.. Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (Inc.) ISSN 1834-0598 No 129 November 2014
;fi .
~I· · /'!. Contents x.·~ •'' Pres . ~ : 3 iden t's Report .' t~':. 5 Publications update it \~ AICCM Student of the ,, 7 i· Year Awards 2014 i 8 Review - ICOM-CC " 1 7'h Triennial - Conference t 11 Review - IIC Hong Kong Congress 13 Environmental Guidelines- IIC and ICOM-CC Declaration :. ' 14 R~v i e w - iPRES20 14: 11 ehInt ernational Conference on Digital Preservation
15 Review - Conservation of Phot ographs Mas terclass ' 16 Review - Sy mposium and Workshop
18 Na tional Trust ACT Iiio., He ritage Awards 2014
19 Open Palace .~-•. - Programme
\. 20 Workshop: Recons truction of ~. ... cloth case bindings 21 SIG News 22 The Social Pages 23 Division News
24 The Retiring Type: Farewell, lan Ba tterham
25 Profess ional News
Masterclass: Conservation IIC Hong Kong Congre Open Palace program of Photographs STERILISATION AS A CONSERVATION TOOL
Around the world, museums, universities, galleries and libraries are increasingly using industrial sterilisation techniques, such as irradiation, to strengthen their protections against mould, pest infestations and bacteria.
Irradiation is widely used in the medical, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries and is at the front line of Australia's quarantine system. lt is a physical means of sterilisation whereby products are exposed to gamma rays. These rays act as a source of ionising energy that eliminates bacteria, pests and other pathogens, while having minimal impact on the treated item.
STERITECH BENEFITS OF IRRADIATION Steritech is a member of the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials and we would welcome Steritech is a proud Australian family owned company and the Steritech has worked with a number of major Australian the opportunity to discuss opportunities to help Australian leading contract sterHisation processor in the Asia-Pacific region universities and State libraries to help manage pest and mould conservators protect their materials. For more than 40 years, Sterhech has been helping eRminate problems in archived materials. pests and disease, in order to make products safer for consumers For more information, contact Raymond Bryden in 'and to protect the environment. The benefits of irradiation for professional conservators are: Melbourne on 03 8726 5514, Jamie Crighton in Sydney on 02 8785 4403 or Glenn Robertson in Brisbane on 07 3293 • 11 is effective aga1nst mould and bacteria and depending on With plants in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane offering gamma 1566, or vi sit www.steritech.com.au. the dose will elminate a broad spectrum of insect pests at all irradiation, ethylene ox)de and heat treatments, Steritcch is the stages of development, includng moths, booklice and silverfish. only contract stenlisation company in Australia. • The gamma rays penetrate packaging and as such are the only S!P.ritAr:h 1s llr.AnAArl Rnd accredited by a number of Goverrvnent sure way to obtain total penetration of archived materials. authonties. including the Australian Quarantine and Inspection • The process is chemical free and leaves no residues. Service, Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australian Pesticides and Vetennary Medicines Authority and the relevant State • lt does not involve heating or cooling the treated products and Environmental Protection Agencies. does not expose the products to water. • The process is relatively qLick and simple and can be applied to archived materials in bulk. • lt is a recognised quarantine measure for goods travelling interstate or overseas.
Images from ICOM-CC (Photos: Meghan Ellis) , see review page 8.
2 AI CCM e wsle tte r President's Report
President's Report
Having a lready presented an overview illuminating, perhaps, is the anal ogy to community of all that the AICCM h as achieved this the m ap of Europe. Putting as ide the of experti e ... year (a nd will continue to plug away at fact that A hley-Smith's comments But our over the n ext) at las t rnonth's AG M, I were proffered in the light of the mer ge r conservation 2 thought I wo uld use the opportunity of fi ve UK preservation or ga nisations , data .. . provided by the final Newsle tter of 2014 I find his ob servation th at we are consists of to refl ect on the role that the AICCM pote ntially b ecoming a much more unlinked case might be thoug ht to play within the 'stratified' and 'segmented' profession histories and broader con servation p rofe ss ion. a poigna nt one for the AICCM to fragmentary con ide r. deter ioration Plenderleith Memo rial In his Or Haro ld studies. Sma ll I rea d in Ashley-Smith's commen ts a Lecture to the Institute of Conservation groups convene to explore mutual thought th at there w ill be an increase (ICON), Jona than As hley-Smith, interests and concerns without ntly re tired H ead of in the number of specialisation ; the then r ece sufficient concern for inclusivity the V&A, speculated va riation in the phys ical envi ronments Conservation at and outreach. And our profes ion 'conservation futures'. or or ganisations in which we work; on the topic of rema ins, as has recently been noted, (both insightful and a diffusion in the disciplines with The sp eech invisible to the population as a which we en gage in multi- and inter entertaining in its frankness ) includes whole. It is time to change."4 a re fl ection on a number of chan ges disciplinary th eories and practices; and within the museum profess ion that have expanding analy tical a nd technical This might seem an over- whe lming had a direct b earing on the n ature and interests. This certainly seems to be a proposition. It is certainly one that influen ce of conservators. He concludes trend as professional bodies (including many individual a nd partnered with the thought that: our own) seek to define/re-define/re organ i sations are seeking to addre re-define the role of the conse rvatorl. thro ugh o n-line p rojects, databases "Museums as we know a nd love C l ear a nd accurate de finitions aside, of and the like. A leading example is the them will probably not s urvive. greatest concern will be whether this group INCCA who are a dvancing Conservation as we know and fragmentation l eads to det achment, contemporary conservation knowledge love it will jog along much as ever. disengagement or division. through a membership that is bo th servation will become so But con geographically dispersed but engages Many h ave already commented on the ho rizo ntally stratified a nd vertically the sp ecialist s kills ·of professionals that it w ill never be a dispersed na ture of current conservation segmen ted dea ling with the problems of pre erv ing knowledge. Jerry P odany, Senior powerful or united fo rce. Just as the contemporary a rt. Persona lly, I f eel rope h as chan ged over the Conservator of A ntiqui ties at the ]. Pa ul map of Eu these concerns a nd provocations Getty Museum, not es: centuries as countries merged into revitalise our understa nding of the larger groups a nd then plit into "There is no doubt that conservation necessity for a professional or ganisation smaller na tion s, so the c urrent m ove is far more complex than it was just a such as the AICCM. to convergence in conservation w ill, decade ago and that this complexity in the long -term, proba bly not r esult is a good thing. The profession h as in an irreversible union ." 1 Professional organisation and taken on much broader r esponsib ility a learning community As a museum professional I find the first and enj oys the input of a lar ger The AICCM is commonly d escri bed line dish eartening, although I r ealise as the 'professional or ganisation' fo r that it depe nds on wh at one m eans The Care of Coll ecti ons Forum , the Insti tute of Paper Conserva tion (I PC). the Photographic Materi als conservators in Australia but it is worth by 'we' and 'know' and 'love'. But as Conservation Group, the Scottish Society for noting that, internationa ll y, similar tho e who h ave or c urrently wo rk in Conserva tion and Restoration ( SCR) and the United Kingdom Institute for Con erva ti on of Historic and bodies u e the te rm 'learned society'. cultural institutions can a ttest, sweeping Artistic Works (UKIC). W ikipedia de fi nes the first term as "a chan ges are de finitely af oot, the na ture 3 The expanded ICOM·CC definiti on of the 'conservator' was presented at th e 1 7th Tr iennial non-p rofit organisation seeking to and impact of which is far b eyond Confe rence whilst the ICO M web page ex plains "The further a pa rticular p rofess ion, the what can be covered her e. More scope of conservators' work has widened in recent years and conservators now expect to be in volved with exhi bi tions, conservation science, preventive 4 Podany, J. (2009) 'Sustainable stewardship: Preventive Ashl ey·Smith, j . (ZOOS) Scottish Society for ~o nse rva ti o n , project management and ad vocacy Conservation in a chang ing world ' Available at h ttp:// Conse rvation and Restoration jo urnal Vo l. 16 No. I work." (I CON website. Careers in Conse rvation) www. neh .gov/fi les/di vision /preserva tion/podan y. pdf
o l29 Nove mber 20l4 3 President 's Report
interests of individuals en gaged in that each o ther through the ongoing process Committee Members from both profession a nd the p ublic interest" of what it means to preserve cul tural AICCM and the University of and while it defines the s econd as "an mate rial ac ross space a nd time, a nd Melbourne organisation that e xists to promote an shar es the gr eat work that each of us Committee Co-cha irs: Susie Collis, academic discipline or p rofess ion ... brings to the p rofession is al so what Julian Bickerste th, Alex Ellem, Alice Their acttvltles typically include being a member of the A I CCM is abou t. Cannon, C us hla Hill, Oiana Tay, ho lding r egular co nferences for the It is abo ut recognising th at as individual Eliza beth McCartney, Emma N eale, presentation a nd discussion of new professionals we may be very e ffective Jennife r O'Connell, Nicole T se, research res ults and p ublishing or but it is unity in our diversity that allows Pet ronele N e l, Sam Ha mil spon soring acade mic journals in their us to realise o much mor e. ton a nd discipline". The a chievements of the Sophie Lewincamp. AICC M cut across both defini tions a nd And on that note Committee members: De bra Parry, Erina reunite in the thought that the AICCM McCann, He len Gill, Ka rina Palmer, Being an AICCM mem ber al so means exists to fa cilitate the development Sarah Ba bister, Karen Fisher, Selina that yo u become pa rt of an or ganisation of e xpertise and to create influence Ha lim, Sherryn Va rdy, Suzi Shaw, that is re liant upon the gene rosity, through re putation. Sabine Cotte, Da nielle M easday, Tim goodwill, c urios ity a nd concern of the O uld , Gina Levenspiel, Oiana David, But think this de finition fa ils membersh ip to ens ure its via bility a nd Jane Mana llack, Jeff Fox, Ren Gregoric, to explain ano ther aspects of the allow it to achieve many of the t hings Emily Ha rris, Katie W ood, Tas h fundame ntal question of ' what it does. In light of th at, I wo uld like to Trennear, Da nielle M easday, Bronwyn distinguishes an AICC M me mber from tha nk Robyn Sl oggett and Marcelle Tulloh, Katherine Stanbury, Vanessa a no n-member ?' and 'what is the value Sco tt for providing the A I CCM w ith Kowalski , Ma hmoud Moha mmed, of AICCM for con servators today?' the o pportunity to be a pa rtner to the Meg Ellis, Stephanie Smith and Fiona My own assessment is that AICCM 17th Triennial ICOM-CC Co nferen ce He rnandes. me mbers are l ess likely to cons ider and congra tulate them on the themselves to be cat egorically 'learned' conference's success. I wo uld also like to And the many more of you who but rather in a p rocess of 'learning', acknowledge the many volunteers who either directly or indirectly suppo rted and learning in the b roadest te rms. ass isted in the planning a nd execution Technical Visits a nd the like through This is pa rticularl y relevant in light of the con fe rence. These include: yo ur institution s. of increasing complexity to which Trade Sta nd volunteers: Kay Sode rlund, the profession finds i tself subj ect. MaryJo Lelyveld Beate Yule, Ali As s uch, it is my hope that AICCM ce Cannon, Suzi Shaw, AICCM President members might more a ppropriately !an Ba tterham, Celia C rame r, Lucilla Ronai, Jemim describe the fe lt experience as being a Cowey, Meg Ellis, Helen Privett, Mich a pa rt of a (c ue trendy te rm ado pted ell e Be rry, Barbara R eeve, She rryn Va from e ducation discourse ) 'professional rd y, G wynneth Pohl, Debra Parry; Cha learning community'. Professional rlotte Wa lker, Lo uise Bradley and Susie learning . co mmunities are d escribed Collis. Thanks to these lovely and persu as 'a group of p eople sha ring a nd as ive folks, we sold over 50 pu b critically interrogating their practice in lications a nd now have an additional 11 me an on going, refl ective, collabora tive, mbers! inclusive, l earning o riented, growth promoting wa y, and opera ting as a co llective e nterprise.' 5 Phew.
