Internship for employees of the National Reserve

Internship for employees of the National Reserve

Since the Kakhovskaya HPP dam explosion and the drop in the water level in the Dnipro River and the Kakhovka Reservoir, many previously submerged objects have been discovered on the river shore. During the year, the Khortytsia National Reserve stock collections were replenished with valuable artifacts from the Cossack period.

Among the finds are metal, ceramic, and glass products (weapons, dishes, tools and household items, coins). The peculiarity of the glass and iron products, which have been underwater for a long time, is their unsatisfactory state of preservation. Therefore, they need urgent conservation and restoration work. Due to the need for an archaeological glass restorer in the State Reserve, preserving these artifacts became a real challenge.

But thanks to the support of the House of Europe, the alumni community of the House of Europe, and the National Research and Restoration Center of Ukraine, we solved this problem as effectively as possible.

The General Director of the National Scientific Research and Restoration Center of Ukraine, Svitlana Strelnikova, allowed the Reserve to train our employees in the new restoration specialty at this center.

With the help of the House of Europe, all materials and chemical reagents necessary for the restoration of the Cossack glass collection were purchased.

We would like to express our special thanks to the sensitive and patient supervisor of the internship, a professional in her field – a restorer artist of the highest qualification category of the Department of Restoration of Works from Ceramics and Glass, Stone and Plaster Sculpture of the National Research Restoration Center of Ukraine, Tetyana Volodymyrivna Kovalenko.

Thank you for your help and knowledge!