8/18/2019 Crash Courses Prepare Art Conservators for Catastrophic Disasters

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Crash Courses Prepare Art Conservators for CatastrophicDisasters

Smithsonian experts train a brave band of conservators in northern Iraq to brace buildings and

rescue artifacts in a hurry

In the Kurdish city of Erbil, in a classroom on a nondescript street beneath the historic Citadel, 14

students sit in a semicircle around a teacher who has a mop of graying hair. The teacher is Alaa El

!abashi, a Cairobased consultant in architecture and cultural heritage conser"ation. The students

are men and women of all ages, mostly #unior and midle"el employees of the Ira$i %epartment of

Anti$uities. The lesson is about how to pre"ent buildings from falling down, or, short of that, how

to ensure that they fall in the right way. &'et(s pretend this room has a domed ceiling,) says El

!abashi. E"eryone in the room loo*s up. &If you remo"e the dome, the building collapses.)

In the bac* of the room stands a nononsense woman wearing large glasses who helped bring thesepeople together+ Corine egener, the -mithsonian Institution(s cultural heritage protection officer.

-he organied this monthlong course in crisis preser"ation in partnership with the /ni"ersity of

0ennsyl"ania. This wee* is about stabiliing immo"able heritage, such as buildings and museums

last wee* focused on in"entorying and transporting collections in a hurry. &2ou ha"e to thin* about

worstcase scenarios ahead of time,) she says. &That(s what we stress o"er and o"er.) Careful

documentation, egener tells me, is the golden rule of emergency response that way when

collections ha"e to be e"acuated, conser"ators can *eep trac* of an ob#ect(s whereabouts. &If they

can(t find it,) she whispers, &I ha"en(t done my #ob.)

egener(s passion for preser"ing heritage at ris* was spar*ed by the Americanled in"asion of Ira$.

3ne morning in 556, she wo*e up to news of widespread archaeological looting following the fall

of 7aghdad to coalition forces. -he was then a museum curator in 8inneapolis, but she was also an

officer in the /.-. Army 9eser"e(s Ci"il Affairs %i"ision, and she was aghast that plans hadn(t been

set in place to pre"ent such losses. -he began calling senior Army contacts, and before long she was

dispatched to the Ira$i :ational 8useum to help out. &It was a crash course in archaeology and

e;ca"ation, and how you properly bring things bac*,) she says.

egener #oined the -mithsonian staff in 51, after the group she founded in 55

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-mithsonian wor* primarily with oppositionfriendly archaeologists in rebelheld areas of -yria to

cooperate with the -yrian regime(s %epartment of Anti$uities could "iolate American sanctions

against the country. The pro#ects underta*en after the archaeologists returned home included a

co"ert initiati"e, in -yria(s northern Idlib pro"ince, to protect one important museum by

sandbagging the structure and encasing its inlaid 7yantineera mosaics in watersoluble glue and

cloth when the area was later hit by a massi"e barrel bomb deployed by the -yrian go"ernment, themosaics remained largely intact.

The institute in Erbil, a spacious twostory building that includes dormitories, classrooms,

conser"ation laboratories and boardrooms, was set up with funding from the /.-. -tate %epartment

in 55=, in a "enture that includes the Kurdish regional go"ernment, the Ira$i go"ernment in

7aghdad and the /ni"ersity of %elaware. -ince then, more than 655 Ira$i students ha"e learned to

preser"e e"erything from buildings to manuscripts. /nder the guidance of Bessica Bohnson, the

-mithsonian(s head of conser"ation and the Erbil institute(s academic director, the ordinary practice

of archaeological conser"ation is still taught here.

'ately things ha"e become more urgent. In the institute(s ramshac*le bac*yard stand mudbric*

moc*ups of three traditional structures+a dome, an arch and a "aulted roof. 3ne afternoon I arri"e

to find students wearing hard hats and busily in"estigating the innards of each construction. -ome

snap photos others are hurriedly drawing s*etches to scale. 0lastic &artifacts) ha"e been secreted

inside each structure. The assignment is to rapidly document a museum building or a heritage site in

ad"ance of catastrophic damage. It is a sign of #ust how gra"e matters ha"e become in this part of

the world that each group has been allotted only 1> minutes.

A couple of days later, El!abashi hands the heftiest student a sledgehammer and in"ites him to

smash the buildings. After a few carefully #udged stri*es at each one, they collapse in turn. 7ric*s

roll across the tarmac. 7rian 'ione, an American and the institute(s e;ecuti"e director, who is

documenting e"erything with a "ideo camera, shrugs philosophically. &e(ll build another one,) he

says.

-oon one group is using wooden beams to stabilie the fractured dome, referring to a design s*etch

they had drawn up before it was &attac*ed.) A second has made a grid out of tape in the rubble, and

is painting numbers on loose bric*s to indicate their position in the arch. A third group is carefully

retrie"ing the toy artifacts from the collapsed roof of the "ault, documenting them and pac*ing them

in a crate. It(s painsta*ing wor*, but, as egener e;plains, there is no substitute for preparation.Earlier this year, the -mithsonian too* o"er responsibility for running e;panded conser"ation

training courses at the institute, in a contract with the -tate %epartment, but it(s clear that the

critical steps are ta*en by local curators and residents. &Ira$is and -yrians today are ris*ing their

li"es by trying to care for cultural heritage,) says egener. &8any are forced to lea"e and become

refugees, but in the cases where things are sa"ed, it(s "ery often due to the actions of the staff or the

community on the ground.)

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