So whilst AICCM is a professional organisation with the r equisite constitution, sta ndards, e thics, professional d evelopment activ ities and Vote of thanks to MaryJo Lelyveld publications (w hich itself is reason to be a me mber) , the fa ct that AICCM is a The AICCM N ational Council would like to g ive a HUGE vote of community that res pectfully ho lds each thanks to our Pres ident MaryJo Lelyveld , who organised a nd promoted other to the highest sta ndards, supports the work of A I CCM througho ut the ICOM-CC conferen ce. MaryJo's treasure trove of inspirational ideas, her o ptimism, energy a nd co llabora tive working style are much a ppreciated by a ll. StO II , L. et al (2006) 'Setti ng Professiona l Learning Comm unities in an Internati onal Context' http:/ldera. ioe.ac.uk/ 16499/
4 A ! CCM National Newsletter Publications update
Publications update
Changes to The AICCM Bulletin. effort required, and why on occasion it copy editing, citation ch ecking than pla nned. Nicole, member and the many tedious but critical In July I no tified members of some is later National Council and I h ave aspect of s ubmission work fl ow. changes and the following is a recap a nd of the discuss ing The A I CCM Bulletin The current Editorial Assistants are: update: been and its future for some time and believe Ainslee Meredith, Emily Keppel, You should have received Volume 34 of there is a n ecessity for chan ges if it is to Jenny O'Connell , Ren Gregoric, The AICCM Bulletin. I ho pe you will join flourish in the future. There are some Sharon Won g, Eliza O'Donnell, me in congra tulating the Editor Nicole practical changes which wi ll help to Emma N eale, Le ith Mag uire, T: e, the contributors, peer reviewers, streamline the process: Marie C hristodulaki and Simone and particularly the Editorial Assistants. McQuillan. extended Ed itorial Board This volume, originating from the 2012 • An g tronger representation Paintings Group and 20th Century includin the S!Gs, who are a dynamic Partnership with Maney Paint Symposium: The Meaning of from Materials in Modern and Contemporary and active force within our Institute. Publishing. Arc, N icole's first as Editor, r epresents I would encourage SIGs to continue The profile a nd accessibility of The an eno rmous amo unt of time a nd effort. to fully engage in their workshops A ICCM Bulletin needs to be rai ed a nd Not only are the papers the o utcome and sympos ia and to consider using to do this we have decided to pa rtner of rigorous a nd original research by these forums to present and test with Man ey Publishing starting with Australian and international a uthors, their research amon gst their peers Volume 36, in 2015. Many of yo u some the r esult of an Australian with the view to submitting papers wi ll be aware that the IIC's Studies in Research Council Industry Linkage to The AlCCM Bulletin for formal Conservation and the AIC's Journal of Grant, but this is an a rea of research peer review rather than expending the American Institute of Conservation are that to uches most of us a ll at so me considerable resources on Pre and published by Man ey. In many w ays this point, irrespective of our speciali za tion. Post Prints which are n ot usually is a logical fit, The A ICCM Bulletin being indexed. In many instances abstracts the Australasian/South East Asian piece Volume 35 will be sent to yo u in late may be sufficie nt for these events. of the conservation cake. Man ey also December 2014. There may also be opportunities, publish Conservation and Management such as with Volume 34, for a special Peer reviewed professional journals of Archaeological Si tes and have a strong focus iss ue. Presenting a paper at a remain the m ost trusted source of commitment to heritage and materials SIG or h aving it published in the Pre relevant and original r esearch. There science p ublication s. What is Man ey or Post Prints does not necessarily are two r easons why: the review process bringing to this partnership? exclude it from later publication in (in our case double blind peer review) The AICCM Bulletin in an expanded, • AICCM retains absolu te editorial and regularity of publication. Even in more rigorous and formal fashion. control and ownership of The the rapidly changing world of search The Editorial Committee con ists of AICCM Bulletin but Man ey will eng ines, database aggregator , bl ogs Amanda Pagliarino, Marcelle Scott, provide (at their expense) an onl ine and the world wide web, peer reviewed Ian Batterham, Tharron Bl oomfield, manuscript submission a nd peer professional jo urnal content is high ly Caroline Kyi a nd myse lf. We are review system streamlining workflow ought afte r. As Publications Officer I still working with the SIGs to find for the editorial process. Volume 36 have been urprised to receive overseas additional representatives to fill some is currently being developed using phone calls and ema ils from prominent gaps. the Maney submission process and database aggregators so liciting our teething problems sorted. journal. • A lar ger pool of punctual referees. It is absolu tely essential that papers be • The current A4 s ize, double column We have estimated that approximately returned within 4-6 weeks. hard copy format will be published 200 volunteer ho urs are required by on Maney O n line ( www.mane on line. our editor, 75 volunteer ho ur by peer • The Editorial Assistants, an initiative corn) offering broad distribution reviewers and who knows how many by of N icole's, are r ecent conservation to A ICCM me mbers, subscribing our authors to produce a s ingle volume graduates or students who generously institution s, consortia and via of The A ICCM Bulletin. Perhaps you can donate their time to assist with database aggregator se rvices. start to understa nd the commitment and
No 129 ove mber 2014 · 5 Publications update
• Volume 36 will publish in two iss ues, of mo nths. All of this is due to the done by Nicole Ts e, Michelle Be rry and June a nd December 2015. All future commitment and ha rd work of Miche lle Carole B est, for which I am extremely volumes will ha ve two issues per year. Berry and C arole B est. grate ful. The pa rticipation, support and encouragement of o ur Pres ident MaryJ o • Longte rm digital preservation us ing Those organisational me mbers that sign Lelyveld and Treas urer Adam Go dijn, Portico, LOCKSS and CLOC KSS. up via s ubscription agents will become and the e ntire Na tional Council has subscribers f rom 2015. Their online • Open Ac cess if authors or their also been inva luable. I s incerely be lieve access will be ha ndled directly by Man ey institutions d es ire it. that The AICCM Bulletin is now more and their subscription year w ill chan ge than ever ideally placed to publish • Advertising with a pe rcentage of the to a cale ndar on e; so ren ewal no tices for high qua lity conservation re earch, re venue going back to the AICCM. them will be issued ah ead of o ur cycle. and that cha llenge can o nly be met by • A de dicated Man aging Editor, Laura Bradford and Gaynor Red vers yo u, our membership. Please consider Marketing Executive, C usto mer Mutton of Maney h ave been a pleasure contributing. Relations Executive and Production to work with througho ut the discussion Editor. Ma ney will actively seek phase of this pa rtnership and G a ynor Cobus van Breda Publications Officer institutional s ubscriptions a nd attended IC OM-CC, hosting a sha red promote o ur publication. Man ey/AICCM b ooth. A big thank you to a ll who or ganised a nd staffed • Assistan ce and support for sub miss ion the AICCM b ooth, especiall y Miche lle for eva luation in the two major Berry, Susie Collis a nd Ian Ba tterham. bibliographic datab ases Scapus and Not o nly did the b ooth raise AICCM Thomson Re uters' Web of Scien ce. profil e a nd provide an o pportunity to Me mbers will have seamless access from get to know Man ey, it al so resulted in the secure members' area of the AICCM the sale of over $3000 of publications Webs ite to the current and back iss ues and 11 memberships. Thank yo u also to of The AI CCM Bulletin. In other wo rds Celia C ramer for or ganising the return· you will log in to the AICCM webs ite of unso ld mate rial with the generous as per usual a nd once on The AICCM support of International Art Services. Bulletin page yo u will be transfe rred to No pa rtnership is w ithout challenges. the Man ey website for a ccess to current It will take time a nd effort to integrate and previous i ss ues. Almos t a ll of o ur key functions at the AICCM Secreta riat back issues have now been p rovided level, the AICCM Webs ite a nd The to Maney a nd the integration of o ur AICCM Bulletin editorial process. A website with Maney's (via a secure huge amo unt of work h as already b een proxy) will sta rt within the ne xt couple
News from AICCM AGM
The AIC CM would like to thank Colin Pearson who h as generously offered seed funding to encourage Conservation resea rch and publication s ubsequent in the Bulletin. The Na tional Committee and Co lin Pearson are wo rking on including this funding in theawards for 2015.
6 A I CCM N a ti o na l N ewsle tte r AICCM Student of the Year Awards 20 14
AICCM Student of the Year Awards 2014
Each year the AICCM presents an award to an outstanding student from each of the two institutions that offer training in conservation practice (Uni of Melbourne and Uni of Canberra). Students at any level qualify for consideration. The criteria include outstanding academic performance, engagement with the profession, and involvement with the AICCM. The A ICCM would like to formally introduce the 2014 Students of the Year.
Student of the Year, Student of the Year, University of Melbourne University of Canberra (CCMC) Abdul H akim Abdul Diana Tay Rahmin Oiana Tay has made an As is to be expected of a outstanding contribution student of the year, Hakim has to the profession and high achieved outstanding academic academic achievement results in his degree at the in CCMC's Masters by University of Canberra. H is Coursework. Diana Tay extra-curricular contributions has made a significant to the University and the contribution to the ICOM conservation profess ion have CC 17th Triennial National been even more outstanding. Organising Committee iri particular the Melbourne Special Hakim is a committed member of AICCM, starting as the Events of C ulture and Heritage, and supported and engaged student representative on the ACT committee of AICCM, with the cultural materials conservation profession in and .moving into being a ge neral member following Australia and internationall y. completion of his studies. Hakim initiated the new C ultural As part of the ICOM CC 17th Triennial National Organising Heritage student body - the University of Canberra C ultural Committee (Regional engagement), Oiana has co-ordinated Heritage Collective - and as President has generated a the development and delivery of 10 events ranging strong sense of identity within the group. In particular he from China-Australia: C ultural Materials Conservation has facilitated student involvement with collections at UC programs, to a Keith Haring panel to Caps ReCap through the development and installation of the "Curious (ht ://www.melbournes ecialevents.com/#!worksho s/cl t44 ). Corridors" exhibition, and the cleaning and improvement of She has also liaised with international organisations to gain collection stores. "Curious Corridors" also saw Hakim initiate sponsorship packages support for international delegates contact between students and the custodians of collections to attend the conference. Diana's professionalism and owned and housed at UC, leading to the formation of the UC contribution to cultural materials conservation is also Collections Committee. recognised as a founding member of the INCAA-Asia Pacific He has also prepared an ACT Heritage Grant application with its co-ordination, development of a media strategy and to assess the significance of the UC Geology collections, launch at Melbourne Special Events in September. Oiana in collaboration with the Art Collections Manage r. Most is CCMC's international student representation and has recently he has been working as a research ass istant on undertaken internships at QAG-GOMA and the N ational the project "Connecting the Nation: Australia's Aviation Museum in the Philippines. Finally Diana's Minor Thes is is Heritage. developing conservation protocols for contemporary works of art in the Southeast Asian region. Diana asks questions about the how contemporary art, culture and geographic place in Southeast Asia intersect and inform conservation deci ions. CCMC is of the belief that Diana Tay will be a future leader for cultural materials conservation and will continue to make a significant contribution to the profession in Australia and Southeast Asian.
No 129 November 20 14 7 Review - /COM-CC 17'h Trienn ial Conference
Review- ICOM--CC 17th Triennial Conference
15 .. 19 September 2014, Melbourne Australia
Given the scope of the conference it was simply imposs ible for one person to take it all in. We h ave therefore included three reviews - each from a different angl e.
Forging Lifelong Relationships Diana Tay, University of Melbourne (CCMC) 2014 wa a big year for the Centre of Cultural M aterials Conservation (CCMC) and the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Mate rials (AICCM) as they jointly or ganised the International Council of Museums - Committee for Conservation's (ICOM-CC's) 17th Triennial Conference. It was an Delegates from Timor Les te Photo: Meghan Ellis especiall y huge honour for me to be a part of this conference as this was the contribute in disaster man agement and organisation of the Melbourne Special first international conference that I extend help to neighbouring areas when Events programme which served as have attended, much less had a role in such disasters strike. The second plenary a pre lude to the conference. By a organising. As the r egional en gagement sess ion that d ay, "Environmental fortunate coincidence, I ha ppened to be cha irperson of the Na tional Organising standards for exhibition a nd storage in in Melbourne for my m as ter's degree as Committee (NOC ), it was very museums," gener ated keen di scuss ion an international student, in the yea r the rewarding to see so many individuals - a nd even, perhaps, heated debate city was playing h ost to ICOM-CC for from Asia Pacific participating in this - with a udien ce members actively its 17th triennial conference. I'm sure conferen ce, particularly as this, to me, participating in the sha ring of their most s tudents who were ·undertaking embodied the theme of the conference, policies, practices, and opinion s. This their theses would agree with me which was "Building Strong Culture in stimulating exchan ge was particularly that it was difficul t to take a week's Conservation ." enjoyable because it highlighted the As a participant, it was difficult for me to varying d iffi culties select from the smorgasbord of differe nt faced in attempting oral presentations that were available to reach a s ingle for attendance, and I thoroughly unified and enjoyed all of those I did man age to universal an swer attend. The pl enary sessions, however, in the drafting of were of particular interest to me because guidelines. they featured speakers from the r egion who encouraged participants to en gage On a personal with and critically examine issues note, it was rather relevant to the specificiti es of their hectic ass isting in own locations as well as the r egion at the organisation of large. For insta nce, the "Conservation, the conference as I communities and risk" plenary session was si multan eously Susie Collis with CCMC students served to cha llen ge conservator to involved in the Photo : Meghan Ellis
8 AlC M Na tiona l N ewsle tter Review - ICOM -CC 17'h Tri ennial Co nference
break in the middle of thes is-writing lan Batterham, N a tional was with Friar M aximous El Antony in order to attend the conference as it Archives of Australia from the Mon as tery of St. Anthony in took pl ace about a month to o ur thesis Egypt's Eastern Desert. This b earded One of the best things abo ut ICOM deadlines, but I'm also sure that those Coptic cleric was al ways dressed in his CC is that it is a ll-encompassing. who did attend the conference found monks' robes and often on his mo bile There are sess ion on a ll aspects of it immensely rewarding. At this point, phone. On talking to him I found his con servation: from the material-specific, I'd like to mention the online archive mon astery was in an i so lated spot 300 to anal ys is, to preventive and education. project of the ICOM-CC 17th Triennial km from Cairo and that he was setting Unfortunately the sheer quantity of conference which was designed by up a museum there. He left me with an papers m eans that concurrent sess ions University invitation to visit next time I was in student conservators at the have to be he ld. It was therefore of Me lbourne (SC@M). For those who Egypt. impo s ible to attend all the papers on have not seen it ye t or would like a Modern Materials and Contemporary If all this was not too overwhelming, quick re-cap, you can view it at http:// Art and those on Graphic Documents there we re the plenary sessions where icom-cc-live.tumblr.com. as these were held concurrently. we learnt about the major earthquake I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Conservators with broad interests found in the Philippines and the ts unami Marcelle Scott and Robyn Sloggett . themselves forever ho pping b etween in Japan. With the latter we found for giving a ll of us the opportunity rooms trying to hear a ll the papers they ourse lves wondering how a museum to participate in one of ICOM-CC's were interested in. could survive when its entire staff had triennial conferences by serving as died in that one event. Between times I therefore felt a bit schizophrenic; the ma in organisers of this event and we had to find energy for the poster jumping from a talk in the Ethnographic e e ions which were of very high quality bringing it in to Me lbourne. I'd also lik Collec tions stream on 'Pesticide r es id~ e to thank the University of Melbourne covering everything from degrading on the Cook-voyage collections at the bird student polyurethane sw im wear (Sue Gatenby) for o ffering the early Pitt Rivers Museum' (J eremy Uden) to attendance of to the XRF anal ys is of gl ass jewellery subsidies that made the one in the Education and Training stream many conservation students p ossible, from the collection of Archduke Franz on 'Professional education for Afghan tion to all Ferdinand ll (Kata rina Uhlir). and also expre s my apprecia cultural he ritage faculty' (Nancy the individuals who helped us in one Odergaard). This all left me feeling a bit Of course there were the social events. way or ano ther. I h ope that many of the she ll shocked after fi ve days- where am The conference dinner was a gr eat hit participants made friendships and forged I? and what am I interested in? with food being provided by a series of lifelong relationships, and went away food carts delivering a ran ge of street empowered with new knowledge and a A gr eat thing about the confere nce food from around the world. Later there renewed p ass ion for the conservation of was tb.at everybody had to wear their was a salsa band and many conservators cu ltural mate rials. large name plat es at all times or the hit the dance fl oor (who was that sna ke guards would not let you enter, so you limbed sa lsa dancer?). La ter on in a could always know who someone was more relaxed setting, I am to understand and where they were from. I was thus that Boris Pretzel actually ate a pretzel! able to s trike up conversations with delegates from Egypt, Greece, Denmark and Kenya. My favourite discussion
]ulian Bickersteth expounds on environmental standards Cultural evening Photo ": Meghan Ellis Photo: Meghan Ellis
No 129 No vember 2014 9 Review - IC O M-CC 17'h Triennial Conference
It took some days to get over the Bruce Ford also revealed that faded countries had a pa rticularly strong conference and I am still reeling w ith iron gall ink can regain colour through showing in this area. Boris Pretzel of information. Much of what I l earnt re-oxidation in a no rmal a tmospher e, the V & A Museum in London gave his was 'interesting', some wo uld be clas ed but this mechanism is inhibited by the usual incisive a nalysis of what is really 'essential' and above all I l earnt some use in an an oxic showca e to display happening in the rela tions hip between things that will change how I do my documents, resulting in increased rather air-conditioning and the object and how work as a conservator. than decreased colour loss. more fl exible parameters can be used in an intelligent way. The ma in frustration with ICOM-CC Colin Macgregor, Australian is the number of good papers that you A us tralian conservation was in the Museum miss when five sess ions are running spotlight at the las t session when Ian Three years ago I vowed that I was not concurrently. So unfortunately I missed McLeod presented the ICOM-CC going to miss ICOM-CC in Me lbourne most of the Paintings, Art Technolog ical Triennial L ecture highlighting the since it is so rare for us to have a and Glass and Ceramics sessions which streng ths of Australian conservation major international co nferen ce in our contained so me interesting t itles. The over mo re than 40 years with a very neig hbourhood. I got there and it more Ethnographic Collection a nd Na tural entertaining ta lk. This was illustrated than lived up to expecta tion s. The History sessions provided some u seful by great examples past a nd present opportunity to see many of the h eavy case studies in the indentification of including a youthful Or McLeod hitters in world conservation hang ing organic materials. It highlighted the dancing in. The conference opened out in the same coffee queue was too increasingly a ffordable a nd access ible with a gr acious welcome to country good an opportunity to miss. We are anal ytical equipment which was only from Aunt Joy Wa ndin Murph y. It much indebted to the conference to be found in university r esearch labs finished with unique re ndition of committee of Roby n, Ma rcelle a nd a few years ago. The increased f ocus John Lennon's Imagine played on the many others in the Me lbourne on o ld pesticide residues was also a gum leaf by Uncle Herb Patten - a community for delivering an excellent common theme a nd looked beyond beautifully appropriate way to close an conference. The great thing abo ut the familiar ar senic problem. Jermey international conference. major events like ICOM-CC is that Uden of Cambridge University gave a We ll don e, Melbourne. You r eally some of our established ma ntras are particularly u seful ynopsis of the wide delivered. reinforced but conversely some of our range of toxic compounds employed other accepted beliefs are swept away by over the p ast 200 years which still lurk co ntrary eviden ce. on their specimens.
