The 43rd Gerry Hedley Student Symposium at Northumbria University

In commemoration of Gerry Hedley, a distinguished educator and innovator in painting conservation, this annual symposium, now in its 43rd year, serves as a forum for the presentation of original research undertaken by final-year conservation students and interns from the three postgraduate art conservation programmes in the UK.

The event convenes emerging scholars and established professionals within the field of conservation to facilitate knowledge dissemination through the sharing of novel research findings. With the inclusion of diverse research topics, the symposium allows for broader engagement within the field.

The present iteration of the symposium anticipates contributions from students specializing in paintings and paper conservation at Northumbria University and The Courtauld Institute of Art. Notably, this year marks the inaugural inclusion of presentations by MA wall painting conservation students from The Courtauld. The diverse program encompasses a range of scholarly inquiry, including investigations into cleaning methodologies, emerging technologies for attribution, studies in sustainable chemistry, and the technical analysis of Renaissance wall paintings.

Attendees are invited to participate in scholarly discourse across a spectrum of conservation topics and to gain insight into cutting-edge developments arising from student research.

The Gerry Hedley Student Symposium is a partnership between The Courtauld Institute of Art, The Hamilton Kerr Institute, and Northumbria University. The 2025 symposium is hosted at Northumbria University and  organized by students from the Conservation of Fine Art MA , School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries, with the generous support of TruVue and Kremer-Pigmente. 

Agenda

An agenda for the event is available to download as a pdf here: Gerry Hedley agenda

Start Time: 09:00am 

End Time: 19:30pm

Please join us for the drinks reception that will take place from 17:45-19:30. 

Accessibility

Northumbria University is committed to access for all. Should you have specific access and/or dietary requirements and any other enquiries related to this year’s symposium, please contact Elliot Keim: elisabeth.keim@northumbria.ac.uk

Registrations

Please register for the conference here. 

Student/Unwaged ticket: £7

Speaker Ticket: £0

Standard ticket: £15

Donations

If you would like to make a donation to the Gerry Hedley Student Fund you can do so at the Northumbria University conferencing page here. Please manually enter the amount you wish to donate and then enter 'Charity Donation' for product type and 'Gerry Hedley' for reference number. 

Contact us 

If you have any questions about the event please contact the organiser:  

Elliot Keim: elisabeth.keim@northumbria.ac.uk