The workshop

Three rooms off the courtyard of the Palace of Art, with north light, a fume cupboard and a freezer big enough for a felt.

The Palace has always mended its own objects, but until 2014 that meant one restorer at a table in the store. In 2014 the Körköm Foundation paid to fit out the old boiler rooms as a workshop and to train two conservators abroad; it has paid for their posts and their materials since.

People

Elmira Abdykadyrova, head of conservation at the Palace of Art. Aida Sultanbekova, paintings and icons (trained in Moscow and Florence). Ruslan Imanaliev, metals and wood. Kanykei Jusup kyzy, trainee, textiles and paper.

How we work

Everything we do can be undone by the next conservator. Every object gets a number, a report and photographs of every stage. We tell the owner what we found, including what we could not fix.

Visits to the workshop for school parties and students on the first Wednesday of the month, through the Palace of Art.