2 July 2024 - Day 1

The Global Connections research project conducted a pilot study on the Adès collection of Iranian ceramics at the Fitzwilliam Museum. Islamic ceramics pose specific challenges due to the way they were restored in the past. Completely ‘new’ objects were assembled out of sherds belonging to different ceramics, often blurring the boundaries between concepts of fake and restoration. A non-invasive protocol was developed to analyse the objects, which are mostly intact. 

Working with a contemporary ceramicist, the team ran a public engagement programme that sought to make technical research relevant to East Anglian audiences. In a series of public events, visitors decorated ceramics in lustre and observed a traditional kiln being built and fired. This presentation will reflect on how conservators can use practice-based research to engage audiences through the themes of ‘making’ and ‘crafting’. More broadly, it will ask how conservators can harness their expertise to respond to some of the heritage field's major challenges.

For the past five years the Collection Care Department at The National Archives has worked to embed audience development as part of its core business, benefiting from a dedicated engagement team within the department. This presentation will focus on reviewing our journey so far – the positives and the negatives. Through several case studies (of varying success) we will explore how we are working to understand the needs of our audiences, increase reach, and build deeper relationships with those around us through effective engagement activities. It will also review how we navigate internal relationships within a large organisation with competing priorities, built processes to evaluate and measure the impact of engagement activities and create an audience development plan.

A lack of representation of the public in heritage management has been recognised by many conservators who are seeking ways to diversify the voices represented in conservation decision-making. Conservation actions impact on the presentation of the object, illuminating or suppressing aspects of its history and value. The museum and heritage sector must make drastic changes and step back from practices that have caused many to feel unwelcomed excluded or marginalised. Multiple voices must be represented in decisions that impact on the value of cultural heritage. 3D technologies to show treatment options create an engaging and immersive way for new audiences to engage in conservation decision-making.

This presentation explores ethical considerations – including historical and epistemological limitations of current guidelines, the ways in which they are changing, as well as methodologies for safe access, the management of risks to people and collections through a series of case studies and handling sessions based at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. This work will also reflect on the perceived reception of a framework for preservation which encourages rather than limits creative or restorative engagement, i.e. through the repatriation of objects to communities of origin or their alteration as a result of protest or activism.

Environmental responsibility is a core investment principle of Arts Council’s Let’s Create strategy. But how are the demands of addressing a museum’s carbon footprint balanced with the care of collections, or the ambition to share exhibitions and build audiences tallied with the environmental impact of touring shows? How can we together embed environmental thinking and  sustainable practices in everything do? This presentation introduces Arts Council’s collaboration with Julie’s Bicycle to deliver an ambitious Environmental Programme which aims to empower the culture sector to rise to the challenges the climate crises present, and to accelerate and scale our collective response, and describes recent initiatives within the Museums & Cultural Property team to review the environmental impact of exhibition loans through the prism of the Government Indemnity scheme.

"The Bicycle Wall" (1978), a ceramic mural commissioned for the Milton Keynes public art program, was at risk of demolition when Aldi bought the site for development.

Recognising its cultural value, local heritage groups fought to save the mural and it was relocated. As a gesture of goodwill, Aldi commissioned us to conserve the tiles. 

Challenges were numerous: the scale of the mural, the exposed nature and height of the site, the need to find suitable materials, and the involvement of stakeholders, including an international company unaccustomed to conservation ethics. However, local project involvement reinstated a sense of pride in the community.

An international collaborative partnership to promote the safeguarding and sustainable use of under-recognised yet valuable resources for heritage research.

Over the past three years, the Heritage Sample Archives Initiative (HSAI) has worked to enhance the recognition, preservation, access and use of heritage sample archives through promoting good practices for their management. Its efforts have led to the development of a searchable online register for sample archives, hosted by ICCROM, that will allow organisations to share information about their sample archives, promoting their visibility and use. The presentation shares an international interdisciplinary collaboration driven by the need to address challenges faced by institutions large and small, from high- and low-income countries, concerning the safeguarding and use of heritage sample archives.

The @Rooswijk1740 project is an international collaboration involving Historic England, the Cultural Heritage Agency of The Netherlands, and the contract manager MSDS Marine. Commencing in 2016, the project achieved a significant milestone in November 2023, yet certain aspects remain ongoing.

This presentation will delve into three key collaborative strands, critically assessing them and sharing any valueble lessons learned:

- Collaboration during the excavation: Maritime archaeologists versus conservators?

- Collaboration with specialists, early career professionals, students and volunteers: In at the deep end!

- Collaboration with international partners: Communication across borders and across different cultural approaches.