What are the career prospects and initial costs?

Experience has shown that participants on the Institute’s training courses enrol with diverging objectives: Some enter and pursue objects conservation as a primary career, while others have a supplementary vocation in mind - or perhaps only an active retirement. Naturally, the student’s individual goals will largely determine the trajectory they follow, or the professional stature that will prove attainable.

Having said that, the Institute maintains a student database that collates a range of relevant data which has been gleaned from its training programme. Continuous data are available for the most recent twelve years, and also include categories of information that may be of interest to a wider audience:

• Percentage of novice practitioners whom are still actively practicing studio conservation after 24 months: 71%.
  (Incidentally, this number betters the average for university graduates who gainfully enter their field of study).
• Novice practitioners dormant within 24 months: 29%.
  (Of these, slightly more than a quarter elect to revive their studios at a later point).
• A census of former students also reveals that the majority of the Institute’s newly qualified practitioners elect to establish private conservation / restoration studios - many operating from a residential address.
• On average, one in eight course participants hail from museums or similar heritage institution, where they hold formal employment - often in a curatorial capacity.
• A surprising 6% of practitioners who entered the profession during the last twelve years relocated abroad at some point - where the majority either re-established themselves in private conservation practice or sought formal employment at heritage institutions.
• Studio commitments notwithstanding, 14% of private practitioners find the time to successfully extend volunteer conservation services to museums or heritage institutions in their area.
• Private conservation studios founded by former students of the Institute report that the following categories of clients (in descending order) constitute their primary sources of conservation commissions:

• For the novice wishing to establish him/herself as a ceramics conservator or metals conservator (operating from a home studio), initial course fees usually constitute the pre-eminent start-up expense.
• Nine out of every ten beginner’s studios operate from a home address - at least initially - and most do so successfully for many years. Usually, as the studio’s client profile grows, so does the significance of the objects submitted for treatment. At that stage of growth, many practitioners will be ready to invest significantly in their studio space itself.
• The studio space required by the novice is less than the equivalent of a well-lit room in the average dwelling. Where this is already available, along with a suitable work surface, the cost of equipping the beginner’s studio will usually rank below that of the novice’s initial course enrollment.
• The operating expenses of such studios are particularly modest. On an ongoing basis, expenses on conservation materials and consumables on average amounts to 6 - 9% of studio revenues. Lacking finesse, the beginner may initially record a higher percentage. Studio stationery is a secondary expense, followed by still more modest sums for electricity, transport and communications.
• Media advertising is uncommon, usually superfluous and seldom effective in this profession. The novice’s first commissions often originate from friends or family, and such interest is often driven by curiosity. Bear in mind that the results of restoration can be dramatic, and will occasionally stir strong and unexpected emotion in the recipient. The pleasure and gratitude evoked by being re-united with a well-loved object - now faithfully restored - is a powerful contributory to the word-of-mouth dynamic that underpins this inspiring studio profession.
• With few exceptions, restoration and conservation treatments can not be mechanized to any great degree, and are time-consuming by nature: It would require a resolute effort to accomplish the completion of more than ten or twelve restoration commissions every month. Some months may be entirely engaged by two or three significant and high value projects - perhaps even a single one. Considering that most patrons become repeat clients of the studio, it therefore stands to reason that the private studio can only service a very limited number of clients. Once established, many studios elect to systematically reduce their client list, retaining only selected patrons and admitting new clients only occasionally.