# CIACH

> Conservation Initiative for Art & Cultural Heritage


## Posts

- [Stained Glass Conservation in India: Techniques, Challenges, and Restoration Practices](https://ciach.in/stained-glass-conservation-india/): Stained glass windows are among the most visually striking elements found in India’s churches, colonial buildings, palaces, and cultural structures. Their vivid colours and intricate designs reflect centuries of artistry. However, many of these historic installations are deteriorating due to environmental damage, ageing materials, and neglect. This makes stained glass conservation essential for preserving India’s architectural and cultural heritage.
- [The Importance of Preventive Conservation: How to Protect Art Before It Gets Damaged](https://ciach.in/preventive-conservation-art-protection/): Artworks don’t just get damaged suddenly — most deterioration happens slowly, often unnoticed. This is why preventive conservation has become one of the most important practices in the art world. Instead of waiting for cracks, fading, or structural issues, preventive care focuses on protecting art early to avoid costly restoration later.
- [Safeguarding India’s Artistic Legacy: Art Conservation in Delhi](https://ciach.in/art-conservation-in-delhi/): India’s artistic legacy spans centuries—paintings, sculptures, stained glass windows, manuscripts, and architectural marvels that tell our cultural story. But with time, pollution, and environmental stress threatening these masterpieces, art conservation in India has become more crucial than ever. Cities like Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, and Kolkata are at the forefront of this growing movement to protect the nation’s cultural treasures.
- [Techniques and Challenges in Restoring 19th Century Oil Paintings](https://ciach.in/19th-century-oil-painting/): The 19th century gave the world some of the most exquisite oil paintings — romantic portraits, landscapes, and historical moments captured on delicate canvas. Over time, these artworks face the test of age, losing brightness and structural integrity. At CIACH, our mission is to revive historical art through scientific conservation practices, ensuring every restored piece retains its soul and authenticity.
- [Preserving the Past: How We Restore Historic Textiles](https://ciach.in/preserving-historic-textiles-restoration/): Textiles have long been a part of humanity’s visual and functional culture—from ceremonial robes to battle flags, handwoven saris to embroidered tapestries. These delicate materials tell the stories of people, rituals, and artistic mastery. However, historic textiles are among the most vulnerable heritage objects, prone to wear, environmental damage, and material fatigue. Restoring them is a task that blends science, craftsmanship, and cultural sensitivity.
- [Saving Stories: Conserving Rare Manuscripts and Archival Materials](https://ciach.in/saving-stories-conserving-rare-manuscripts-and-archival-materials/): In a world increasingly reliant on digital storage, the tangible presence of ancient manuscripts and archival documents continues to hold irreplaceable historical, cultural, and scholarly value. These timeworn treasures are often the only remaining witnesses to past civilizations, ideologies, and everyday lives. Conserving such materials is not just an act of preservation—it’s a mission to safeguard stories that shaped our heritage.

