MEND IT: Behind the Scenes with the Cripps Institute Conservation Team
About the workshop
Try your hand at conserving and learn about inpainting and paper tear repairs. Conservators from the Robert Cripps Institute of Cultural Conservation will demonstrate how to repair damaged artwork.
Inpainting is the process of restoring areas of loss in a damaged artwork. Using stable materials that can be easily removed in the future, conservators match colour, gloss and texture to enable an uninterrupted viewing of the artwork, as it was intended by the artist.
What to expect:
A 60-minute conservation workshop with materials provided.
This workshop is part of a series of three, held over two days and please note that this session is a repeat Inpainting session - follow the below links for information on the other sessions.
Paper tear repairs - 7 November
Being Human 2026
This project was produced in collaboration with the 2026 Being Human Festival. Founded in the UK as the only national festival of the humanities, Being Human is now a global celebration dedicated to demonstrating the breadth, diversity and vitality of the humanities.
About the conservator

Vanessa Kowalski
Vanessa is Head of Conservation at Grimwade Conservation Services and has over 20 years’ experience in the delivery of technical projects and paintings conservation, with specialist expertise in the conservation of contemporary artworks and Australian Indigenous paintings. Vanessa has worked with Indigenous Art Centres across central and northern Australia, public collections across Australia and South-East Asia, and contemporary art collections in New York (Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum). Vanessa manages a large team of specialist conservators and undertakes materials research for art attribution and heritage architecture projects.
Further Information
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