks in future; and (ii) to share and understand the project objectives and expected achievement, hone them and work out in detail work and time plan of the project.

With JOCONDA project we wish to achieve several goals:

identification of the risks concerning the safety and the health at work for conservators. Contact the European associations and the training centres to collect best practices and the solutions adapted to this domain.
a first vision of the situation in Europe, it will then allow to create a European training with the multimedia supports
creation of a white book for the European public markets to protect conservators from dangerous working conditions.
building-up a network, mass media presence and connect to the European Qualification Framework initiatives.

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Events:

JOCONDA, Kick-Off Meeting, Lausanne, Switzerland, 20–21 October 2011
JOCONDA, second partners meeting, Maribor, Slovenia, April 19–20, 2012
JOCONDA, International conference PREV-LABOR 2013 "Conservation-Restoration and Health/Safety of People and the Environment" , 17 – 21 june 2013, Figanières, France