## Pages

- [Shri M.N. Manikandan](https://ciach.in/art-conservator/): [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-lg-5 vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12" el_class="ciach-ab-practice-photo"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_content_width="grid" content_text_aligment="center" simple_background_color="#f8f8f8" css=".vc_custom_1790000000703{padding-top: 110px !important;padding-bottom: 110px !important;}" el_class="ciach-title-row ciach-recognition"][vc_column offset="vc_col-lg-offset-1 vc_col-lg-10 vc_col-md-offset-0 vc_col-md-12 vc_col-sm-offset-0 vc_col-xs-12"][vc_empty_space height="22px"][vc_column_text]In March 2024 he received the fifth INTACH-Martand Singh Memorial Award, which recognises artisans in handicrafts, textiles and handlooms, and architectural crafts.
- [Frames & Mount Conservation](https://ciach.in/frames-mount-conservation/): We conserve and restore frames and mounts, including carved wood, gilded, lacquered and painted surfaces, through structural stabilisation, surface cleaning, loss compensation, and gilding or tone matching using appropriate conservation techniques.
- [Textile Conservation](https://ciach.in/textile-conservation/): We conserve and restore historic garments, tapestries, ritual cloths and handwoven fabrics through careful cleaning, thread-by-thread repair, custom mounting and preventive storage tailored to each textile's needs.
- [Manuscripts & Paper](https://ciach.in/manuscript-paper/): We conserve palm-leaf manuscripts, archival documents, prints, maps and rare books through careful cleaning, repair, flattening, inpainting and appropriate archival housing.
- [Sculpture Conservation](https://ciach.in/sculpture/): We conserve and restore stone, wood, metal, clay and composite sculptures, from devotional icons to institutional artifacts, through surface cleaning, structural stabilisation, loss compensation, corrosion mitigation and material consolidation.
- [Wall Painting Conservation](https://ciach.in/mural-wall-paintings/): We conserve sacred and secular wall paintings in temples, heritage structures and public spaces through condition mapping, cleaning, pigment consolidation, infilling, retouching and environmental stabilisation.
- [Painting Conservation](https://ciach.in/paintings/): We conserve and restore oil, acrylic, tempera and other paintings on canvas, wood and board through cleaning, stabilisation, varnish treatment and precise retouching using appropriate reversible materials.
- [Insights](https://ciach.in/insights/): This page is being rebuilt as part of the CIACH website revamp.
- [Projects](https://ciach.in/projects/): [vc_row content_placement="middle" row_content_width="grid" content_text_aligment="center" css=".vc_custom_1790000000401{padding-top: 130px !important;padding-bottom: 90px !important;}" el_class="ciach-title-row"][vc_column offset="vc_col-lg-offset-2 vc_col-lg-8 vc_col-md-offset-1 vc_col-md-10 vc_col-sm-offset-0 vc_col-xs-12"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement="middle" row_content_width="grid" css=".vc_custom_1790000000402{padding-bottom: 90px !important;}" el_class="ciach-project-row"][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12"][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12" el_class="ciach-project-text"][vc_empty_space height="20px"][vc_column_text]We conserve and restore oil, acrylic, tempera and other paintings on canvas, wood and board.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="18px"][vc_column_text el_class="ciach-work-list ciach-project-names"]Projects includeRajkot · Malankara[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="20px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement="middle" row_content_width="grid" css=".vc_custom_1790000000402{padding-bottom: 90px !important;}" el_class="ciach-project-row ciach-project-flip"][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12"][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12" el_class="ciach-project-text"][vc_empty_space height="20px"][vc_column_text]We conserve sacred and secular wall paintings in temples, heritage structures and public spaces.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="18px"][vc_column_text el_class="ciach-work-list ciach-project-names"]Projects includeTanjore[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="20px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement="middle" row_content_width="grid" css=".vc_custom_1790000000402{padding-bottom: 90px !important;}" el_class="ciach-project-row"][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12"][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12" el_class="ciach-project-text"][vc_empty_space height="20px"][vc_column_text]We conserve and restore stone, wood, metal, clay and composite sculptures, from devotional icons to institutional artifacts.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="20px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement="middle" row_content_width="grid" css=".vc_custom_1790000000402{padding-bottom: 90px !important;}" el_class="ciach-project-row ciach-project-flip"][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12"][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12" el_class="ciach-project-text"][vc_empty_space height="20px"][vc_column_text]We conserve palm-leaf manuscripts, archival documents, prints, maps and rare books.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="20px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement="middle" row_content_width="grid" css=".vc_custom_1790000000402{padding-bottom: 90px !important;}" el_class="ciach-project-row"][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12"][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12" el_class="ciach-project-text"][vc_empty_space height="20px"][vc_column_text]We conserve and restore historic garments, tapestries, ritual cloths and handwoven fabrics.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="20px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement="middle" row_content_width="grid" css=".vc_custom_1790000000403{padding-bottom: 130px !important;}" el_class="ciach-project-row ciach-project-flip"][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12"][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2" offset="vc_col-md-6 vc_col-xs-12" el_class="ciach-project-text"][vc_empty_space height="20px"][vc_column_text]We restore historic windows and design and install new ones.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="18px"][vc_column_text el_class="ciach-work-list ciach-project-names"]Projects includeLekshmi Vilas Palace, Vadodara · St.
- [Preservation Services](https://ciach.in/preservation-services/): Our preservation services aim to reduce the impact of deterioration on works of art and heritage objects, thereby reducing the need for extensive conservation treatments and helping maintain their material integrity and historical significance.
- [Stained Glass Conservation](https://ciach.in/stained-glass-conservation/): Stained glass brings together colour, light and craftsmanship, and it needs specialist care to survive.
- [Art Conservation](https://ciach.in/art-conservation-in-india/): A fine art object, like any material object in nature, has an inevitable tendency to deteriorate due to the effects of time and human use on the materials from which it is made.
- [Our Services](https://ciach.in/services/): On-site evaluation and a detailed condition report.
- [Privacy Policy](https://ciach.in/privacy-policy/): This policy explains what personal information CIACH collects through this website, how we use it, and the choices you have.
- [Contact](https://ciach.in/contact-us/): Share what it is, where it is and what you have noticed.
- [About CIACH](https://ciach.in/about-us/): Every stage is recorded, from first assessment to final report.
- [Home](https://ciach.in/): On-site evaluation and a detailed condition report.


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