Two of those surprises were revealed The Preventive Conse rvation sess ions on the first d ay of the conference when were very fruitful too, with an increas ing Yvonne Shashoua revealed that Zeolites emphasis on risk man agement designed to adsorb acetic acid from techniques and how these can focus unsta ble cellulose acetate actually strip yo u on the r eal p roblems. A number out the plasticisers more r apidly. She of papers also examined more creative found that cold storage in the presence approaches to climate management in of buffered archival card to absorb collections in order to r educe carbon the acids is a mo re effective solution. footprint and co t . The European
10 AIC CM ational Newsle tter Review - 1/C Ho ng Kong Co ngress
Review - IIC Hong Kong Congress
An Unbroken History - Conserving East As ian Works of Art and Heritage 22~26 September, Hong Kong
To give an idea of the breadth of this There was a gr eat social p rogram with Secondly, and somewhat unexpectedly, major congress we present two reviews, receptions or ganised every night at, IIC e nded up signing a MOU with the each from a different points of view. respectively, the Museum of Coastal Palace Muse um in Beijing to cooperate Defence, the Heritage Museum, the on a ran ge of initiatives including a Hot on the heels of ICOM-CC in British Consulate and the Asia Society. tra ining program. How this came abo ut Melbourne came a second week of The highlight was the conference dinner wa that the Director of the Palace international conservation · conferences on the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, Museum, Or Jixiang Shan, was invited with the IIC 2014 Biennial Congress complete with a 'dotting the eyes on to give the Forbes Prize lecture, which is in Hong Kon g. The first thing to the lion' ceremony and face mask the Congress's equivalent of the keynote comment on is that two so lid weeks of magician s. Like a ll good conferences, address. So impressed was Or Shan by conferencing went in a fl ash a nd was the receptions are a k ey part of the II C a nd the congress that he delayed his not as exhaus ting as I thought it wou ld show, as not only do conservators like to flight back to Beijing to work through be, helped by the very different na ture drink (in modera tion of course), but it is with us h ow such a relations hip wou ld of ICOM-CC and IIC conferences and where invariably I find the most u seful work. the different location s. I noted that 24 networking is achieved. conservators from around the world Although it is very earl y days, attended both. However, the big news fo r IIC coming fundamentall y this means that the good out of the conferen ce was twofold. will and professional exchan ge that has 450 conse rvators a ttended IIC with, Firstly we managed through a panel been established with our South East by my r eckoning, abo ut 50% of them se sion to get agreement on the Asian colleagues over the confere nce C hine e sp eaking. That meant for a Environmental Guidelines we had now ha a m echa nism by which thi can quality of dialogue I h ave never b een drafted at the ICOM-CC conference. be built upon. exposed to in terms of exploring east These have now been fo rmally declared vs west a pproaches to conservation as a jo int IIC/ICOM-CC pos ition Julian Bickersteth (and for some wonderful wo rd mis on environmental conditions, a nd IIC Vice President and Director of conversions by the translators, the Communications without a doubt move us fo rward in best of which unfortunately cannot this complex area. The Declaration is be repeated in a fa mily m agaz ine of printed below. The n ext stage is to build AICCM N ews letter's calibre!). on this declaration to provide more Takeaways for me f rom the papers were: specific details.
• the extent of the cross over between craft skills and con servation in Chinese conservation projects
• the extraordinary richness of earl y Chinese textiles (11th Century and earlier) excavated from Tan g, Han and Ming dynasty to mbs and the cha llenges of their conservation
• the challenges of climate chan ge in sub tropical climates, where mould and increas ing pest activity are r equiring greater vigilance in collection care.
Environmental Guidelines panel session Photo: Bettina Ebert
ove mber 20 14 11 Review - 1/ C Hong Ko ng Congress
Elizabe th Wild discussing the repair of a contemporary doisonne sculpture Chi Lin Nunnery Photo : Bettina Ebert Photo : Bettina Ebert
The theme ·of this year's 25th biennial issues of the r egion. I particularly Another highlight of the w eek was IIC Congress was An Unbroken enj oyed the papers on l acquer as well the panel sess ion on pr eventive History: Conserving E ast Asian Works as preventive conservation . The lar ge conservation a nd environmental of Art a nd He ritage. The co nferen ce selection of p osters w as of exceptional guidelines. Following· on from the was he ld in Hong Kon g's C ity H a ll from standard , with some excellent student sess ion at ICOM-CC in Melbourne the 22 to 26 September 2014. It was the first posters on a w ide ran ge of topics. previous week, the jo int IIC a nd ICO M time the congress was truly bilingua l, CC declara tion on envi ronmental The co nferen ce was very well organized, with simultaneous transla tion bet ween guidelines was finalised. H opefully with numerous excellent receptions and English and C hinese, as well as dual this is just the first step towards clearer a gr eat social program. The we lcome langu age abstracts. This a pproach was guidelines with more sp ecific regional rece ption at the Hong Kong Museum very s uccessful and allowed for free relevance. of Coastal Defen ce set us off on a gr eat exchan ge of knowledge and information start, allowing us to catch up with old For those of us who had a ttended between E astern and Western friends a nd make new on es. On the both th e IIC Congress and ICOM approaches towards con servation a nd Wednesday afternoon, we a ll set o ff on CC, this w as the e nd of he ritage. Over 450 delegates attended, a p acked two a number of differen t c ultural to urs, week programme, and I was sad to say with what a ppeared to be a roughly all of w hich sounded ve ry interesting. goodbye to old and n 50% split between Asian a nd other ew friends and I vis ited the C hi Lin Nunnery a nd return back hom e. Neverth nationa lities. eless, it was garden s, a beautiful oasis of calm within an inspiring a nd interesting fo rtnigh t, With over 50 presenters f rom a ran ge the bustling city of Hong Kong. and I h ave returned w ith a gr eater of institutions a nd specialties, the understa nding of s pecialties outs ide my The trade fa ir took pl ace in the same selection of ta lks a nd papers were own. room as the p oster sess ion, and was diverse in scope a nd subj ect, including always very well attended. O ne exc iting textiles and thangk as, lacquerware, wall Bettina Ebert, Paintings Conservator, new d evelopment that was showcased paintings , a rchaeological metal, paper, Asiarta Foundation, Malaysia at the trade fa ir was ready-made glass, and even contemporary cloisonne Wo lbers solvent gels ma nufactured by sculpture. It was the first time that the •. Polysciences, sold in single jars or kits, Congress had b een he ld in a sub-tropical with distribution in Asia Pacific, Europe region, and the to pics discussed as part and the US. of the pr eventi ve conse rvation session refl ected the pa rticular enviro nmental
12 A I CCM ation al N ewsle tte r En vironm ental Guide lin es - 1/C and ICOM-CC Declaration
I ! Environmental Guidelines- IIC and ICOM ... CC Declaration I I
At the IIC congress in Hong Kong and the ICOM-CC conference in lmemationallnsmute for Conservation Melbourne in September 20 14 the of Hist ric and Artistic Wor s delegates discussed and agreed the fo llow ing declaration: ICOM-CC Loans The conse rvation profession has come • There needs to be transparency about humidity (RH) is required in the range together and ag reed a position on actual environmental conditions of 40-60% and a st able te mperature in environmental guidelines as fo llows: achieved in museums to en ure that the range 16-25°C with fluctuations of realistic requireme nts are ma de for no more than ± 10% RH per 24 ho urs Sustainability and manageme nt loan conditions. within this range. • The issue of museum sustainability is • Noting th at most museums in the More sensitive objects w ill require much broader than the discussion on world have no climate control specific a nd tighter RH control, environmental standards, and needs systems in their exhibition a nd depending on the materials, condition, to be a key underlying c riterion of storage spaces, we acknowledge and history of the work of art. A future principles. the need for a document that wi ll conservator's evaluation is essential • Museums and collecting institution influence decision makers that in e tablishing the appropriate sho uld seek to reduce their carbon the environmental conditions fo r environmental conditions for works of footprint and environmental international l oans may not be art requested fo r loan. impact to mitigate climate change, appropriate for the permanent display by reducing their energy use and and stor age of collections in all The AICCM recommended Interim examining alternative renewable museums. Te mperature and Relative Humidity ener gy sources. Guidelines for acceptable storage • There needs to be fl exibility in and display conditions of general • Care of collections sho uld be the provision of environmental material are: achieved in a way that does conditions for loans from museums collection not ass ume a ir conditio ning which have climatic conditions • Temperature- between 15-25°C (HVAC ). Passive methods, simple different from the set points in the with allowable fluctuations of +/-4°C that is easy to maintain, guidelines. This may be achieved per 24 hr technology I air circulation'and lower en ergy with alternative strategies uch as • Relative Humidity- between 45- solutions sho uld be considered. microclimates. 55% with an allowable fluctuation of • Risk management sho uld be +/- 5% per 24 hr Existing guidelines embedded in museum man agement • Where storage and display processes. • The existing interim guidelines agreed by A IC, A ICCM, the Bizot environments experience seasonal drift, RH change to be managed Museum environment group etc (see Appendix) sho uld be guidelines not interim guidelines. gradually across a wider range limited • It is acknowledged that the It is noted that these guidelines to 40%-60% iss ue of collection a nd material are intended for international l oan en vironmental requirements • Temperature and Relative Humidity exhibition . is complex, and conservators/ parameters for preservation of conservation scientists sho uld cultural materials will differ actively seek to explain and unpack APPENDIX according to their material, th ese complexities. construction and condition, but Bizot Interim Guidelines for stable conditions maintained within • Guidelines for en vironmental H ygroscopic Materials the parameters above are genera lly conditions for perman ent disp lay and For many classes of object[s] containing acceptable for most o bj ects. storage sho uld be achievable for the hygroscopic m aterial (such as canvas local climate. paintings, textiles, ethnographic obj ects or a nimal g lue) a stable relative continued on page 14
No 129 Nove mber 2014 13 Review - iPRES20 14 : I I th International Conference on Digital Preservation
Review- iPRES2014
11 th International Conference on Digital Preservation ...-.~ 6- 10 October 2014, State Library of Victoria 0 N Hosted by the N ational Library of patents can be used to inform policies ELBOURNE I 6-10 OCTOBER Australia and the State Library of and political approaches to encourag ing Victoria, this was the first International innovation within different countries. Conference on Digital Preservation to Importantly emphasising the key link good and detailed insights into the level be held in Australas ia. The conference between digital preservation and access. of activity, the demonstrations including attracted just under 200 participants, 'Demonstrating a Digital C uration A particular high light of the conference split almost equall y between Workflow using the BitC urator was the Digital Preservation Systems international and local attendees. Environment, C uration Cost Exchange Showcase held on Tuesday 7 October. platform' and 'NLA Software and File O ne of the standout features of this In this, the key system developers all Formats Knowledge Base' provided a conference, which will hopefully be gave presentations on the functionality first-hand opportunity to see how some continued for iPRES in future years, of their digital preservation systems and tools work. was that the program contained not answered que tions from participants. only research but also an innovative As far as we're aware this was the first The we bsite for iPRES2014 is still live at practice strand. This was an excellent time all of the key system . developers, ipres20 14.org at the time of publication and access ible addition, and something including Duraspace, Archefactual, of this newsletter, including the program that will start to make understanding RO DA, Preservica and Ex Libris have and photos from the conference. For digital preservation as a practice more demonstrated their systems together. It those interested in learning more, I access ible to those working in phys ical was an excellent workshop providing would encourage you to look at both the conse rvation and preservation. useful information for those starting iPRES20 14 website and to access the on the journey of digital preservation proceedings from previous conferences The keynote address on the topic and wanting to know more about via the University of Vienna's Phaidra of 'Preservation, Innovation and the key systems. It also gave those website at: https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/ Collaboration' was given by Professor actively practicing in the field the detail_obj ect/o:340041 Shaun H endy FRSNZ, MacOiarmid chance to question providers about Institute for Advanced Materials and their approaches and plans for future Sarah Slade [email protected] N anotechnology, Professor of Phys ics development. Manager, Storage & Digital Collection and Director of Te P naha Matatini Services, State Library of Victoria - the Centre fo r Complex Systems Another point of note was the Project Manager, Digital P reservation and N etworks - at the University of combination of posters and P roject G roup, National & State Libraries of Auckland. This brilliant talk looked at demonstrations. While the posters A ustralasia. ways in which the amount of data being covered a broad range of work being created from large scale digitising of undertaken internationally and gave
•,
continued from page 13
A IC Interim Guidelines endorsed and a temperature range of 59-7r F • Loan requirements for all obj ects by the A ssociation of A rt Museu m (15-25°C), is acceptable. should be determined in consultation D irectors: with conservation profess ionals. • Fluctuations must be minimized. For the majority of cultural materials, a set point in the range of 45 -55 % relative • Some cultural materials require humidity with an allowable drift of different environmental conditions +/-5%, yielding a total annual range for their preservation. of 40% minimum to 60% maximum
14 AICCM Na t ion a l N e wsle tte r Review - Conservation of Ph otog ra phs Mostercloss
Review - Conservation of Photographs Masterclass
22- 25 September, National Archives of Australia, Canberra
The National Archives of Australia and the N ational G allery of Australia had the great pleasure of hosting a masterclass in Photograph ic Conservation in September. The Mas terclass was presented by Oebbie Hess Norris, Nora Kennedy and Peter Mustardo, who brought with them from the USA a wealth of experience in conservation advocacy, preventive conservation, exhibition mounting, disaster recovery, and, most excitingly, hands-on treatment.
