Last March, Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage Masters students from the School of Arts took part in the Workshop on Cleaning Techniques in Conservation held at the École Supérieure des Arts (ESA) Saint-Luc, in Liège. In addition to the presence of the Portuguese Catholic University, the workshop included students and teachers from the Belgian school, the Universitat Politècnica de València, Nicholas Copernicus University Torun (Poland) and the University of West Attica (Greece).

The Blended Intensive Program (BIP - ERASMUS+) was dedicated to dry, liquid and gel cleaning approaches that included methodologies with aqueous solutions, clays, particle projection, PVA-borax gels and Agar gels.

 The sessions were led by Maria Aguiar (EA-UCP), Nico Broers (ESA), Cécile de Boulard (La Cambre, Belgium), Luciana Ruatta (PhD in Chemistry), Valérie Rousseau (ESA), Catherine Cools (ESA), Meriam El Ouahabi (ESA) and Marika Takano (Tokyo University of Arts).

During the intense week of learning, the participants also had the opportunity to enjoy a guided tour of Ghent Cathedral dedicated to the altarpiece of the Adoration of the Sacred Lamb by the Van Eyck brothers - Hubert and Jan - completed in 1432.