Tanushree Gupta, India

Curriculum Vitae

Tanushree Gupta works as staff member at the Institute of Conservation, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria. With focus on preparing concepts of collection care at the Napier Museum, Trivandrum, India; she works on various Indo-Austrian collaboration projects. In this capacity, she organises workshops and conferences from time to time and communicates the progress through publications and presentations. She is part of editorial team of the Institute of Conservation, and participates in hands-on conservation every time she has an opportunity. She is member of major national and international conservation-related associations.

Reflection

The Institute of Conservation offers a five years’ diploma course with specialisation in one of its sections – textiles, stones, objects and paintings conservation. After these studies, the students are eligible to apply for PhD. In India, conservation education begins at the Masters level. NMIHACM is the only one in India that offers a full two years’ Masters course in conservation and in addition offers a PhD. The course is theoretically sound, but limits sufficient practical exposure and specialisations. As formal studies in conservation were established much earlier in Europe as compared to India, the Institute of Conservation is able to provide advanced expertise in practical conservation, and thus, collaboration between the two institutes has been beneficial in bridging this gap. Cooperation between India and Austria is ongoing where conservation of cultural heritage receives special focus. The internships have been fulfilling in carrying out the research work for my PhD, gaining practical skills and, more importantly, in developing an informed approach to conservation. In addition, I was part of various ongoing activities of the institute, e.g. on-site collection care projects, workshops and conferences, which have expanded my knowledge and endowed me with better decision-making skills. The result and experience of internships is disseminated in the form of presentations at the institute, at the Indian Embassy in Vienna, and then, back in the home country, in association with the Austrian Embassy in New Delhi; and also in the form of training other students.

OeAD-GmbH regularly organises social events for all its scholars, who are enrolled in different courses and come from different nations, and offers everyone help in dealing with the new system. In the institute, too, students and faculty as well as fellow interns from different countries form a mutual bond. In between numerous cross-cultural talks, the similarities bring us together and diversities make us more curious. These internships have not only had a major influence on my research work, but have also provided the opportunity to experience the grandeur of Austria.