# Miscellaneous > PACCIN Community >  Intro from Africa:

## Spacewhisperer

Hi members

I stumbled upon this very informative site by chance when searching for online Art handlers/technicians courses. 

Currently the South African art industry is going through a epic boom period. Soon the Zeits Mocaa  https://www.zeitzmocaa.museum/ will be opened putting Southern Africa firmly on the map. They have a funded curatorial course for 12 candidates. University of Cape Town has a post grad Curatorial course but there are no courses or institutes aimed at the practical/technical aspect of the art world. 
I have experience in collections management, storage development and art handling ( my formal education is in Graphics and my primary work is space organizing ) 
My dream is to gain further experience and education in this area and find funding and support to create practical and online educational courses that will create a first generation of certified handlers in South Africa. This will set higher standards for general preventative conservation and bring about more respect and value in our cultural heritage. 

So on this site I am looking for information on online handlers courses such as the NODE institute offers, internships with museums that have outreaches to African countries so that I can gain more experience specifically with issues developing countries have to deal with.

Happy to be part of the family!
Tonya

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## T. Ashley McGrew

Hi Tonya, 
Welcome! The question you pose is really important. The profession has traditionally been learned on-the-job in an informal apprenticeship kind of atmosphere. That makes sense as it is essentially a hands-on activity but there is an increasing demand for information on line. The most frightening thing for me to witness, as as someone with 30 some years in the field, is the growing amount of material to be found on the internet that is totally without merit and yet is delivered as if it is gospel. 
That, along with numerous organizations without previous history in the profession not only wanting to offer coursework on the topic but also to offer some form "certification" makes the situation even scarier in some ways. 
This newest challenge for PACCIN as an organiztion is to address these needs both by "curating" existing video training content on our VIDEO PAGE , and also by generating our own training videos. This is a significant aspect of our evolving mission as an non profit organization and will only be made possible through funding raised by membership fees and commercial sponsorship. It is an important step forward but is only just starting at this point. 
In the meantime I would advise anyone who has specific issues to address to contact PACCIN List serve members by signing up HERE or by reaching out to PACCIN board members directly for assistance. 
Thanks for your greetings from Africa. We have had international members of the community for many years now and we want to do everything we can to promote the preservation of cultural material around the globe. My contact information along with other members of PACCIN leadership is on the "Who We Are" page of the website. Please feel free to reach out to us HERE.

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## T. Ashley McGrew

Hi Tonya, 
Welcome! The question you pose is really important. The profession has traditionally been learned on-the-job in an informal apprenticeship kind of atmosphere. That makes sense as it is essentially a hands-on activity but there is an increasing demand for information on line. The most frightening thing for me to witness, as as someone with 30 some years in the field, is the growing amount of material to be found on the internet that is totally without merit and yet is delivered as if it is gospel. 
That, along with numerous organizations without previous history in the profession not only wanting to offer coursework on the topic but also to offer some form "certification" makes the situation even scarier in some ways. 
This newest challenge for PACCIN as an organiztion is to address these needs both by "curating" existing video training content on our VIDEO PAGE , and also by generating our own training videos. This is a significant aspect of our evolving mission as an non profit organization and will only be made possible through funding raised by membership fees and commercial sponsorship. It is an important step forward but is only just starting at this point. 
In the meantime I would advise anyone who has specific issues to address to contact PACCIN List serve members by signing up HERE or by reaching out to PACCIN board members directly for assistance. 
Thanks for your greetings from Africa. We have had international members of the community for many years now and we want to do everything we can to promote the preservation of cultural material around the globe. My contact information along with other members of PACCIN leadership is on the "Who We Are" page of the website. Please feel free to reach out to us HERE.
Cheers,
Ashley

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