The class ran over four days in the National A rchives' Canberra Preservation lab, and we had 17 participants from almost every state in Australia, and from New Zealand.
There were great experimental treatment sessions:
• participants being allowed to take rare advantage of Photo: Cheryl )ackson "taking things too far" to see just what can happen if yo u're not paying attention;
• removing scratches fro m face-mounted prints (and ... and fantas tic theory sess ions provided by three conse rvators avoid ing putting them in when dusting); with an as tonish ing breadth of experience.
• removing surface laminates from chromogenic prints A ll the participants learned a lot, and took away fantastic (terrifying); information relevant to all types of institutions.
• separating blocked fibre-based and resin coated prints and Thanks to everyo ne involved. negs (even more terrify ing); Cheryl Jackson • surface cleaning problematic prints (terrifying and National Archives of Australia fru strating when there's nothing you can do); -----
Removing blocked negatives fr om their packaging Removing surface laminate from a chromogenic print Photo: Cheryl}acks on Photo: Cheryl}ackson
No 129 Nove mber 201 4 15 Review - Symposium and W or ks hop
Review- Symposium and Workshop
Technical Drawings and their Reproductions Conservation of Transparent Paper Organised by Restauratoren N ederland, 6~9 October 2014
As soon as I saw this sympos ium and under m agnification; us ing XRF to fro m Har vard Art Museums, a nd Sarah workshop advertised on the Cons Dist identify processes; and making o ur Cox fro m the Arc hitectu re Library List, I knew 'somebod y' from work own diazotypes as well as using the at the University of Auckland) and had to go , so I put my hand up to do fl owchart in the presenters' excellent our dear h ost, Willemien Jan sen, to a presen tation at the Sympos ium and book Paper - Line - Light: The Willemien's home town of Nijmegen applied for one of the eight places in the in the east of the workshop- and was accepted for both! Ne therlands, where the n ext mo rning at The Symposium was held across two Region aal Archief venues in The H ague: the Ko ninklijke Nijmegen (Regional Bibliotheek (National Library) a nd ·the Archives Nijmegen) we N a tion aal Archief (National Archives). joined four other Dutch The fi.rst d ay, at the KB, was taken colleagues to undertake up with a va riety of interesting ta lks Hildegard Ha mburger's by conservators, curators a nd others two day workshop involved w ith the preservation and on the conservati on care of technical drawings in all the ir of transpare nt paper. iteration s. Particularly interesting (I Hildegard covered thought) were the presentations by Lois in more deta il the Olcott Price, Director of Conservation, information she had Winterthur Mu eum, Delaware (a nd sha red in brief at the author of Line, Shade and Shadow: the Oiazotype workshop Photo : Prue McKay Sympos ium, ta lking fabrica tion and preservation of architectural abo ut the history drawings ), on the history of reprographic Preservation of Arc hitectural D rawings of these papers, what mak es them processes for t echnical dr awings; and Photoreproductions fro m the H ans transpare nt (the la ck of a ir in the sh eet Jacques Brejoux, Pape rmaker, Moulin Scharoun Archive to identify processes. - so obvious on ce you know! ), h ow du Verger, A n gouleme, deta iling his th ey are mad e, and the e ffects of water own long ex perien ce of trial a nd error In the a fternoon there were more ta lks, during ma nufacture a nd in con servation making transpare nt paper s; Eleanore including one by Rita Udina, Private treatment. As we ll as theory sess ions, Kisse l, H ead of Preservation at Musee Conservator, Barcelona, abo ut removing we did a lot of pra ctical work, wa tching du Quai Branly, Paris (and author of and replacing varnishes and oils in Hildegard demons trate te chniques Architectural Photoreproductions A impregnated papers, a nd a call from and then a ttempting to follow her Manual for Identification and Care), indepe ndent UK scholar Paul Stillitoe instruction o urselves ... with varied who discussed methods for s urveying for sample kits of re prographic processes resul ts! For example, Hildegard favours very lar ge collection s; and Hildegard to be made ava ilable ( easier said than the use of is inglass , with and without Ha mb urger, Private Conservator at don e, we all though t! ). My own paper reinforc ing s trips, as an a dhes ive for Papierresta urierung Ha mburger, Be rlin, was a r eview of the conservation in the mending transpare nt paper s, which who ta lked abo ut the fa brication and late 1 980s/early 1990s of the G riffins' is not an adhes ive I h ave used at properties of transparent papers through drawings for their Canberra d esign, all, and ge tting a f eel fo r its wo rking the ages. and of the 201 2 project to conserve properties would be important, I think, the "lost" G riffin work (documented at The second day we were at the in achieving a good r esult because with htt ://blog.naa. ov.au/ reservation/). NA, where the morning w as taken only an a fternoon to play with it, my up with three training classes on Directly a fter d ay two had finished, mend were less than a ttractive. We al so ident ification: examining samples of caught a t rain along w ith two other took turns toning sh eets of me nding many diffe rent reprographic pr ocesses English-o nly-speakers (Penley Knipe tissue w ith anionic direct dyes, a
l6 A I CCM e wsle tter Review - Symposium and Workshop
Transparent paf>er workshop - wet mending with paper f>ulp onservator Ken expanding his knowledge Photo: Prue McKay Photo: Prue McKa y revelation to me, at least, as they give - particularly aqueous - th at we might Dutch, sorry) extremely even colouration w ith a tiny apply to 'normal' p apers, and of course htt : ritaudina.com/en/ (blog of Rita amo unt of dye, without the ettling they have the added i sue of being see Udina) out yo u ge t with acrylics dispersed in . through, so yo ur work can't be hidden, water, or the brush ma rks when applying even if it's on the back! paints by ha nd. Other practical sess ions It is al ways a pl easure to meet a n ew included wet mending using paper pu lp; group of people in yo ur own profession G luck, E, et al (eds). 2013. Paper - Line drying a nd fl attening; lining; and u ing and find out what they work on a nd how - Light: The Preservation of Architectural synthetic adhesives. they do it - not to mention what they Drawings and Photoreproductions from I urged Hildegard to come out to have for morning tea and lunch (lot the Hans Scharoun Archive. Berlin: Australia, assuring her that she would of milk, it turns o ut). R estauratoren Akademie Der Kunste. get MANY information-hungry paper Nederland are to be commended for Price, Lois Olcott. 2010. Line, Shade and conse rvators lining up to do h er organising these sess ions on a subject preservation worksho ps (she al so does one about that is a lar ge part of an archives Shadow: the fabrication and New Castle, Wa ter and Paper) and she said she will con servator's working life, but which of architectural drawings. Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. think about it. If you are interested in is o ften neglected as a r esearch topic her coming here, please send her an due to the ubiquitous n ature and huge Kissel, E a nd E Vigneau. 2009. email ( website below) l etting her know, volume of the mate rials. As the group A rc hitectural Photor eproductions : A and maybe we can convince her to attending bo th the sympos ium and Manual for Identification and Care. New make the long-ha ul out here ome t ime the workshop were mostly archives Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. soon. You wil l not be disappointed! conservators, it was a mo re specialised and focused w eek than e ven a pa per Prue McKay The four days of symposium + workshop or photograph conference no rmally is, National Archives of Australia taught me a l ot about a to pic I w as and we were able to ge t into great deta il reasona bly ignora nt of, despite the f act abo ut many topics without worrying that I h ave dealt with many technical about los ing the n n-archives people drawing and the like over the course of among u s. my work. I was particularly intere ting in finding o ut about tracing and Some related websites a nd books that I trans lucent papers and how to work with can recommend: them as they are quite idiosyncratic in htt ://www.restauratoren.nl/ (only in the way they beh ave towards treatments
No 129 November 20 14 17 National Trust ACT He ritage Awards 20 14
National Trust ACT Heritage Awards 2014
This year is the first time the National and natural e nvironment in accordance Museum of Australian Democracy at Trust of Australia (ACT) has conducted with the principles set out in the Burra O ld Parliament Hou se Members Dining an awards program to recognise projects C har ter. Room; a number of Conservation/ in the ACT that make an o utstanding Heritage Man agement Plans; Telopea The c riteria for nomination was or sig nificant contribution to the Park Artwork Conservation; Blundell's intentionally designed to encourage a conservation of the built, indigenous Cottage Heritage Landscape Masterplan; wide variety of entries: large house extensions in Griffith; a book on and sma ll , restoration and Centenary of Engineering; upgrade of adaptive re use; tangi ble the Museum of Australian Democracy at and intang ible built; O ld Parliame nt House heating system; indigenous a nd na tural; Yarralumla Nursery He ritage Exhibition; reports a nd community and Kings Park Amenity Adaptive projects. Thi intention Reuse. was realised as twelve projects were nominated Three of the nominated projects acros the e ntire spectrum included work done by AI CCM of he ritage conservation members. One was selected to r eceive activities. These included: an awa rd for a Significant Contribution Canberra Centenary Trail to Heritage Conservation. Interpretation Services; Conservation of the Mick Gentleman MLA, Kim Morris, Ester Davies and Celia Cramer (left w right) Phow: Eric Martin
The Cleaning and Restoration of the Telopea Park School Artwork Conservation treatment work by A rt a nd Archival, w ith histo rical r esearch by Esther V. Davies.
You can find out more about the he ritage Awards the na tional trust website. nationaltrust.or .au act Nationa!Trust ACTHerita eAwards2014Announced
Art and archival team conserving painting in situ nearly 6m off ground level Phow: Kim Morris
18 AI CCM ewsle tte r Open Palace Programme
Open Palace Programme /
As a third year conservation student at It was in Bath that the group three largest Historic Royal Palaces: the University of Canberra, I have been experienced privileged access to the Hampton Court, Kensington Palace excited to start spreading my wings and sites belonging to the Bath Preservation and the Tower of London. The sessions experiencing what is out there in the Trust. These sites included No. 1 Royal were run by specialists from the Historic conservation/heritage world. While C rescent, Beckford's Tower and The Royal Palaces' education curatorial, many students at the University were Building of Bath Collection at the collections and building conservation completing winter semester, I escaped Countess of Huntingdon's C hapel. A t.eams. frosty Canberra's to travel to the United typical day consisted of focused seminars Kingdom and engage in informal work presented by the professionals who experience in various conservation worked for the Preservation Trust. Our studios across England. During my time group would then be split into smaller in England I was also lucky enough groups and given 'challenges' that were to be involved in the very first Open relevant to the sites, to work through Palace Programme (OPP). and then present and discuss.
