Preventive

Two women enclose a paper-wrapped object in a plastic bag to undergo preventative conservation

About

The Preventive Conservation team’s aim is to preserve all works of art by controlling the environment in which they are displayed, stored and transported. This includes maintaining appropriate temperature and humidity levels despite outside fluctuations, managing light exposure, controlling pests and protecting works from other forms of physical damage.

Preventive conservation comes in at all stages. It includes implementing stringent procedures for storage and exhibition. It includes environmental monitoring and stabilisation. It includes disaster preparedness for the collection. And it includes sharing knowledge with and assisting regional and other galleries when works from the collection are on loan.

Related

Feature

Conserving bark paintings

Indigenous bark painting of central vertical waterlily plant with bulb, leaves and flower surrounded by catfish, tortoise, diver ducks

The National Gallery Conservation Department explores looking after bark paintings through unique technique and materiality.

Read Time: 11 minutes
Article

Prints, pigments & poison
Conserving the vibrant works by Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme

Print of children wearing green and black playing tug of war

Andrea Wise, Senior Conservator, Paper, explains the conservation preparation for the Spowers & Syme exhibition.

Read Time: 8 minutes
Art Talks /  Audio

Caring for your art collection with Lisa Addison

Five people are watching a demonstration given by a woman in a painting storage area.

Published 26 April 2024

Lisa Addison (Preventative Conservator) provides a talk about conservation at the National Gallery and how to look after works of art in your home.

Audio Tour
35 mins
Feature

The Rajah Quilt – 1841

Detail of Rajah Quilt Script reading " "TO THE LADIES/of the /Convict ship Committee/This quilt worked by the convicts/of the the Ship Rajah during their voyage/to van Diemans Land is presented as a/testimony of the gratitude with which/they remember their exertions for their/welfare while in England and during/their passage and also as a proof that/they have not neglected the Ladies/kind admonitions of being industrious/June 1841"

The conservation team explore the Rajah Quilt's story of hope and persistence

Read Time: 8 minutes
Article

Conserving a crazy patchwork quilt

Quilt consisting of nine squares containing patchwork, surrounded by a green border.

Michelle Hunter details the conservation treatment of the crazy patchwork 'Quilt' made by sisters Constance and May Bright.

Read Time: 12 minutes
Q&A

Ask a Conservator: 2020
#AskaConservator

A team of conservators in the conservation lab

Our conservators have answered some of the questions you posed on 2020 Ask a Conservator Day.

Read Time: 18 minutes
Art Talks /  Audio

Micheline Ford on A Century of Quilts

Published 04 May 2024

Join Micheline Ford (Senior Conservator, Textiles) to learn about the conservation of quilts housed in the national collection.

Audio Tour
44 mins
Australian Art /  Video

British makers on board the Rajah en route to Hobart 'The Rajah quilt'

Published 16 December 2010

The Rajah Quilt is one of Australia's important early textiles made by women convicts on the ship Rajah en route from England to Van Diemens land.

2 minutes
Q&A

Meet a conservator
Alysha Redston, Time-Based Media Conservator

Portrait of Alysha Redston, Conservator, Time Based Media standing in front of Rebecca Horn's Les Amants [The lovers] 1991

Meet the National Gallery's first Time-Based Media Conservator

Read Time: 12 minutes
Australian Art /  Video

Behind the scenes: Photographing our Linda Jackson collection

A video still of a woman examining clothes on a mannequin

Published 28 September 2020

Take a peek behind the scenes of photographing Linda Jackson's collection for display in the Know My Name Exhibition.

38 seconds