The Centre for Adult, Continuing Education & Extension (CACE&E) of Jammu University (JU) is organizing an extension lecture on "Significance, Use and Preservation of Cultural Heritage in Jammu and Kashmir" in the CACE&E Seminar hall on Friday, 19th September 2008 at 11 a.m.
The key speaker is Ms. Aparna Tandon, Project Specialist
International Center for the Study of the Preservation & Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Rome, Italy.
A native of Jammu and Kashmir state, Ms. Tandon holds a Masters’ degree in Art Conservation from the National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology, New Delhi and has received her specialization in Paper Conservation from the Straus Center for Conservation, Harvard University Art Museums.
In 2001-2002 she was a Fulbright Fellow at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. where she researched on disaster risk management for cultural heritage collections.
In 2003 she was the Conservation Guest Scholar at the Getty Conservation Institute, focusing on preventive conservation and risk preparedness strategies for museum and archive collections.
From 1998 to 2004, she was Curator-Conservator at the Amar Mahal Museum and Library in Jammu in northern India.
She has specialized in designing preventive conservation strategies for museum collections and in teaching, while also promoting awareness and public participation in preservation activities.
Aparna has learnt traditional paper conservation skills from Japan and has taught conservation in various Asian countries such as Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Combodia, Vietnam, South Korea etc.
She was the founder Convenor of a NGO, Preserve Art Treasure and Heritage (PATH) from 2003-2004, through which she organized a series of preventive conservation and awareness generation camps for the collections and sites in Jammu and Kashmir.
She has the distinction of being the first Indian to work at the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome, Italy.
She also represents ICCROM at the International Committee of Blue Shield, which has been founded to protect cultural heritage in the event of armed conflicts, and natural or other disasters.