From passion of Cultural Heritage stories to international Cultural Heritage community

Since childhood, I have been attracted to objects as a starting point for telling stories of the human beings behind them, of their era or of the cultures they represent. I wanted to become a conservator to study items made by people from any culture or civilisation and to contribute to sharing and promoting them.

I was accepted at an incredible school in France called L'Institut National du Patrimoine (INP), a higher education institution of the Ministry of Culture, which selects students by competition to be trained as heritage curators. The school offers practical training in professional studios and in the field.

We are trained in the methods of conservation but also in aspects including time management, tools/equipment and materials. We are placed in internships and mentored by instructors who are conservation professionals and who choose the placements according to our level of knowledge/expertise.

The school also supports a 6-month internship abroad, through which I went to China. There, I was taught generously by masters of traditional techniques who became like mothers to me. Later, I went back to work with them. I then opened my own studio in France and have been an entrepreneur for 10 years!

Now, I develop international projects for the school that trained me and, guess what - the human beings behind the techniques, and cultural dialogues with them, are always the projects' foundations!