Preparing Preston and Fungi on Film – A Graduate Conservator Project Update
Tessa Corton, Graduate Conservator, continues a series of blog posts from the Graduate Conservators at Brighton & Hove Museums.
Preston Manor Light Monitoring
The long-awaited reopening of Preston Manor was finally realised at the beginning of April. This was a massive undertaking for many teams at Brighton & Hove Museums, as the whole visitor experience was refreshed with a new narrative. My latest project is but a small part in understanding how the reopening will impact the building and collections.
When redeveloping exhibition spaces, conservation is key to ensuring collections are kept safe whilst being displayed effectively. This is especially important when considering something as mundane as light.
Light fading is cumulative, irreversible, and can be catastrophic. It can be managed by changing the light source (sunlight with ultraviolet (UV) light is more damaging than LED), avoiding direct light, and removing especially vulnerable objects from bright rooms.
The Conservation team have been working hard to move the more vulnerable items from the brightest rooms and replace sensitive works on paper with facsimiles. Now these measures are in place, I am monitoring the degree of light fading across the manor over the inaugural opening year.
The blue wool dosimeter is a simple tool which gives a clear visual representation of the impact of light. Each of the eight shades of blue is designed to fade exponentially after certain levels of accrued light exposure.
This means the second most light sensitive will fade with twice the amount of light exposure as the most sensitive but in half of the third. After a year, they will be analysed to determine how much colour change has occurred and is the change deemed acceptable.
Conservation is not about stopping change, only managing it.
The dosimeters needed to be carefully positioned around the manor. By working closely with programming, I decided that the rooms where blinds, curtains, and shutters were to be opened when they weren’t previously were the priority.
Whilst some dosimeters are monitoring specific objects, like costumes, the majority are representative of the room. Some rooms have multiple dosimeters, such as the Macquoid Room and Mrs Stanford’s bedroom. There are placed facing different light sources and at varying distances to explore how light levels and fading varies across the room.
I wanted the dosimeters to be as unintrusive as possible, so as not to disrupt the visitor experience.
It is hoped this will also deter people from moving them. Great care was taken to colour match the specially constructed frames with their surroundings and design them to be easily integrated within the room.
Some are attached to objects, whilst others are designed like picture frames. The latter I deemed preferable as the risk of damage when removing the dosimeters is less, although the chance of them changing position is greater. They are therefore checked regularly to ensure they have not moved.
This project has now been implemented and is in the data collection stage. It will be revisited in a year when the analysis can begin.
Process of frame construction including colour matching and attaching to panelling in the Macquoid Room
Hove Attic Mould Remediation
As described in my last post on mould, the Hove Attic remediation project has now begun. It has been divided into phases based on the capacity of the temporary storage space used for cleaning and the additional work required. The first stage is near completion.
The contents of the first room were decanted to a temporary storage location where they were cleaned of mould, using brushes under vacuum extraction, and repackaged.
Thankfully, most of the mould was inactive, which we could tell by its dull dry appearance compared to white, fluffy, fresh mould. Under certain conditions however, it could reactivate and continue to be detrimental to the collection. Mould causes staining and disfiguration as well as inhibiting handling and display.
Intriguingly, mould was primarily found on metal and plastic elements of projectors rather than on organic materials such as textiles or paper which could be found in the contemporary craft collection.
This is at odds to what was expected. It is likely mould was growing on dust or other soiling on objects rather than the objects themselves.
This work was completed with the help of a volunteer from the University of Brighton who is currently undertaking the Curating Collections and Heritage MA, Íris Guðbjargardóttir.
Íris Guðbjargardóttir
“I’m Íris and I’m currently on a study leave from Reykjavík City Museum in Iceland to reconnect with the latest research in museology and museum practice. Volunteering on this project has given me added insight into conservation and a valuable work experience for the future.
The most exciting objects that we have uncovered were boxes of chromolithographic [multicoloured print] magic lantern slides in the Junior Lecturers’ Series manufactured at the turn of the 20th century. I will be exploring this series for my MA dissertation, so the placement truly has become a source of inspiration”
Once the mould was removed from the objects, we were presented with the opportunity to conduct a deeper clean of dust and other soiling. There were some items which had not been affected by mould but were still in a less-than desirable condition. As dust obscures detail and attracts moisture which can lead to additional problems like mould growth, it was decided it was best to clean them before they returned to Hove.
Now that cleaning and repackaging of the first room is complete, I am working on the logistics of returning the objects to Hove and preparing for the decant of the second room with Íris. Additional temporary storage spaces have been prepared at Hove which will allow for improvements to be made to the existing attic stores. At the end of the project, the stores will be reorganised to improve access and minimise the risk of mould reoccurring.
I have recently begun to clean the silver-gilt in the banqueting room with my fellow graduate conservator Dominic. As well as my project work, I am continuing with collections care across the sites and preparing for the reopening of the Central Gallery at Brighton Museum.
Updates to the progress of Graduate Conservator projects will follow throughout the year.
The next blog will be from Dominic Oakes regarding cleaning silverware and updates to the costume store project. Revisit his previous post The Mould Wears Prada for an introduction to his projects.