Anna Plowden Trust News

Raising the Profile of Conservation

Grants for raising the profile of successful conservation projects were awarded in 2007 to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and in 2006 to the Royal Armouries, Leeds.

1: The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
In 2007 the Trust awarded a further grant for raising the profile of conservation to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. This was to support the exhibition of A Passport to the Egyptian After-Life. The Book of the Dead of Ramose, a high official who lived around 1200 BC, was discovered in an Egyptian tomb in 1922. The papyrus is densely covered in text and numerous painted scenes that are of the highest artistic quality and full of minute colourful detail. The representations
of birds are especially lively and show a complex and subtle use of the small palette of colours available to the Egyptian painter. The conservator’s painstaking work transformed the state of the material: instead of thousands of tiny fragments kept in paper folders it is now possible to view logically ordered sections of a beautifully illustrated and inscribed roll, which is estimated to have been more than 20 metres long. Stored between sheets of glass it can be safely handled and therefore made available not just to papyrologists but to audiences of all kinds.

The grant from the Trust supported the virtual exhibition, which was available on the museum’s website, and enabled visitors not
only to see the exhibition but to learn how it was conserved. Applications for grants to assist with raising the profile of conservation can be made at any time by contacting Penelope Plowden whose address is at the end of the newsletter.

2: The Royal Armouries Museum
The second Anna Plowden Trust grant for raising the profile of conservation with the general public was awarded in 2006 to the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds. The grant related to the museum’s Conservation in Action project, which was based on the conservation and recording of the 2,575 objects that make up the display in the Hall of Steel. This is the heart of the museum and forms a giant staircase connecting the museum galleries, the walls of which are decorated with displays of arms and armour.

Difficulties of access made regular maintenance problematic and many of the objects were suffering from corrosion and needing extensive cleaning and re-labelling. Rather than conduct this work behind the scenes, it was felt it was an ideal opportunity to give visitors a glimpse of conservation in action. All the items were removed from the Hall of Steel and treated within an exhibition space by the museum’s team of
conservators, helped by volunteers from conservation courses. The conservation work was on public view and a conservator was
available to answer visitors’ questions and talk to the public on a range of subjects such as the impact of different environments on metals. The funding from the Trust went towards the production of materials that enabled the visitors to get a feel for and learn basic conservation techniques. This included the production of metal cut outs in various stages of corrosion for students to clean in order to learn about the effect of water and air on metals and basic conservation techniques.

 

Fundraising and Donations

Since the Trust started its activities in 1999, it has distributed nearly a quarter of a million pounds in grants in support of its programmes. We have assisted around 70 students to train in conservation skills in some of the leading British conservation training institutions by contributing towards their tuition fees. We have assisted over 50 working conservators to add to or update their skills through attendance at short courses or conferences in the UK and overseas. Some of this has been in support of teachers, thereby multiplying the impact of the training received. We have also funded a one year internship at the Victoria and Albert Museum, awarded four prizes for innovation in conservation, provided financial help to support the convergence of the UK professional conservation bodies and initiated a programme to publicise successful conservation projects.

The Trust’s activities are funded entirely from donations, initially from Anna’s friends and family. To continue our work we need on-going funding. We would welcome contributions from you to one of the specific programmes listed on this page or towards our activities as a whole. Any amount is welcome and will help directly towards developing conservation skills and awareness. For example, our grants have included a sum of less than £100 to help a conservator attend a training course, £3,000 to assist with fees for a full-time conservation qualification and £11,000 for a year’s internship at a national museum. Donations are not used for the Trust’s running costs (which are minimal).

If you would like to make a donation, please send a cheque made payable to the Anna Plowden Trust, to Francis Plowden, 4 Highbury Road, London SW19 7PR. You might also consider remembering the Trust’s work in your will.

info@annaplowdentrust.org.uk
www.annaplowdentrust.org.uk