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International conferences

 

The Gabo Trust welcomes applications for grants from conservators of modern and contemporary sculpture to assist them in attending  ICOM-CC Triennial Conference: 14 - 18 September 2020 in China “Transcending Boundaries: Integrated Approaches to Conservation”.
The conference organisers aim to bring together conservation professionals from both East and West to exchange and discuss knowledge, traditions and skills in order to learn from each other’s practices, philosophies and materials. This will be the first time ICOM-CC goes to “zhōng guó”, 中国 (the Middle Country) for a  conference on conservation. 

 

(above: detail from chip filling workshop, attended by Brenda Keneghan 
© J. Paul Getty Trust.)

'Surfaces': FutureTalks019 in Munich, November 2019

The Gabo Trust grant aided Brenda Keneghan from the V&A and Myriam Lavoie, a freelance sculpture conservator from Quebec, to attend this conference.

Brenda Keneghan chaired a session on practical treatments of polymers. She acted as a mentor in the 'speed mentoring' event where attendees could spend 10 minutes with more experienced practitioners. She also attended a practical workshop on repairing scratches and chips on MMA surfaces.

Brenda reported that she found this FutureTalks conference the most informative to date, as much of the research into the treatment of modern materials (especially plastics) was presented, for the first time; and the dialogue between researchers and practitioners helped to hone research. She will endeavour to transmit what she has learnt to her colleagues, far and wide.

Myriam Lavoie, who specialises in conserving public art sculptures in a variety of media, also gained valuable insight and ideas at the conference. She was particularly interested in papers on photogrammetry, which can make a 3D digital map of a very large outdoor sculptural installation, as well as its original maquette. The two maps are overlaid and the result can be used to reproduce, as accurately as possible, a painted surface lost to weathering and successive repainting. 

Miriam intends to make her knowledge gained at FutureTalks019 as useful to as many conservators as possible, particularly her colleagues in Quebec. She is putting together a short document on the papers she heard, to share with them, and will apply to her own work what she learnt during the conference. 

 

LU Arts and Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts awarded Gabo Trust Sculpture Survey grants

A Gabo Trust grant has enabled LU Arts (at Loughborough University) to employ a specialist conservator to carry out a survey of aspects of their modern and contemporary sculpture collection. The project coordinator at LU Arts reported, 'The funding provided by the Gabo Trust has played a hugely important role in the ongoing process of restoring this collection to its rightful condition, and to its rightful prominence on the University’s campus and in the University’s institutional reputation... The process has facilitated new avenues of co-operation between LU Arts and Facilities Management, helped raise awareness of the collection across the University more broadly, and resulted in interest and enthusiasm towards [it].'  

The Gabo Trust has awarded Sainsbury Centre a grant towards a sculpture survey of its nationally-important Morris bequest. This survey forms part of a project which will involve skills transferral and the skills development of conservators, including Sainsbury Centre's resident team.

Storage and equipment grants for Leeds Museums and Galleries and Southampton City Art Gallery

Following their Gabo Trust funded Sculpture Survey in 2017, which identified priorities for improving the care and storage of aspects of the collection, Leeds Museums and Galleries have received a Gabo Trust equipment grant for the purchase of stackable Utz plastic containers. This has enabled LMG to rationalise the storage of their models, maquettes and small sculptures; and increase storage capacity.

Southampton City Art Gallery's sculpture survey, funded by the Gabo Trust in 2014, also identified better storage as the main area for improvement. The Trust has now awarded the gallery an equipment grant to fund racking for mid-sized sculptures and crates for larger works.