Cultural Heritage & Conservation

The aim of the Cultural Heritage and Conservation programme is to provide knowledge and the necessary practical skills for qualified professional work in the field of cultural heritage protection, preservation, conservation and restoration.

  • The Academy of Arts is the only school of higher education in Estonia where one can acquire an academic higher education in cultural heritage and architectural conservation and restoration, as well as the conservation and restoration of art. The department’s faculty members are recognised and highly respected specialists in their fields.
  • The curriculum is responsive to changes and developments in the philosophy, as well as theories and practices, of cultural heritage and restoration. It is based on the principles of sustainable development and balanced innovation through the consistent development of the cultural environment.
  • Preserving and protecting the cultural legacy, and its professional conservation and restoration necessitates the education of highly qualified specialists.

News and events

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MUKOLA Research Expedition Reached Beyond the Arctic Circle

From 1–5 February, a fully equipped working group from MUKOLA, the Cultural Heritage and Conservation Lab of EKA, stayed in Northern Norway beyond the Arctic Circle to study the late medieval altarpieces of Andenes and Trondenes churches using contemporary imaging technologies. In Northern Norway, there is church art that arrived there through the trade networks of the Hanseatic League. The ...
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KVI + ARH Open Lecture: Kaisa Karvinen “From Care to Concrete: Exhibiting Architecture”

The 2025/2026 academic year open lecture series will be held in collaboration with the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture and the Faculty of Architecture. The theme of this academic year is “Architecture and the Ethics of Care” and the lectures will be curated by KVI Senior Researcher Dr. Ingrid Ruudi. On February 26 at 6 pm Kaisa Karvinen will give a lecture “From Care to Concrete: ...
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“Narva Wooden Baroque” Project – Phase III

Students from the Department of Cultural Heritage and Conservation at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) once again spent a week at the Narva Museum from 26–30 January, carrying out practical conservation work on polychrome wooden Baroque elements. This marks the third stage of the cooperation project “Narva Wooden Baroque”, launched in 2023 by the Narva Museum and the Estonian Academy of ...
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Abandoned Landscapes 2026: Tallinn City Hall

The Estonian Academy of Arts will organize its 2026 workshop “Abandoned Landscapes” in Tallinn from 19 to 22 January, with the City Hall as the focus. The aim of the workshop, which is already being held for the 14th time, is to practice international cooperation between students of architecture, heritage conservation and interior architecture, and to understand the needs and opportunities ...
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Five awards from the 2025 national student research competition go to EKA

On 10 December, the best student research projects of 2025 were recognised at a festive award ceremony held at the National Library. This year, 531 competition entries were submitted, which is roughly the same as in previous years; the main awards going to the University of Tartu and Dalhousie University. A total of 113 different awards were given this year across three levels of study ...
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Exhibition “Estonian Heritage on the World Map.”

The UNESCO Chair at the Estonian Academy of Arts is opening the exhibition “Estonian Heritage on the World Map” at Valga Railway Station. We are proud of our heritage and confident that it also speaks to the wider world. Yet we know surprisingly little about what from Estonia is actually considered remarkable internationally, and what opportunities the presentation of our heritage together ...
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Science Café “Contemporary Art and Difficult Heritage: How to Work with Dissonances?” and the opening of the exhibition “The Past as Artistic Material”

On Tuesday, 2 December, the Estonian Academy of Arts will host the opening of two exhibitions and an evening discussion focusing on the capacity of contemporary art to reinterpret difficult history and heritage. At 17:00, at the outdoor gallery of EKA exhibition “New Frames for a Monument: The Past as Artistic Material”  will open (02.12.2025–25.01.2026), which introduces artists’ proposals ...
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The opening of the recontextualized Tehumardi Memorial

The recontextualisation of the Tehumardi memorial in Saaremaa was unveiled on 14 November. It is the first Soviet-era monument in Estonia to be reframed in this way. Developed through a combination of artistic and research-led approaches and with the active involvement of the local community, the outcome is unique even in an international context. The Tehumardi monument (designed by Riho ...