Bristol became my home away from Next stop, after Bath, was Stowe House, home when I was in England as I a grand 18th century house and garden spent three weeks undertaking work with a fascinating history. The group experience with the object conservators joined senior staff at Stowe House to at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. gain insights into the development Not only did I work on some very of the palace and its settings. During interesting obj ects and use the skills I our time at Stowe the group saw . had learnt at university in practice, but conservation in action, learnt about I also learnt how much conservators · estate management, and considered valued their tea and biscuit breaks! challenges with the development of the new visitor centre. On one of the evenings we were privileged to enj oy a Rooftop tour of Hampton Court beautiful dinner in the house itse lf. Photo: Laura Daenke
By the end of the three weeks the OPP group was no longer a group, but a family. The OPP had given us all a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of England's historic sites and meet the passionate people who work behind the scenes to care for and interpret the sites. The people I met, the friendships Bristol Museum and Art Gallery Photo: Laura Daenke made, the things I saw and experienced all made my trip to the UK incredibly The Open Palace Programme ran from rewarding and va luable! 22 June to 12 July and started off with a week in the historic city of Bath. Laura Daenke, Student, University of Canberra During this first week it was a pleasure getting to know the mentors and the other 17 participants who had travelled Stowe House - view from the magnificent 18th century gardens from America, Canada, London and Photo : Laura Daenke Australia to be a part of the program. After our time at Stowe House the The group consisted of people who were OPP group was off to London to spend starting their careers in the heritage our las t week. London spoilt us with a profession. series of participative ses ions at the
N o l 29 November2014 19 Workshop: Reconstruction of cloth case bindings
Workshop: Reconstruction of cloth case bindings
18-19 October, Elwing & Gurney Archival, Lawson, N SW
James Elwing ran this workshop at or inscribed endpapers were often Where Brockman attaches aero our premises in Lawson for the NSW removed, allowing the text to be linen to sp lit boards, then attaches Guild of C ra ft ·Bookbinders, assisted reattached by pasting in new endpapers boards to sp ine via adhesive, we re by ]ill Gurney. We a nnounced it as 'A and linings to the boards, also known as make the case binding with boards conservation split board re- backing 'casing in'. split, then attach this to text via aero workshop'. Students were to learn a linen tongues, part of the new text A common method of creating a sound method of re-backing case bindings spine lining. It is similarly intended to JOLnt by over ewing a reinforc ing to ma intain the appearance of a case, preserve observable bibliographical and cloth joint through the text joint, and while creating effectively an ersatz structural information which affects a adhering this under the lifted b oard library binding via split board s; suitable, book's recognisable identity. The cloth endpaper ed ge, is described by Bernard we said, for intermediate level binders. case remains a case, looks like a case, Middleton in The Restoration of Leather Designed for up to nine participants, in but has the hidden durable inner joint Bindings. Probably necessary for some the end we were glad to h ave six . of a library binding. heavy volumes (e.g. Victorian bibles), Book conservation and repa ir differs this strains the ope ning of earlier MUHOD or !3(YV?..D ATTACif!VIENT from ma instream museum conservation sections a nd is somewhat destructive in the degree of intervention required; of text gutters from a conservation the binding n eeding to be prepared for perspective, more obviously when sustained, but defined, use. I submit this applied to normal-sized cased in text to ventilate some of the ~ rti sa n bindings, for which it was not designed. issues of b ook conservation and repair An alternative, the Jam es Brockman 3,-lt
20 A I CCM Na tiona l Newsle tter· SIG N ews
Special Interest Group
AICCM Textile Special Interest Group Survey Results @AICCMTSIG, #Textech, #Conservetex
Approximately one quarter of the profe ssion. The rema ining cons ervators preventive conservation a nd collection AICCM TSIG membership responded are e qually s plit between b eginning, storage. to two s urveys, o ne of which was mid-career or students. Ha lf of the r espondents answered a circulated at the International Council Most respondents were s trongly question related to the of Museums Co nference a nd during ir experience interested in costumes and ethnographic when it was added to Dinah E astop 's worksho p, both in the r evised textiles. Equal numbers were survey. Textiles con servators h ave Melbourne. The o ther survey, modified interested in exhibi tions a nd appare l. a ran ge of s kills related to costumes from three responses at the ICOM Sma ller numbers were interested in and exhibitions (5) conferen ce, was distributed on line via , pr eventive furnishings and non -appare l. Fewer conserva tion a nd storage (3 ), f ashion Survey Monkey during September 2014. textile con servators were interested in and textiles (1 ), embroider The two s urveys captured the r espon ses y, weaving, education a nd textile art. anal ys is, a nthropol og of one quarter of the AICC M T S IG ical t extiles, 18th to 21st ce ntury textiles. Of these member hip (108 members). Seventy-five per cent of r espondents respondents, a pproximately one third is had a ttended p rofess ional development Of these respondents, a pproximately interested in providing or pa rticipating within the l as t fiv e years. Ha lf of the ha lf were e mployed by government in workshops at the next AICCM respondents had a ttended p rofess ional institutions. A quarter of textile T SIG conferen ce. Please follow social development p rov ided by the AICC M conservators were private con se rvators. media a nd the AICCM webs ite us ing or other related or ganisations w ithin the One person w as employed as an the @ AICCMTSIG, #Textech and las t two years. A quarter of r espondents ass istant curator a nd ano ther d escri bed #Conse rvetex for updates. had pa rticipated in professional herse lf as se lf employed, a pa rt-time develo pment within 2-5 years. The childcare wo rker, student and mother. Thank yo u to the s urvey respondents. remai ning quarter of r espondents had This information will hel The rema ining 10% were o therwise p in planning never pa rticipated in professional employed. the TSIG conference next year. development beyond their current The majo rity of r espondents were f rom training or practice. Julie O'Connor (AICCM TSIG Convenor) Victoria. A fifth came from the ACT [email protected]. O nly ha lf of the re po ndents answered or NSW. Two con servators came from a question related their organisations' South Australia. O ne person each came supportiven ess for p rofess ional from Queensland, the United Kingdom development because this question and Tasmania. There was n o-one in was omitted from the first s urvey. M ost the No rthern Territory or W estern conservators felt their employers were Australia. strongly supportive or supportive of their The majo rity of te xtile conservators employees' profe ional develo pment ho ld a M asters d egree. C l ose to ten while a fifth disagreed. The o thers were percent respectively ho ld a PhD, ne utral. Bachelor of A rts or a Diploma o r High training pno rltles for te xtile are s tudying for a M asters or PhD conservators include anal ys is a nd qua lification. Ha lf of the r espondents treatments. Conservators gave have ten years or more e xperien ce in the equal priority to e thics, exhibition s,
No 1 29 No ve mber 20 14 21 The Social Pages
NSW Preservation Australia Technology lab. During his time at the Preservation A ust ralia hosted a mo rning Memo rial, Ian volunteered more than tea with a group of conservators and 4,000 ho urs. Elwing & Gurney Archival, framers as a 'getting to know yo u' Law son session for Sydney colleagues. There National Archives of Australia James Elwing has become a gran dfather was lots of cake and discuss ions on Caroline Milne is undertaking her again (i.e. number s ix: He nry) but t his various problema tic treatments a nd the final exams before gra duating fro m time an Elwing, and the o nly one in papers at the recent ICOM-CC. We had the University of Canberra with her that genera tion. Not that it mat ters, but conservators fro m ICS, State R ecords of Bachelor of He ritage, Museums a nd Google ' Elwing' in O z and it will be a NSW a nd Sophie B rown Conservati on Conservation d egree. Caroline h as been close relative, so being a conservator, i t's Framing. We are considering sta rting studying while working full time and h as probably n ice to preserve a nam e, even regular ' tips and tools' informal session man aged to get a p romotion, p ublish if it only belon gs to a minor char acter in with other paper conservators, with the ome research, AND get fa ntastic marks 'The Lo rd of the Rings' first one to h appen in earl y 2015 - a ll in all her s ubj ects - w e're very proud of are welcome. her achievements! David Stein & Co. Emma Radford ha jo ined us one day Also soon to finish their studies are two Stephanie Limoges returns to u a fter a week to develop an understanding tale nted final year UC s tudents who the ho lidays to California a nd Hawa ii , a nd of con servation a nd to ass ist with her lab h as been h osting this year - Caterina Katherine Rosenthal to Paris and the decision to become a conservator - Agostinetto and Laura Daenke have south of Fran ce - we're a ll very j ealous and which type of conservato r! Emma been a pl easure to instruct and we· wish of their time in the sun! is l earning abo ut re-housing p rojects, them well in their future careers. and basic treatments such as surface Selina Halim is on l eave for fo ur weeks cleaning and minor repa irs. O ur product The l ab will soon bid a very sad rk in to undertake conservation wo person Sian Edwards held a s uccessful farewell to a sta lwart of the A rc hives: gone Jaka rta, Indon es ia. While she is exhibition in Adelaide of her b eautiful conservator, published author, media as Project we are jo ined by Helen Gill ha ndmade jewe llery. Tegan Anthes darling, bass player a nd all-round good Conservator. Helen brings her s kills has returned f rom a mo nth of travels egg, lan Batterham. Ian will be ta king nish and experien ce from NGV, Da in France - exploring wine, ch eese and six mo nths' leave before s liding into museums a nd her o wn private pr actice Cezanne! retireme nt in the middle of 201 5. in Me lbourne.
David Stein and Katherine h ave been Victoria busy making plans for an al ternate ACT studio space that will serve us whilst major building works are underway ne xt Australian War Memorial National Gallery of Victoria door to o ur Darlinghurst s tudio. Whilst After 17 years as Head of Collection In July and August we were jo ined for disruptive, we ee this as a cha nce to Services, Barbara Reeve has been six weeks by Sven Dueblin, interning custom d es ign o ur own studio sp ace, ass igned a n ew role: Man age r, He ritage as part of his con servation s tudies and it will give us the a bility to work on Preservation Projects. Nick Flood at Be rn University of the Arts in larger scale paintings. will leave the Memo rial to start a Switze rland. Rece ntly, Emma Rouse new job w ith ICS in December. Janet joined the s tudio as a volunteer one Powerhouse Museum Hearne and Mick we lcomed gorgeous day a week; conservation gra duate May We wo uld like to say farewell to Dee baby M ax Leona rd into. the wo rld Wang is volunteering one d ay a w eek McKillop, Bronwen Griffin, Nitsa on 12 September. Janet w ill be on with the Paper and Photographs t eam; Yioupros and Dave Rockell. Thank yo u mate rnity leave until June 2015. Helen and the O bj ects team is being a ided all for yo ur dedication a nd ha rd work Butler has retired f rom the Paper lab by conservation gra duate Siobhan over so many years, we w ill miss yo u. after many years of service. The d eath O'Donovan who is volunteering in the of Ian S mith is a sad lo s to the Lar ge depa rtment one d ay a week.
22 A !CC M Na tional Newsle tter Division N ews
Museum Victoria Leah Williams re cent! y depa rted from o ur team a fter a period backfi lling for Be linda Go urley and then wo rking on a sma ll project digitising gl ass plate n egatives. We wi h her gr eat success in her n ext AICCM Tasmanian Division SAINT AICCM Event: D esign, contract at St ate Library of Victo ria The AICCM Ta ma nian Division digitization, discovery: Enhancing -she w ill be missed by the team. We is a sma ll group; however they are collection quality hosted Theresa H y, Mas ters student committed a nd enthusias tic. Members In A ugust the SA/NT branch of at University of Melbourne, for her are loca ted around the state with ah E astop three week internship. Theresa was the majo rity s ituated in Hoba rt and AICCM or ganised for Din nt a paper a delightful addition to the t eam and Launceston. A number of members to visit Adelaide to prese on "Des ign, digiti za tion, di scovery: we wish her a ll the best in her new recently met in Hoba rt for the Enhanc ing collection qual ity". The career in con se rvation. division's Annual General Meetin g, paper di cusse d the work Dinah a nd lunch and a tour of the stor age areas carrying o ut and conservation labor atory of the her colleagues have been nd Registers South Australia Tasmanian A rchive and He ritage with the Re presentation a of D es ign 1839- 1991 at the Na tional O ffi ce. A ma in topic fo r discussion was e R egister the upcoming N ational Confe rence A rc hives in London. Th Artlab on unique which w ill be held in Hoba rt from 4-6 contains over a milli pl eased to orname ntal d es igns o ften including The O bj ects Team is very November 201 5. We l ook fo rward to ela f rom ece of cloth welcome b ack Filipa Quint welcoming A I CCM to Tas mania a nd actual samples such as a pi that she or garment. The complex na ture a nd mate rnity l eave and glad further deta ils regarding the co nference ther's made public has somewhat jo ined the Mo including a call for papers a nd posters fragil ity of the r eg ister h as in! ffi cult to Team with baby and kiddie bra wi ll be fo rward ed to mem bers via email access to the collection di fac ilitate. The p roject studied the Former Paintings Conservator and in due course. defining fea tures of the collection in Assistant Director Sarah Fe ij en was order to work o ut the best ways to farewelled from Artlab in Augu st A my Ba rtlett, President Tasma nian Division enhan ce preservation a nd this year a fter 22 years of service. improve ac cess. The paper Sarah h as taken up a new ro le as and subsequent discu ss ion Analys t in the recen tly established was very insightful. Internal Consul tancy Services The ideas abo ut how to Group within the Depa rtment of present mu ltiple images to Premier and Cabinet. Her n ew enable different ways to find position wi ll involve research, examples were particularl y anal ys is a nd writing around state interesting and the n otion reform issues in South A ustra lia. that we soon be able to Artlab wishes Sarah we ll in her n ew virtually feel a sample were career. very exciting.
Tasmania
Tasmanian Division members during the tour ofTAHO Queen V ictoria Museum and Photo: Amy Bartlett Art Gallery The QVMAG Conservation unit has recently undergone a r estructure and Amy Ba rtlett is now e mployed as Senior Conservator. D avid Thurrowgood joined the t eam as Con er vator in Se ptember 2014.
o 129 N ove mber 20 14 23 Th e Retiri ng Type .· Farewell, Ion Batterham
The Retiring Type: Farewell, lan Batterham
The Na tional Archives' Canberra test the streng th of na turally aged paper Preservation Lab is fac ing a tough stored in air cond ition ed and non -air ordeal: Ian Ba tterham is r etiring. conditioned envi ronments, which, 27 years later, he completed (with Raj ani , he will be From 24 D ecember 20 I4 Ra i) and presented at the 2008 Book, on l eave for a few mo nths, then it w ill Paper a nd Photographic Mate rials become final - he will leave u s, after 35 Sympos ium. I do n't think there are years. Ian sta rted at the Commonwealth too many p eople in Conservation in Archives Office in 1980, fr esh o ut of Australia who h ave owned a 2 7 y ear the Canberra College of Advanced experiment. That 's COMMITMENT! Education.
Bass man /an at the N AA Xmas party, 20 I 2
We hope that Ia n's re tireme nt from work will not m ean his re tirement from the world of con servation ... trivia nights /an at work on the WBG drawings just wo uld not be the same. All the H e h as men tored many excellent same, we al so hope that he finall y h as conservators thro ugh o ur Lab: work time to indulge in his favourite hobbies experience kids, undergrad s, mas ters - woodworking, eating, and playing the and PhD students, a nd staff, with his ukulele- and getting his tiki bar built. laid back, understa nding style a nd Cheryl Jackson and Prue McKay amazing science brain. fan in 1980 - fresh out of the C . C.A.E. Ian h as always been involved in social life at the Archives, hosting a nd He h as worked in warehou ses in writing quiz nights with zeal, a nd being Fyshwick, Nissen huts on the shor es of instrumental ( see what I did there) Lake Burley Griffin (where the NGA in accompany ing the Archives vocal now sta nds), watched the de velopment group 'Archivally So und', and the sta ff of o ur Mitche ll building, and our C hristmas party, on his va rious g uitars. increasing public profile with the For the con se rvation community in redevelo pment of East Block into o ur Canberra, he is the rock on which Head Office. the AICCM's ACT branch relies for enthusiasm in all things, including During the 1980s and 90s he successful! y planning a nd running workshops, completed the treatment on o ur MOST sympos ia, n ational co nferen ces, iconic o bj ects, the Wa iter a nd Ma rion meetings , a nd the l egendary a nnual Griffin drawings of the ir plans for C hristmas party a nd quiz night for Canberra, and set up an e xperiment to which he e mcees.
