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The creation of the new John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Conservation Centre at Sir John Soane's Museum is a project of friends and supporters of Sir John Soane's Museum Foundation, based here in the United States.
Once the new center is open and fully functioning in 2012, that is just the beginning. The Soane Foundation is committed to continuing efforts and support for conservation in the years ahead. With over 45,000 objects and items contained with the three houses at Lincoln's Inn Fields, it is an ongoing never ending job and exploration for conservators, curators and students in the field of conservation and care.
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Read more on Conservation at the Soane in our
special issue of our newsletter |
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Photo taken in the temporary conservation space in No. 13
(left to right):
John Bridges, Curatorial Assistant
Helen Dorey, Inspectress and Deputy Director
Jane Wilkinson, Conservator
Clare Kooy-Lister, Consultant Frame Conservator
Lucy Swettenham, Assistant Conservator |
Margaret Schuelein, Paper Conservator,
at work on some of the pictures which will go back in
Mrs Soane's Morning Room. |
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The new Conservation Centre comprises dedicated spaces that provide more than 50% additional space in two adjacent spaces in No. 12. The blueish coloured space is the front studio overlooking the park of Lincoln's Inn Fields, the yellow is the rear studio. The small green box indicates the new elevator which provides access to basement, ground, first and ends at this second floor. The white middle area is No. 13 with the public tour areas including the private apartments and the Model Room. To the right of the dividing walls is No. 14, this not part of the public tour – this area is the Research Library and Adam Study Centre.
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The Soane Foundation posed two questions to the Museum and the conservators to better understand the scope of conservation at the Museum and the work that will be undertaken:
With over 45,000 items in the Museum (30,000 drawings, 7,000 books, 7,500 works of art including building archive), it is not cost effective to send objects which require minor treatments out of the building. It is preferred practice to not have objects leave the security of the building. Treatment in-house reduces the time objects are off display. It is very important that cleaning and repair to objects is done with reference to their settings so that the rooms maintain their visual integrity. With items that do require conservation services provided outside of the museum, those objects must first be assessed in-house and documented prior to any works done, thus the need for on-site work spaces - objects requiring outside specialist services can include sculpture, furniture and oil paintings.
Works on paper – watercolors, drawings, prints, archival material, both framed and unframed and printed books. Museum objects – including plaster casts, architectural models, stone fragments including antique sculpture, carved wood, ceramics, metals.. Conservation within Rooms – cleaning and repairs to the entire museum rooms i.e. the historic painted surfaces. Furniture, Frames and display cases - cleaning, care and review.
In addition to the above, the in-house conservators undertake the following responsibilities: Monitoring and Controlling – light, temperature and relative humidity levels in the whole museum; Preventative environmental measures – including pest management and control of dirt ingress; Disaster planning – establishing and maintaining disaster response equipment; Conservation housekeeping – setting up and managing a regime of routine conservation cleaning which involves training and supervising the warding staff in daily care of the public spaces. Also planning and running a systematic program of "deep cleaning" of the museum rooms (comprehensive surveying and cleaning of rooms and their entire contents); Exhibitions and Loans – assessment, treatment, condition reporting, photography, preparation and wrapping of every item. Works on paper are also mounted and framed in the conservation Centre; Numbering objects – a systematic program of numbering all museum objects and furniture with a modern reversible number; Record keeping – Conservators write comprehensive reports on every object which undergoes treatment of any kind. |
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