Faces in Focus: Equipping the National Portrait Gallery's New Conservation Laboratory for Photography, Works on Paper and Miniatures

聚焦面孔：为国家肖像画廊新的摄影、纸上作品和细密画保护实验室配备装备

• 批准号: AH/X01018X/1
• 负责人: Alexandra Gent
• 金额: $ 21.14万
• 依托单位: National Portrait Gallery
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX01018X%2F1
• 关键词: Faces; Focus; Equipping; National; Portrait

The National Portrait Gallery was founded in 1856 with the aim of promoting through the medium of portraiture the appreciation and understanding of the people who have made and are making British history and culture, and of promoting the appreciation and understanding of portraiture in all media. This specialised focus has shaped the development of the institution and its collection, and the Gallery now holds the largest collection of portraits in the world. An Independent Research Organisation (IRO), the Gallery's creative research culture has enabled the collections to be used to examine questions of identity, history, achievement, citizenship, and artistic methods and materials, working with partners across the GLAM and HEI sectors. These partnerships include people from all stages of their research careers, ranging from Professors to student groups that are invited for teaching sessions into the Gallery's research spaces and the Collaborative Doctoral Studentships that Gallery staff develop and co-supervise. Partners also regularly include creative practitioners, such as designers, developers and writers, as well as the artists with whom the Gallery works through its commissioning programme and the annual international portrait competitions. Taken together, these amplify the Gallery's impact on the UK's cultural economy far beyond the footprint of the Gallery's London site, online presence, and the National and International programme.Within the Gallery's holdings, three areas of the Collection are comparatively understudied and therefore investment in research capability would offer a particular opportunity: the Photographs collection of more than 250,000 works; the nearly 100,000 works on paper held within the Primary, Reference and Archive collections; and the more than 2,500 Miniatures. Currently these can only be examined by researchers in the shared spaces of the Painting Conservation Studio, the Framing Studio or the Public Study Room of the Library and Archive. Lack of specialised equipment and a dedicated space has meant that technical analysis and conservation have had to be outsourced to external contractors, with recent projects ranging from the analysis of negatives in order to inform decisions for their safe storage and long-term care, to the treatment of a number of Lucian Freud's sketchbooks, which the artist bequeathed to the Gallery. The costs associated with undertaking research in this way, and the complexity of moving works for analysis, have undeniably restricted the Gallery's research capacity in relation to these internationally significant collections. However, the Gallery's transformative Inspiring People project, due for completion in 2023, has instigated a step-change in relation to the display and management of these collections. More works have been integrated into the new displays, and specialised gallery spaces have been created to explore the 'Making' of Photographs, Prints, Drawings and Miniatures. At the same time, the building project has offered the opportunity to create a dedicated Conservation Laboratory for Photographs, Works on Paper and Miniatures for the first time, and to refurbish the Negative Store. It is within this context that the Gallery seeks funding to purchase analytical equipment that will optimise the Gallery's research capability in relation to these specialist collections.The purchase of FTIR, a Spectrophotometer, a Digital Binocular Microscope, a 3D Microscope and a Portable Extraction Unit would enable the Gallery to develop its in-house expertise in the materials and techniques of Photographs, Negatives, Works on Paper and Miniatures, and thereby to instigate and support new research projects. Funding from CResCa would be complemented by the Gallery's commitment to investment in staff capacity through the recruitment of specialist conservators in Works on Paper and Photography in core staff for the first time.

国家肖像画廊成立于1856年，目的是通过肖像画的媒介促进对制造并创造英国历史和文化的人们的欣赏和理解，并在所有媒体中促进对肖像画的欣赏和理解。这个专业的重点塑造了该机构及其收藏的发展，现在，画廊拥有世界上最大的肖像集合。画廊的创造性研究文化是一个独立的研究组织（IRO），使这些收藏可以用于研究身份，历史，成就，公民身份以及艺术方法和材料的问题，并与Glam和Hei领域的合作伙伴一起工作。这些合作伙伴关系包括研究职业的各个阶段的人们，从教授到学生团体不等，这些人被邀请到画廊的研究场所教授课程以及画廊工作人员发展和共同审议的协作博士生资格。合作伙伴还定期包括创意从业人员，例如设计师，开发人员和作家，以及画廊通过其调试计划和年度国际肖像竞赛的艺术家。综上所述，这些放大了画廊对英国的文化经济的影响远远超出了画廊的伦敦网站，在线形象以及国家和国际计划的范围。在画廊的控股中，该集合的三个领域是相对研究的，因此对研究能力进行了投资，提供了一项特定的机会：图片收集了250,000多个工作；在初级，参考和档案收藏中举行的近100,000件作品；以及超过2500个缩影。目前，只能由研究人员在绘画保护工作室，框架工作室或图书馆和档案馆的公共学习室的共享空间中进行检查。缺乏专业设备和专门的空间意味着必须将技术分析和保护必须外包给外部承包商，最近的项目从否定性分析到为了确定其安全的存储和长期护理的决定，到对许多Lucian Freud的素描簿的处理，艺术家将其遗赠给了画廊。以这种方式进行研究以及移动作品进行分析的复杂性相关的成本无疑限制了画廊与这些国际意义重大收藏有关的研究能力。但是，该画廊的变革性鼓舞人心的人项目将于2023年完成，该项目煽动了与这些收藏的展示和管理有关的逐步变化。已将更多的作品集成到新展示中，并创建了专门的画廊空间来探索照片，印刷品，图纸和缩影的“制作”。同时，该建筑项目提供了机会，为第一次创建专门的照片，纸上和缩影作品，并翻新负面商店。 It is within this context that the Gallery seeks funding to purchase analytical equipment that will optimise the Gallery's research capability in relation to these specialist collections.The purchase of FTIR, a Spectrophotometer, a Digital Binocular Microscope, a 3D Microscope and a Portable Extraction Unit would enable the Gallery to develop its in-house expertise in the materials and techniques of Photographs, Negatives, Works on Paper and Miniatures, and thereby to instigate并支持新的研究项目。通过招募专业保管员在纸质和摄影工作的核心员工中招募专业保管员对员工产能的投资的承诺将得到补充。