24 A I C M N a tio na l Newsle tte r Professional News
NSW Our paper conservation team has just of October as Project Conservator to finished working on a large collection complete the final stage of structural of artworks by various Australian artists treatment of an oversized 18th century International Conservation and continue to work on a number of canvas. Services plans of various shapes and sizes. Research Projects Treatments Oliver Hull and Eoin O'Sullivan have been taking a small break from their David and Katherine have been working Over the las t few months Matteo usual furniture conservation projects, with Lynn C hua, conservation research Volonte and Claire Heasman have to work on two large cannons, which student at the University of Technology been working on collections galore, had been unearthed from a shipwreck. Sydney, on analys is of paint samples busy cleaning and re-stretching a The cannons required extensive work for the identification of pigments and collection of Aboriginal artworks. They including recoring of the bores, and the m ediums on paintings. were also charged with re-housing a rare creation of individual wax baths, which and beautiful collection of Aboriginal Katherine, in conjunction with software was a difficult procedure considering bark paintings, which were a joy to developers, has designed a new software one cannon weighed close to 300 kg. behold. Adam Godijn has been leading program for conservation management. the team treating a large collection of Dubbed 'Artemis', it is a comprehensive religious paintings for mould and will Conference attendance treatment database and client continue work in the church. Nine ICS staff seized the opportunity of management system. attending ICOM CC and made the most Adam Godijn and Arek Werstak have of being in Melbourne, much enj oying Conferences been conserving a large coat of arms the new friends, new networks and new Dav id , Katherine and Selina all in central Melbourne. The Melbourne ideas that it ge nerated. Julian then went attended . the ICOM-CC conference weather made outdoor gilding a onto IIC in Hong Kong, whilst Eliza held in Melbourne in September. challenge and many a piece of gold Penrose attended the Conservation of We found it to be very informative leaf sailed off into the CBD, hopefully Photographs Masterclass in Canberra and enj oyable, and were impressed adding some sparkle to someone else's the week after ICOM CC. by the breadth of topics covered. We day. are fe eling encouraged to present and Katy Ross from our obj ects and David Stein & Co. publish in the future! outdoor heritage team has been busy Treatments working on several large projects, Powerhouse Museum including treatment of sculptures Sian Griffiths has performed a facial by Stephen Walker and Bim Hilder, reconstruction on a portrait painting Exhibitions and dismantling of the Anzac Parade with a complex tear across the sitter's Faith Fashion Fusion: Muslim women's Obelisk in preparation for conservation eye. After a complex tear repair and style in Australia, an exhibition on and eventual reinstallation to a new transparent lining, Sian worked from contemporary Muslim dress, opened at location. Meanwhile, Karina Acton grainy photographs of the original to the Muse um of the Riverina in Wagga ·(with assistance from Wendi Powell restore the yo ung lady's features. Selina Wagga, the first stop on its national tour. and various other members of the team) Halim undertook a challenging thread Suzanne Chee with a small Powerhouse completed a complicated treatment by- thread repair on a large complex tear team installed the exhibition into the of a Winged Victory sculpture for the on a painting by Arthur Streeton. After Museum's Council C hambers building. Australian War Memorial. three fu ll weeks under the microscope Supported by a grant from Visions she achieved an almost invisible Karina will be joining Julian Australia, the exhibition will travel repair and a great result. Stephanie Bickersteth to establish a major to Geraldton, Katanning, Kalgoorlie, Limoges has worked on a very large archaeological conse rvation project in Albury, Maitland and Fairfield Museum damaged acrylic canvas by David Van the UAE in November. This will run over the next two years. Nunen for a university collection, for at least three years and we hope including cleaning, consolidations, For the past year Skye Mitchell has will create opportunities for Australian fi lls and in-painting of losses. H elen coordinated and wo rked tirelessly on conservators to gain experience in this Gill has worked with us for the month preparing obj ects for A Fine Possession: area.
No 129 November 20 14 25 Professional N ews
Jewellery and identity which opened to CC 17th Trie nnial Confe rence in Conservator Kate Hughes made a the p ublic in September 2014. Sue Melbourne in September: Yanessa startling discovery: she uncovered this Gatenby carried o ut XRF anal ys is presented her battery s urvey project bird sketch while undertaking b acking for many of the o bj ects to provide poster, while Sue a nd Suzanne's poster removals on a sig nificant collection of accurate d escriptions for the label s. O n described the stor age so lution for First Fleet era bota nical wate rcolours. display are many styl es, mate rials a nd deteriorating polyurethane (ES ) fib res. The sk etch, fo und under a t hick l ayer manufacturing practices rang ing from of animal g lue on the ver o, is clearly antiqui ty to the present day. With over State Library of NSW by a diffe rent ha nd as can be seen in the 30 institutional le nders we would like phot ograph. to say a m ass ive tha nk yo u to everyone Exhibitions who hel ped bring this collection of over The State Library of NSW 's Collection Rehousing 700 piece together. Care branch has had a very busy week Conse rvator Wendy Richards has The P owerhouse galleries are c urrently de-installing a nd insta lling e xhibitions. started rehous ing the coins fro m undergoing sw eeping chan ges. New Life Interrupted: Per sonal Diaries from the Library's Oixson Numismatic show ca es have been purch ased for World War I and Portraits of War: The Collection. Previously, the coins were stor age display exhibitions in a series Crown Studios Project were very we ll hou sed in PVC albums and sealed with called Recollect. The first d isp lay of received by the pub lic. These shows sticky tape, which has deteriorated decorative arts o bj ects w ill be the were re placed by Don M cCullin: over time. The coins are be ing cleaned Museum's distinguished collection of The Impossible Peace, a collection of and re -housed into individual Myl ar shoes spanning the 1-7th century to photographs on war and lan dscapes that pockets. With 1385 coins to tr eat, present day. A collection of sh oe lasts have come to us on l oan from Contact We ndy and h er band of hel pers h ave which w ill be used as props were treated Press Images, Paris. Continuing the become BFF wi th the fume h ood. with tea tree oil fumigant to ste rili e theme, we n ow have Remember m e: them fr m a mo uld infesta tion a nd also the l os t diggers of Vignacourt, on l oan Preservation Australia ass ist in the removal of an unpleasant from The Australian War Memo rial in damp odour. Canberra. Treatments O pe ning on 1 N ovember is an The studio h as been full to b ursting Storage exhibition of o riginal Ly nley Dodd with treatments a nd space became The Castle Hill redevelopment is drawings. This exhibition w ill be shown very competitive! This is mainly due underway and is be ing man aged by in the Mitchel exhibition r ooms, a to conc urrent treatment of some lar ge Carey Ward. There has been a lot of space newly ren ovated for use as ga llery items - a Lichtenste in creenprint, moveme nt of the co llection becau se space. Also ope ning on 1 N ovember is Elwyn Lynn co llages and Lands a nd some stor es have been demo lished Shopkeepers of Newtown, a collection of Property Information plans (of course!). to make way for new buildings. Final photogra phs by Nic Bezz ina. Kay S6derlund also worked on a lar ge, fa cilities will provide a very dam aged a nd fragile p as tel po rtrait shar ed storage facility with from a prominent historic collection. A us tralian . Museum and Beate Yule worked on the b acking Sydney Living Museums, removals of ano ther set of WB Griffi th a fl oor for cold stor age plans as we ll as a large, frag ile etc hing and a re furbished nitrogen which proved to be a cha llenge every fumigation cha mber.
Conferences and talks Sue a ttended the AICCM and CAMD public lecture on Susta inability a nd Environmental Standards fo r C ultural Collections 14 Septe mber 2014 held at the University of Me lbourne.
Vanessa Pitt, Sue a nd Suza nne contributed two posters for ICOM- The front of the watercolour The sketchdiscove red on the back
Z6 A I CCM Nat io nal Ne ws letter Profess ional News step of the way! It had been attached to ACT conservation of outdoor sculptures in a plywood board and required a facing the Memorial's grounds in addition to to remove it from the board. Beate their routine collection care. Marie experimented with using Klug Albertina Australian War Memorial Swan is involved with the duties of the Poultice and was able to use the enzyme freezer program. Treatments poultice for a gentle removal of the The Objects lab's )en Brian and facing. Alana Treasure, William Sit, Kristyn Bullen and David Keany in the Claire Champion were involved in the Tegan Anthes has been assisting Paintings lab have now finished work on sombre task of condition reporting 43 the Powerhouse Museum / Sydney the First World War Gallery paintings. marble sculptures by the artist A lex Observatory with a large cleaning and The largest of these was our iconic Seton. Each work has the shape of a re-housing project of astronomical painting ANZAC The Landing 1915 fo lded prayer cloth and represents one glass plates. This has been a long by George Lambert. The treatment of the 43 Australian combat deaths ongoing project including removal from of this very large painting, which in Afghanistan. In· the past month Macquarie University and establishing included restretching, was undertaken Redgum's go ld record I Was Only procedures for the cleaning and re in the Treloar C warehouse amongs t the Nineteen passed over Eileen Procter's housing of more than 15,000 glass plates. Memorial's aircraft. Kathryn Ferguson bench. In a joint effort between ICS rejoined the conservation team part and the Memorial, Andrew Schroeder Conferences time in September for the preparation has put the final touches on the Winged Kay and Beate both attended ICOM of the Will Longstaff's painting Menin Victory sculpture in the First World CC in Melbourne (while Tegan was Gate at Midnight. This work is now on War Galleries. swanning about in France) which we loan at the Canadian War Museum after In the Large Technology lab Ainslie found very stimulating - good shopping having travelled on board a RAAF C-17 Grainer, Dean Willis, )amie Cracker, too. aircraft with the Menin Gate Lions. Mark Aitken, Kim Wood and Martin The Dioramas team of A lana, Emily Tanti are very busy preparing three Mulvihill and Nick Flood are happily large artillery pieces for outdoor display. putting the finishing touches on the Volunteer of 3,000 hours, Brian Ewens, eighteen dioramas that wi ll grace the is currently involved in the internal fit redeveloped First World War Galleries. out of the Lockheed Hudson bomber. This is the culmination of over two lan Fulton, Yupha Nanteau and years of treatment. Thomas Fanning of the Photography Nick Zihrul felt lab have been transferring images in the warmth of a process where water damaged and the spotlight in shrunk negatives are stretched out and a recent media placed on ge latine coated polyester moment. He film. Once complete these images are showed the press scanned and available for access. the resu lts of his The Textiles lab, particularly Sarah recent treatment Clayton and Lilly Vermeesch, are of our newly working closely with Thylacine Design acquired work on dressing dozens of mannequins for paper by Horace the redeveloped First World War Moo re-Jo nes. Galleries. )essie Firth is dressing an Teresa Duhigg 'invisible horse'. Cathy Chanellor and is busy with Bridie Kirkpatrick have overseen the photographic and installation of the 'real' taxidermy horse book conservation and camel. Karen Wilcox was on leave treatment. in October while she studies towards Preventive her Master's degree at the University of conservators Elisa Melbourne. ·McKenna, Marina In her new ro le as Manager, Heritage Horvath and Preservation Projects, Barbara Linda Eveston Reeve has been working . on projects are organising the including a long-term development Nick Zihrul and the media scrum around the recently acquired work by logistics of the Horace Moore-]ones for collection storage and display,
No 129 November 20 14 27 Professional News
Conservato r s range of illustrated talks a nd posters, ho uld watch fo r from scientific anal yses of Asian a rt the a ppearan ce of mate rials to practical demons trations Memo rial colleagues of conserva tion te chniques. Barbara on the fi ve part revealed the interesting fact that C hina documentary, The is currently constructing n ew museums Memorial: B eyond at the rate of three hundred a year. the ANZAC Legend, going to a ir on F oxtel National Archives of Australia in November ( see htt ://www.foxtel. Treatments com.au/what s Sally Kneebone is wo rking on the on foxtel-insider arch ives of the C lunies -Ross family, the-memorial- including a le tter b ook, ba dly a ffected by iron ga ll ink dete rioration, be ing Reflectance Transformation lmaging snapshot of signatures on the side of us-be ond-the-anzac- carefull y d econstructed a nd each page the Ha-Go tank legend-221310.htm). en capsulated. Clair Murray has the anal ys ing collection growth trends a nd good fo rtune to be currently treating a Training sending the Me nin Gate Lions a nd large poster from 1899 for R obur Tea, Will Lon gstaff's pa inting Menin Gate at Karen Holloway at tended the fo ur day recently 'discovered' in the collection. It Midnight to the Canadian War Museum Conservation of Photographs Mas terclass is a des ign by the well-known Australian (see htt ://www.centenar news.com/ hosted by the NGA and NFSA and he ld artist William Blamire Yo ung, a nd is a article?id=2994 ). at the N a tional Archives of Australia. six-sheet po lychrome billboard poster in gorgeous colo urs but rough shape. C la ir, Research projects Conferences Caroline Milne and Travis Taylor will clean, fl atten a nd repair each piece of Nick Zihrul, with curator Alex Torrens, Emily Mulvihill and Nick Flood bo th the poster a fter which it will be digitised have a f eature a rticle, "Pa rti an E agles attended the ICOM-CC conferen ce and "stitche d" back together. and Fascist Do nkeys: Soviet Posters", in Me lbourne. lmpre si vely Ba rbara in the c urrent issue of Imprin t, the Reeve completed the 'do uble mara thon' quarterly · journal of the Print Council of two confe rence back-to-back over Exhibitions of Australia. Nick Flood is a pplying a two w eeks: ICOM-CC Melbourne a nd Sally has been busy with exhibitions photogra phic technique (Refl ectan ce IIC Hong Kon g. The IIC confere nce lately, with ano ther insta ll and de insta ll Transfo rmation Imaging or RTI) attracted del egates from Ma inland of the trave lling Traversing Antarctica to d ocument inscriptions fo und on China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the exhibition, this time in Gladstone. The collection obj ects. He is c urrently UK, America, Australia, France, exhibition w ill now tr avel to He rvey photographing a Second Wo rld War Singapore, Japan, a nd many other Bay where it will be installed by Cheryl Japan ese Type 95 H a-Go Light Tank. countries. The conferen ce pro vided a Jackson in earl y Decem ber. Sally also This ta nk sat on the s ide of a road in Milne B ay, N ew Guinea. As Australian so ldiers passed by, many signed their nam es by s cratching into the ta nk's paintwork. The RTI technique can sh ow deta ils of these inscriptions in a way that conventional photogr aphy cannot.
