The survey is completely anonymous and takes approximately 10-30 minutes depending on how many comments you would like to make.
It is meant to reflect your personal experience and opinion, not the views of the institution where you work (unless specifically asked for).
You can move back and forth within the survey but cannot exit the website and then re-enter without taking the survey over again.
It is suggested that you take the survey without reviewing the questions beforehand at
However, if you are not completely fluent in English or French you may want to review the questions here:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1. What kind of artworks do you mainly work with?
Please select the type of artwork that you work with the most.
Paintings Objects (all materials including sculpture)
Textiles Paper or Photographs
Furniture Archaeological material
Natural history material Mixed collection
Other (please specify):
2. What time period do you predominantly work with?
Antiquities / Archaeological
Middle Ages
Renaissance, Baroque
19th Century
Postmodernism
Modern
Contemporary
All time periods
Other (please specify)
3. In what country or region are you currently working?
4. How many years of experience do you have after completing your training?
Number of years
Comment
5. Are you permanently employed?
Permanent employment refers to an employment position without end date, which can be part time, flexible or full time. It includes social benefits in most countries.
Yes
No (If the answer is no you will go directly to question 11)
If you have part-time or flexible employment – what percentage of employment do you have?
6. What is your level of employment?
Assistant Curator
Curator
Senior Curator
Department Head
Other (please specify)
7. How many years have you worked for your institution?
8. Approximately how old is your institution?
9. Is your museum / institution
Public
Private
Other (please specify)
10. Approximately what percentage of the annual budget is your institution / museum responsible for obtaining through exhibitions, sales etc.?
Percentage of budget
PRIVATE PRACTISE
11. If you are in private practice and working for major museums in your country, please state the average percentage of time you have worked for museums the last five year. Then please continue answering the questions as if you were permanently employed at your most frequent employer.
CURATORIAL DEPARTMENT / CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT
12. How many senior curatorial positions are there in the museum?
Number
Permanent staff, full time
Permanent staff, part time
13. Does your institution have a conservation department with permanently employed conservator-restorers?
Yes
No
14. If yes, please tell me the number of conservator-restorers:
Permanent staff, full time
Permanent staff, part time
Comment
15. Approximately how long has the museum had a conservation department?
Number of years
16. What is the physical distance between your office and the conservation department?
Please refer to the department that you interact with the most.
Same building and the same part of the building
Same building but different parts of the building
Different buildings
Different parts of town
Other (please specify in the comment field)
Comment
17. On a scale from 1-10 (1 representing “not at all” and 10 “a great deal”)
Do you think physical distance to the conservation department (conservator-restorers studio) influences the amount of interaction/collaboration that you have with the conservator-restorers?
Influence 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Comment
NO CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT
18. If you do not have permanently employed conservator-restorers, would you have liked to have had a conservation department?
(If you find permanently employed conservator-restorers unnecessary, please answer no)
Yes
No
Comment
ORGANIZATION
19. Who does the head of your curatorial department answer to?
Director
Deputy Director
Section Head of…. (for example Collections, Exhibitions, etc.)
Other (please specify in the comment field)
Comment
20. Who does the head of conservation / chief restorer, conservator / restorer answer to?
Director
Deputy Director
Section Head of… (for example Collections, Exhibitions, etc.)
Head of Curatorial Department
Other (please specify)
Comment
21. Who is ultimately responsible for the safekeeping of the collection(s) within the museum organization?
Board of Trustees
Director
Other (please specify)
EXHIBITIONS
22. When organizing an exhibition of works from your own collection, at what point do you feel it is natural / necessary to bring in the conservation department / a conservator-restorer?
Before the exhibition is scheduled
When the exhibition has been scheduled but before the final selection of artworks
When the final selection and schedule have been decided
Only for treatments
Other / Comment
TREATMENTS
23. Are artworks selected for major treatment approved by the:
Board of Trustees
Director
Curatorial department
Head of Conservation
Other (please specify in the comment field)
Comment
24. Do you participate in the decision process when artworks undergo major treatment? (i.e. review treatment proposals, discuss treatment options etc.)
Yes
No
Sometimes
Comment
25. If yes, what kind of issues do you discuss with the conservator-restorers?
Cleaning
Removal of earlier restoration
Consolidation
Integration / retouching
Structural treatments
Technique (for example painting technique, materials used in the artwork, application)
Display issues
Packing / Travel issues
All of the above
None of the above (please describe in the comment field)
Comment
GENERAL COLLABORATION
26. In your opinion, to what extent does your institution / employer encourage collaboration / collaborative projects between curators and conservator-restorers?
One being “not at all”, and ten “a great deal”.
Encouragement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
27. On what issues do you collaborate with the conservation department / a conservator-restorer?
Treatment
Technical art history
Storage
Exhibitions
Loans
Packing
Handling
Other (please specify)
28. What kind of collaboration do you find most important?
29. What kind of collaboration between curators and conservators would you like to see more of?
30. Do you experience that collaboration has changed since the beginning of your career?
Yes
No
Comment
31. Is there more or less collaboration?
Less Same More
Collaboration 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Is this positive or negative?
32. Do you find technical information provided by conservator-restorers useful for your research?
Yes
No
Comment
33. Do you find your conservator-restorers generally to be
Helpful 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 %
Difficult 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 %
Creating obstacles 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 %
Inventive 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 %
Problem solving 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 %
Problem makers 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 %
Other / Comment
PUBLICATIONS
38. Does your institution publish articles (in journals, exhibition and collection catalogues) based on collaborative projects between curators and conservators?
Yes
No
Sometimes /rarely
Comment
35. If yes, are the various parts of an article written by both (or all) authors, or are the various authors responsible for writing different sections?
Together
Separate
Both
Other (please specify / Comment)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
36. What level of education do you have?
Bachelor
Master
PhD
Comment
37. Did your education in any way prepare you to collaborate with conservator-restorers?
Yes
No
In what way?
38. Do you wish you had some more information on conservation / preventative conservation during your education?
Yes
No
Comment
39. Do you know the general level of education of your conservator-restorers?
Apprenticeship trained
Crafts education with diploma
University Bachelor
University Masters
PhD
Do not know
Comment
40. Where in your organization would you put curators and conservator-restorers?
1 represents a low ranking position
10 represents the highest ranking position
Curators 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Conservator- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
restorers
Comment
41. How do the salaries in the curatorial department compare with those in the conservation department (with the conservator-restorers)?
Are they generally:
The same
Less
More
Don’t know
Comment
42. Is the question of salary (in relation to your conservator-restorer colleagues) of any importance / interest to you?
Yes
No
Comment
43. What level of understanding do you feel that you have of various conservation related issues:
(one represents “very little”, ten “a great deal”)
Treatment techniques 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Preventative conservation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Integration /inpainting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Handling 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Light impact 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Climate impact 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Condition of artwork 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
44. Where did you learn about these issues?
Institution training
Colleagues
University program
Independent courses
Self taught
Other (please describe in comment field)
Comment
45. What kind of education /courses / programs do you think could help improve collaboration?
More information on conservation in university art history courses
Courses / lectures on collaboration during conservation training
Job exchange programs (curators and conservator-restorers changing jobs for a set time period)
Other ideas
46. Any additional comments
