Session Monday, Virtual Live Hub: Europe

By Jelena Zagora and Tatiana Valderrama Gutiérrez

IIC European Virtual Live Hub was opened with a presentation by Julie Bon, head of collections care at the National Library of Scotland and Bo Han, PhD student of the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society at the Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. They presented truly remarkable research based on the idea that the energy can be saved by utilizing the buffering effect of cardboard storage boxes. This could allow relaxing tight environmental controls in the storage room, reducing energy consumption by approximately 17%. With Scotland leading the world in becoming one of the first nations to declare a global climate emergency in April 2019 and setting an ambitious goal to become net zero by 2045, this is really a promising project and trailblazing effort. 

Collecting institutions and conservation communities worldwide recognize various aspects of loss of intangible value and knowledge linking heritage with their original communities and purposes. The second presentation, by Jane Henderson and Robert Waller, offered a refreshing discussion around the scope and meaning of dissociation as one of the agents of deterioration or change – moreover, they brought it in a form of debate! Respectfully disagreeing and valuing differing opinions is a skill that should be practiced regularly and in a good will. As authors point out, it is essential that conservators consider their interactions with others to build a sustainable career, contribute to sustainability of their institutions and place of their institutions in the society. I am thrilled with many interesting concepts and viewpoints explained in this debate: conservation as a process of navigating value delivery and a notion of handling intangible value or knowledge loss in the same way as we would document and treat a physical damage impacting the way we perceive artwork. To see why Henderson advocates that preventive conservation practice should also include safeguarding value from loss and why Waller disagrees, read the full paper!

Diverse collection of the National Museum Cardiff in Wales is housed in a Grade I-listed historic building, the highest category of interest for preservation, and it is being used for research, exhibitions, public events and outreach, in addition to collections storage. Due to varied requirements of different spaces during the years, the original building-wide ventilation system, with over 50 individual air handling units and multiple downstream components, had to be enhanced and modified. As Kelly McCauley and Robert Pearce demonstrated in their presentation, this laborious process took over a decade of adjustments and analysis while applying seasonal setpoints and overnight shutdowns to match both sustainability and preventive conservation goals. Many lectures at this congress attest to the conservation community's increasing sensitivity to environmental changes as many collecting institutions worldwide are switching from strict preventive conservation storage conditions to reduce carbon footprint and financial cost. A lot of interest from the audience with questions on technical details confirms this!

In the last talk, Sonia Bujok, a chemist specializing in polymers, investigated the response of fragile artistic objects to climate changes. Her study focused on gesso, a material much more fragile than oil paints. Through experiments, Bujok discovered that while oil paints benefit from slower climate changes, gesso does not. This challenges the common belief that gradual climate changes are always better for preserving art objects. Bujok concluded that the magnitude of humidity changes, rather than their speed, is the key factor for damage in materials like gesso. Her findings have important implications for the conservation of artifacts and could lead to new guidelines for the care of collections.

In the posters, Jan Dariusz Cutajar advocates for a more environmentally conscious approach to conservation, proposing the adoption of green chemistry principles as a way to reduce the environmental impact of this discipline and position conservation as a leader in sustainability. In the next poster, Vandana Singh, who hails from India, participated in an innovative international conservation fellowship program funded by the Mellon Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of India. The primary goal of this program was to strengthen global collaboration in the field of conservation by facilitating the exchange of knowledge and experiences among professionals from India, the United States, and Europe.

During her six-month fellowship at the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art, Singh engaged in a thorough technical study of ancient copper adornments from the Moche civilization in Peru. Using a combination of advanced imaging and analytical techniques, such as high-resolution photography, RTI, and X-ray fluorescence, she was able to gain new insights into the metallurgical processes of this ancient culture. Her findings revealed the complexity and experimentation in the copper alloys used by the Moche.

Beyond technical research, Singh emphasized the importance of the professional connections established during her fellowship. These relationships have been fundamental to her professional development and have contributed to a more integrated and collaborative global conservation community.

Finally, Gwendoline Fife presented the GoGreen project, an EU initiative aimed at developing a holistic definition of "ecological conservation" in the realm of cultural heritage. The goal is to establish clear parameters to guide conservation decisions towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. The proposal is based on a comprehensive review of the scientific literature, environmental policies, and current practices in the sector. 

BLOG AUTHORS AND BYLINES: 

Jelena Zagora is a paintings conservator at the Croatian Conservation Institute, Department in Split.

Tatiana Valderrama Gutiérrez is a conservator and restorer of movable cultural heritage in Bogotá, Colombia.