Exhibitions The red eveloped First Wo rld War G a lleries will open to the public on 1 December this year a fter being closed for 18 mo nths. Robur Tea Poster - Blamire Young
28 A I CCM Nationa l Newsletter Professio nal News
assisted with the Wa terhouse Na tural Victoria and permanent collection chan geovers. History Prize exh ibition insta ll and John Payne has completed work on deinstall at our Parkes building in JMW Turner's Walton Bridges and Canberra. National Gallery of Victoria has also recently completed building a new frame for the H ans Memling Treatments Training and Conferences painting The Man of Sorrows in the Arms Michael Varcoe-Cocks, Head of Prue McKay and Caroline assisted of the Virgin. The HOT Williamson Conservation, is cleaning Louis at and attended the Conservation of Foundation fe llows, Sandi Mitchell Bu velot's painting Winter Morning Near Photographs Masterclass he ld at the and Johanna Ellersdorfer, are into the Heidelberg. Helen Casey has recently A r chives in September. Cheryl was second year of their fe llowship and are completed her treatment of the portrait a big part of the organisation a nd enjoying the cha llenges entailed in Mary Lucas by Adriaen Ha nneman running of the workshop and her undertaking more major treatments. and has commenced treatment of report can be found in this issue of Joha nna h as completed treatment of Colin Colaha n's Portrait of Or John the N ewsletter. Ian Batterham, C la ir James Webb painting Rotterdam at Dale. Raye Collins is we ll underway in and Caroline attended the ICOM sunset and is about to begin her major her treatment of Tom R obert's Mary . CC conference in Melbourne, a nd treatment project of Joshua R eynold Suzi Shaw is investigating options Prue attended the Technical Drawings Lady Frances Finch. Sandi's major for re-upholstering an early twentieth and their Reproductions sympos ium treatment project of Luca Giordano's century Viennese cha ir (currentl and Conservation of Transparent Paper y Saint Sebastian is close to completion. with a la ter vinyl) in conjunction workshop in the Netherlands in earl y with laying n ew leather o nto a desk In July and August we were joined by October. A r eport is included in this designed by Adolf Loos (1903) made Sven Dueblin, interning as part of h is newsletter. for the Langer apartment in Vienna. conservation s tudies at Bern University Holly McGowan-Jackson is c urrently of the Arts in Switzerland. During his Publications "ageing" two reproduction frames ma de time at the NGV, Sven completed lan a nd Caroline h ad an article for a pair of paintings by Louis Buvelot. the major tr eatment of an 18 th entitled "20th Century Paper Quality This involves distressing the s urface century carved Carlo M aratta frame. in the N a tional Archives of Australia" with abrasive paper and various tools, Along with volunteer Therese from published in the British Association of the application of an acrylic varnish to Melbourne University, Sven spent one Paper Historians jo urnal The Quarterly. shift the tone of the gilding, and the week working on a project to transfer The article describes research carried "dry" brush application of gouache a nd furniture conservation d ossiers to a n ew out at the Archives, the results of which acrylic paints to simulate dirt. Ho lly filing syste m. Recently, Emma Rouse can be fo und on o ur Paper Research undertook r esearch and treatment on joined the studio as a volunteer one day webpage (http://paper.naa.gov.au/). an o riginal a uricular fr ame fo r a po rtrait a w eek, assisting w ith v·arious projects by Sir Peter Lely, for its display in the including the conservation of the frame rehang of the 17th century galleries. for a 17th century painting by Sebastien For more information ee the blog on Bourdon. the NGV website at http://blog. ngv. vic.gov.au/20 14/1 0/06/framing-fancies Exhibitions lelys-portrait-of- sir-j ohn-rous/ Carl Dianne Whittle played a key role in Villis's treatment of Pompeo Batoni's the deli very of Carsten Ho ller's Golden large double portratt, Sir Sampson Mirror Carousel and Wade Marynofsky's Gideon and Companion is nearing Nostalgia for Obsolete Futures while completion. Mary)o Lel yveld has been Marika Strohschnieder oversaw the researching and is c urrently machining conservation requirements for Outer the moulding for several re framing Circle: The Boyds and the Murrumbeena projects in Australian paintings Artists. Trude Ellingsen continues collection. A ll three works date to the to work on a ran ge of contemporary late 19th century and include Frederick acquisitions a nd permanent collection McCubbin's The North Wind and changeovers. Ruth Shervington and Portrait and E. Phillip Fox' Mary. Sarah Louise Wilson have been very busy Brown has been hinging many large preparing large works on paper .by fo rmat photographs that have recently artist Em ily Floyd for the upcoming come into the l ab as new acquisition s. exhibition at the NGV. These beautiful Trude Ellingsen continues to work on works comprise of fo ur large paper a range of contemporary acquisitions panels which need to be aligned and
No 129 o ve mber 20 14 29 Pro fessional News
then joined to create one larger work. and provide an accurate historical of museum objects for her degree in Sarah h as also been hinging many large representation of silhouette and fo rm. archaeology from the University of N ew fo rmat photographs that have recently The ongo ing program of light-sensitive England. We wish all of these students come into the lab as new acquisitions. permanent collection changeovers the very best for completing their study . Raye Collins contributed to the continue with the addition of a 17th and their future careers. preparation of paintings fo r the Robert century velvet Dalmatic and a pair of Jacks retrospective Order and Varia tion embroidered gauntlet gloves. Training currently on display at NG V A ustralia. Elizabeth McCartney attended the Training/research It has been a busy time in textile mas ter class 'Plastics: Identification, conservation. The condition reporting Louise Wilson recently returned Degradation and Conservation and install of The Fashion World of Jean fro m the International Course on of Plas tics' at the U niversity of Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Conservation of Japanese Paper and Amsterdam, led by Thea van Oosten. Catwalk took place over four busy weeks has been providing refresher methods This course has been developed during which we were very fortunate in paper conservation fo r both the significantly since its presentation in to work alongside staff from the Paris conservators and mount cutting Melbourne in 2005 and included data atelier. The exhibition, in galleries that department. Sarah Brown recently gleaned during the recent POPART have been transformed by our talented participated in the Conservation of project. Elizabeth also took the exhibition des ign team consists of more Photographs Mas terclass held in Canberra opportunity to visit the new laboratories than 140 outfits spanning his career, and has gained many new skills and at the British Museum and talk to their teamed with iconic images by leading techniques, some which include surface scientists about Oddy testing. cleaning of face mounted photographs fashion photographers. JPG 's teddy Rosemary Goodall attended the and disaster recovery methodology. bear wearing the first iteration of the ELISA technique workshop in Sydney cone bra, completed by six year old and Belinda Gourley attended the Jean Paul, is not to be missed! Running Museum Victoria Conservation of Photographs Mas terclass concurrently with the JPG install was in Canberra. We all look forward to Survey the NGV's newest children's exhibition, applying new ideas and knowledge to Express How You Feel by Sydney fas hion Karina Palmer and Erina McCann our collections. des ign house Romance Was Born. The have begun a condition survey of preparation of collection and display of batteries in the collection with the view Conferences loaned textile works for this program to developing a preservation plan for Sarah Babister attended 'Contemporary was ably overseen by Kate McLaren, them as well as drafting a Safe Handling Outsider Art: The Global Context', an Conservation Fellow Textiles. Procedure for these hazardous materials. international conference held at the But ... that's not all ! Kate Douglas is University of Melbourne. continuing her work on textiles and Survey and treatment garments for Exquisite Threads: English Karina and Erina are also progressing Most of the Conservation team embroidery 1600s-1900s. Kate has through a survey, treatmen t and re attended the ICOM-CC Conference been working with our photographers housing project on a collection of very in Melbourne and many were also to ensure that images of the works are beautiful and very significant shell involved in hosting site visits or some completed for the publication deadline. necklaces from Tasmania. other aspect of the conference. We've Kate Douglas and Kate McLaren have now got a (long) short list of mu s t~r ead been undertaking research on key pieces Research papers to make our way through! in the exhibition. These technical We've been lucky enough to be working investigations will be presented as case with four students researching aspects studies in the exhibition publication. Annette Soumilas, Textile Disp lay of the Museum Victoria collection. Ren Gregoric, Megan Hall and Emma Specialist, is working with Danielle Whitfield from our curatorial Neale have been conducting research department on a project to prepare key into degreasing ceraceous material, non-destructive fibre identification for works in the Australian Fashion and textiles and plant fibre identification Textiles collection for photography to aid provenance respectively for and digital presentation on the C ulture Victoria website. Annette is focuss ing their Masters theses at University of Melbourne. Doris Koeck has been on the dress ing of. garments, creating investigating the challenges and underpinnings that support the works opportunities involved in 3D scanning
30 AICCM National News letter Profess ional News
South Australia wonder what the PNG locals thought Projects Conservation when the newly acquired pots were Abby Maxwell-Bowen and lan Miles broken. have been occupied with mainly larger Artlab sized objects of late - from condition Paintings and Frames Conservation Treatments checking and remedial treatment The entire paintings team including sugges tions for three heritage railway Objects Conservation Lisette Burgess, Rita Costabile, Rosie carriages, to the cleaning of a concrete Renita Ryan, with the help of Grit Heysen, Eugene Taddeo, Chris Payne artwork by Donald J udd at the Art Friedmann, a German conservator and Marek Pacyna have been involved Gallery of South Australia, as well as on sabbatical, has done a beautiful job in the ongoing project of the regilding of some overdue bronze maintenance for conserving an en ormous famille rose the Adelaide C ity Council's Elder Park Carrick Hill. Meanwhile !an arranged and famille verte 1850s Chinese export Rotunda. All are thoroughly enjoying and oversaw the de-installation ware vase. They decided to preserve the the sunshine and fantastic view of the · and removal of an outdoor Barbara well-executed metal rivets and staples city of Adelaide in spring from the top H epworth bronze and Abby oversaw from an early restoration and to reuse a of the Rotunda scaffold. the conservation treatment of the carved wooden dog that replicated the City of Singapore Firemen's Memorial ceramic handle. Paper and Books Conservation at C heltenham Cemetery. Aquila Evill has been conserving a large Sophie Par~er has been reversing very photo mosaic belonging to the State Preventive Conservation ugly old restorations of a bonneted baby Library of South Australia. Completed The entire preventive team including doll with three faces. The owner said by Henry ]ones in the 1870s, the Anne Dineen, Stuart Fuller, Rosie as a child she would communicate her mosaic depicts male colonists of South Heysen and Katrina Kenny is emotions by dialling up the expression Australia. Small individual silver gelatin being kept busy with the ongoing that represented her mood best! We photographic portraits are adhered to collection care of many of the great all need one of those! The head and a paper support, which is supported by South Australian State Government arms are of painted dense black rubber, a canvas backing and stretched around institutions including the Art Gallery the body of cloth, and the legs of a wooden strainer. The deteriorating of South Australia, South Australian wood composite. The second doll is of paper was beginning to split in areas and Museum, National Motor Museum, celluloid and so luble in acetone and some of the photographs were starting South Australian Maritime Museum, ethanol. As a trial the cracked head to show signs of stress. Aquila was able Migration Muse um and the historic has been adhered with water soluble to complete local repairs and replace house museum Carrick Hill. Preparing fi sh glue, and so far it has remained well the strainer to even out the tension of for disasters and keeping those pests at adhered: the work. N ow that the male colonists bay! Jo Dawe has achieved a stunning are complete, it is on to the female result reconstructing a smashed and version, which will also be prepared Training twisted arm of a large plaster and metal for the AGNSW photograph touring armature statue of a boy. exhibition in 2015. Textiles Conservation In July, Kristin Phillips travelled to Jodie Scott has been working on Jus tin Gare has been preparing South Oili, Timor-Leste to present a training a privately owned collection of Australia's own much loved fashion workshop for staff at Timor Aid. With photographs and maps. Included in the icon Duane Hanson's Washer Woman the assistance of the team from Timor collection is a small map entitled 'Battle for her unglamorous interstate guest Aid and staff from the Alola Foundation of Barrosa' (quite possibly a name appearance. A pity she left before she and the National Collection, Kristin borrowed for our own 'Barossa'), and could get some hot tips fro m our visiting prepared 16 textiles for display at the completed in Spain in 1811 . The map is French curators! Timorese Res istance Archive and on paper and has been annotated with Museum. The work was undertaken The Objects team continues to work in many different media, presumably by as part of a joint project with Timor the South Australian Museum's Foreign Coionel Light-or Governor Gawler. The Aid and the National Collection of Ethnology store . The current project map was a NIGHTMARE to ge t off the Timor to celebrate the Comunidade is to box PNG ceramics which, on the wooden stretcher due to different pa~tes, dos Pafses de Ungua Portuguesa CPLP curious advice of an anthropologist, glues and pigment additives in the an intergovernmental organization were smashed by the missionary adhes ives. Still to come is tape removal, for friendship and cooperation among collector to travel them home in a adhesive stain removal, washing Portuguese-speaking nations. compact state! There they were reglued to even out mottled oxidized paper and are now we ll supported by Artlab discolouration, lining and mounting. A packing and boxing. You have to difficult, but one hopes rewarding, job.
No 129 · November 2014 3 1 Pro fessional News
Exhibitions Culture held at the University of Artlab received a special commendation Melbourne. for an innovative solution to reducing Objects Conservation the significant risks of musculoskeletal Kristin, Justin and Andrew also Planning is afoot to travel the disorders in conservation work. attended the IIC 2014 Hong Kong exhibition Rough Medicine on display at Accolades such as this are great to Conference: An Unbroken History: the South Australian Maritime Museum receive but the real gains are the Conserving East Asian Works of Art continued health and safety of our (see also Textiles entry below). and Heritage. The conference held at conservators. City Hall in central Hong Kong was an Paper and Books Conservation invaluable opportunity to learn about The paper lab team have recently conservation techniques and research Tasmania been aiding the Art Gallery of South associated with East Asian artifacts, and Australia to take down the paper based meet many overseas colleagues. retrospective shows of artists Dorrit Anne Dineen attended both the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage s. Many Black and Mortimer Menpe AICCM 2014 Preventative SIG Office of the items on l oan r equire rehousing Quarantine Symposium at the into original frames with Gallery-owned Australian Museum in Sydney in June Treatments works to be prepared for storage. and the Assessing and Managing Risks to Stephanie McDonald has been working Your Collection workshop with Robert on the usual range of treatments in Textiles Conservation Wailer in Melbourne in September. the last few months, including a full October has seen the textiles team traditional paper treatment of an Rita Costabile attended the Enzyme 1841 plan of the New Town Watch of Kristin Phillips and Mary-Anne linked lmmunosorbent Assay (EUZA) House, repair of a WWI manuscript - Gooden embrace Parisian culture Technique workshop he ld at the Art Battalion AIF, for the preparation and installation Gallery of New South Wales in Lieutenant Hooper, 58th of Fashion leans: Masterpieces from September. and repair of the sewing a nd gutters the Collection of the Musee Des Arts of the 1832 Hobart Town a lmanack Decoratifs, Paris at the Art Gallery Jodie Scott was very fortunate to (including repair of a hand-coloured of South Australia. With significant attend the Conservation of Photographs fold out map ofLaunceston). ass istance from the Objects team, Masterclass in Canberra in September, Gallery of Volunteer Jan Smith has passed the over 90 haute couture garments were hosted by the National Australia and the National Archives. 3,000 items milestone in cleaning, condition checked, mannequins Jodie is currently in discussion with rehousing and listing the Mercury adjusted and underpinnings prepared curators of South Australian institutions Newspaper negatives. Another relief before the final dressing and primping. abo ut the di emination of the staff project has been the cleaning We thoroughly enjoyed creating some abundance of technique learnt from and rehousing of the Latrobe Council extreme body shapes with guidance participants at the masterclass. building approval plans from 1943 to from our lovely French colleagues 1956 by Chrissi Benthien. Library Josephine Pellas, Textiles Conservator Paper conservator Anna Austin has technician Gaynor Tollard has been and Eric Pujalet-plaa Assistant Curator just begun a seven week printmaking working through a backlog of new of fashion at Musee Des Arts Oecoratifs. residency in Spain. Anna will be acquisitions to the Allport collection, What an extraordinary experience with travelling to local paper making mills preparing them for storage through such little preparation warning and a while overseas. rehousing, de-framing and installing short deadline! Breaking News- Awards new fittings. Conference & Training Attendance Congratulations to Heather Brown, Exhibitions Director Andrew Durham, Assistant Artlab's WHS committee and Stephanie McDonald and photographer Director Helen Weidenhofer, Paintings PhysioLink consultant Jo Bills, for their David Walker assisted the Army Conservators Eugene Taddeo and Rosie tireless efforts to make Artlab a safe & Heysen, and Textiles Conse rvator Mary healthy workplace! On 3 1 October Museum of Tasmania to clean, repair Anne Gooden were fortunate enough to Artlab was awarded second place in and photograph a group of 22 WWI be able to attend the ICOM-CC 17th the 2014 Safework Awards within the photographs in preparation for their Triennial Conference in Melbourne, category of Best so lution to an identified 6 bob a day tourists exhibition of presenting a great opportunity to catch workplace health and safety iss ue. There reproductions. Stephanie carried out up with our interstate and international were 39 entrants in this category and minor repair and stain reduction on colleagues. Fo llowing the conference, all four finalists (except Artlab) were three of the photographs. Mary-Anne attended Oinah Eastop's large companies with significant WHS Work on the exhibition architecture thought provoking two-day workshop infrastructure. The winner was Ho lden Why Now? Conservation as Material Ltd. drawing I drawing architecture, featuring plans and drawings from 11 architects
32 AI CCM ews letter Pro fessional News
from the early government architects construction of supports for display. Public Awareness to current practitioners, was completed C leaning obj ects such as pistols, Amy has been working with QVMAG's in September, and planning is bayonets and medals was certainly a Media and Communications underway for a complex exhibition of change for Amy in contrast to paper Coordinator to increase the awareness the anatomical work of Lauren Black, conse rvation. of conservation throughout Launceston Hobart illustrator, combined with Since September, David has treated a and beyond. This includes raising the medical drawings and obj ects from the . boat and cleaned a number of trophies conservation section's profile on the WL Crowther collection in TAHO. that have recently been de-installed QVMAG's Facebook page by regularly from the Muse um's sport gallery. submitting posts about work being Queen Victoria Museum a1,1d Art Incoming travelling show Hyperclay: conducted for exhibitions, treatments Gallery Contemporary Ceramics has left the Art and projects by staff and volunteers. G allery. Amy and David completed She was highlighted in the education Treatments condition reports and ass isted with the section of Launceston's local paper The David Thurrowgood is currently installation and de-in tallation of this Examiner, discuss ing the importance of working with one of the conservation exhibition. conserving history sources. She also was volunteers to fumigate and repair a interviewed alongs ide other QVMAG Most recently, Amy has prepared works significant rocking horse from the staff on ABC Radio. on paper for changeover in the Portrait History collection. of Colonial Tasmania exhibition at the Art G allery along with watercolours Exhibitions on paper from the 1800s which are A number of exhibitions were changed currently on display in the William over while Amy Bartlett was the only Buelow Gould: The Macquarie Harbour conservator on staff at QVMAG from Botanical Drawings exhibition. June to September 2014. These included the de-installation, condition reporting Loans and packing of loan and QVMAG Amy condition reported and packed collection items for the We are shell necklaces for outgoing loan to the Hawthorn exhibition at the Museum. Powerhouse Museum for the exhibition Three travelling exhibitions at the Art A fine possession: jewellery and identity. G allery included 21 Objects - 21 Stories, She is currently working on a number Bea Mad.dock's Leaving a Mountain and of photographic works which are being Lola Greeno: Cultural Jewels which loaned to the Art G allery of New South required condition reporting, de-framing Wales for display in Mirror to nature: the of artworks and the construction of photograph in Australia. custom packaging upon de-installation. In addition, Amy prepared a number of David has condition reported two in-house exhibitions over this period. paintings by G eorge Oavis for loan These included works on paper for The to the Tas manian Museum and Art Continuous Landscape of Distance - Fred . Gallery. He is currently repairing a Williams Bass Strait Island Paintings frame for a painting that is going on which opened at the Art G allery in outward loan to the Australian Centre July. Works on paper were also treated for Contemporary Art. and mounted, paintings cleaned and 30 sculptures prepared for Twentieth Conference attendance Centur)' Paintings and Sculptures fr om Amy was delighted to have her the QVMAG Collection for the Art application accepted to attend the G allery, which opened in August 2014. Conservation of Photographs Masterclass Approximately 140 obj ects, textiles, which was held in Canberra in paper items and artworks went through September 2014. The course was held the lab in preparation for The Great over fo ur days and was delivered by War 19 14-18: Sacrifice and Shadows, Debbie Hess Norris, Nora Kennedy which opened at the Museum in August and Peter Mustardo. The amaz ing 2014. Work included preparation for opportunity was enj oyed immense ly by photography, condition reporting, all those that attended. conservation treatment and the
No 129 N ovember 20 14 33 Professional N e ws
Queensland reframing by Robert Zilli and Damian in Sydney in October to assist w ith the Buckley of Vuillard's Le salon des Hessel preparation and install of a loaned work, c.1905, a distemper on canvas painting Womanly Bodies, by Thai a rtist Pinaree Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery meas uring 17 8 x 380 cm. Sanpitak and from the Queensland Art of Modern Art Gallery collection, for the exhibition New Indigenous ga lleries have also currently on display there. Liz worked opened in the QAG building. This Research with the artist at SCAF to prepare the exhibition includes the display of a Gillian O smond has submitted her work for display. rare painting by Nym Bandak dated PhD thesis on z inc white reactivity in c. 1959~60 titled Ngakumarl painting Samantha Shellard has begun condition o il~b ased paints, which has been passed (Murrinhpatha totemic landscape). This reporting n ew acquisition I 000 Frog subject to minor r evisions, planned work consists of natural pigments on Poems: 1000 Boss Drovers ("Yellow~Leaf for completion by December. Both composition board and is interesting Falling") For H.S 1996~2014 by a rtist Anne Carter and Gillian have papers as it predat es the P apunya style boards. Robe rt MacPherson. This suite consists published in the latest volume of the The painting wa consolidated and of 2,400 portraits. This tremendous AICCM Bulletin. inpainted for display by Anne Carter, archival project is arguably considered Liz Wild presented her paper and reframed by Robe rt and Damian. his m agnum opus with its production "Reincarnating the Lotu s: Repair of a expanding over twenty years of his Samantha Shellard, Nicholas Cosgrove contemporary life~size cloisonne fi gure" practice. This s uite will fe ature in a and David Rousell have completed at the IIC co nference in Hong Kong in ret rospective e xhibition planned for framing six suites by a rtist Tracey September 2014. 2015 . Moffatt for her exhibition called Sophie Theobald~Ciark is commencing Spiritual Landscape. These suites with a two~year research internship at other collection works a re fe atured in QAGOMA in November in partnership the exhibition catalogue. with the Queensland University of Technology to investigate the mate rials, Kim Barrett and Caroline O'Rorke will techniques and paintings of William soon commen ce condition re porting Ro binson. The research will help inform and mounting over 160 photographic conservation approaches for these often prints, litho a nd drawings for the David complex works. . Lynch Exhibition cheduled in March 2015. This major e xhibition presents Exhibitions an overview of the American artist a nd filmmaker's paintings, photographs and The Ro bin Gibs o n~de s i g ned QAG prints along with sculpture, video and building is currently under r eview so und works. for he ritage listing in respon se to a Mas ter Plan for the development Liz Wild, Amanda Pagliarino, Kim of the South Brisbane ar ea. Chris Barrett and Michael Marendy are Saines, the Director of QAGO MA ass isting staff from the K yo to Costume is taking the heritage of the building Institute with the condition repo rting, to h eart, with restora tion of many of dressing and install of the Future Beauty: the original a rchitectural f eatures of 30 Years of Japanese Fashion exhibition at the 1982 building, including ope ning GOMA which will run over the summer up closed windows and sight lines. ho liday season. Thi has resulted in a new hang of the histo ric International collection. Major Liz Wild travelled to the Sherman treatments for this rehang include the Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF)
34 A I CCM N a tiona l New le tter We we lcome yo ur contributions to the Advertising is accepted. newsle tter, as well as any comments yo u m ay Positions vacant hav e. 1/2 page* $110 inc. GST Deadlines for submiss ions ar e: Commercial • The last Friday in January 1/2 page* $220 inc. GST • The last Friday in June full page# $300 inc. GST • The last Friday in October Discounts Please send yo ur submissions to 10% for 2 i ss ues, 15% for 3 i ss ues, 20% for 4 i ss ues. [email protected] Inserts All submissions will be acknowledged by Pos itions V acant $110 inc. GST ema il. If you haven't h eard fro m us, we haven't Commercial $220 inc. GST heard from yo u! Advertisers must supply their own inserts. We en courage the use of images wherever poss ible. Please send separate to yo ur text in Classifieds either .jpg or . tif fil es. $0 .88 per word including GS T. All text sho uld be sent in .doe or .d ocx fil e, in * I /2 page: 190mm ( w) x 125mm (h) landsca pe 12pt Times New Roman fo nt, with no e diting. # Full page: 210x297mm porrrait, with 3mm bleed all around No tices pertaining to AICCM activities are free of char ge. Please ens ure a ll content, including Advertising for in clusion in bo dy of Newsle tter accepted unti l the lst d ay of the photogra phs, h as been a pproved by mon th in whi ch the Newsle tter is due. Earl y booking preferabl e. appropriate pa rties, prior to sending to the Disclaimer: Publication of t echnical not es or articles with reference to Editors. techniques and mate ri als d oes not n ecessarily re present an endor sement by AIC M. The Editors and A I CCM National Council accept no responsib il ity for Nam es in the text sho uld be in bold the first the content or opi ni ons e xp ressed in the AI CCM National Newsle tter w hich time used, then in no rmal font afterwards. are solel y those of individual co ntributors. It is the re pons ibi liry of author to ensure content has been approved by a ppropri ate parti e , prior to submission to Thank yo u from the Edi tors the Edi tors.
No 1 29 Nove mber 20 14 35 I AICCM Special Interest Groups (SIGS)
Group Convenor Email Book& Paper Prue McKay [email protected] Conservation Framers Louise Bradley [email protected] Conservation Science Petronella Ne! [email protected] Exhibitions Samantha Hamilton [email protected] Gilded Objects MaryJo Lelyve ld [email protected] Objects Helen Privett helen_pri [email protected] Paintings Maria Kubik Maria.Ku [email protected] a.gov. au Photon Amy Bartlett Amy. [email protected]. au Lydia Egunnike [email protected] Kelly Leahy [email protected] Preventive Conservation Sarah-Jane Rennie [email protected] Textiles J ess ie Firth [email protected] Digital & Audio-visual Heritage Vacant SIG convenor positions are open for election every two years. For further information contact the SIG Convenor Helen Privett ([email protected]).
AICCM National Council Executive and Officer Contacts 2013 .. 2015
National Pres ident MaryJo Lelyveld Tel: 03 8620 2122 Fax: 03 8620 2555 [email protected] Vice-President Anne Carter Tel: 07 3840 7297 Fax : 07 3844 8865 anne.carter@qagoma.qld.gov.au National Secretary Jenny Q'Connell [email protected] National Treasurer AdamGodijn Tel: 02 9417 3311 Fax: 02 9417 3102 [email protected] Membership Services Officer Celia C ramer Tel: 0414-616-261 chooknanny@gmail. com Publications Officer Cobus van Breda Tel: 03 6211 4164 Cob us. VanBreda@tmag. tas.gov.au AlCCM Secretariat Michelle Berry Tel: 02 6100 861 8 [email protected] Profe ss ional Membership Officer C ushla Hill Tel: 03 9 348 5700 cushla@ unimelb.edu.au Public Officer !an Batterham Tel: 02 6212 3424 Fax: 02 6212 3469 ian. [email protected] Web Editor Carole Best website@aiccm. org.au Bulletin Editor · Nicole Tse Tel: 03 8344 0354 [email protected] Newsletter Editor !an Batterham Tel: 02 62 12 3424 Fax: 02 6212 3469 newsletter@a iccm.org.au SIG Convenor Helen Privett Tel: 03 90771960 hprivett@museum. vic.gov.au
AICCM National State Presidents 2013 .. 2015
ACT President !an Batterham 02 621 2 3424 ian. [email protected] NSW Pres ident Sheldon Teare 02 93206419 [email protected] QLD President Caroline O 'Rourke [email protected] SA/NT Pres ident Kristin Phillips os 83 708242 [email protected] Tas President Amy Bartlett 03 6323 3754 Amy. [email protected] Vie Pres ident Susie Collis 03 941 54401 Susanna.Co [email protected] c.gov.au WA President Natalie Hewlett 0434011513 nata lie. hew lett@artga llery. wa.gov.au