Examining Object Response at National Gallery Victoria

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is the oldest and most visited gallery in Australia. Founded in 1861, today the NGV holds the most significant collection of art in the region. The Gallery hosts a wide range of international and local artists, exhibitions, programs and events, from contemporary art to major international historic exhibitions, fashion and design, architecture, sound and dance.

Motivated by an interest in reducing energy use across the gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria has adopted broader temperature and relative humidity ranges for the collection environment. This transition from previously narrow conditions to a wider environmental range aligns with recent guidance in the cultural heritage field. While the decision to modify specification is motivated by issues of sustainability, carbon footprint, and environmental impact, this must be accompanied by careful assessment of the resulting impact on the collection.

The NGV and Getty Conservation Institute are collaborating to examine object response during this environmental transition. In addition to visual monitoring of several works in the collection using macrophotography, acoustic emission (AE) monitoring is being carried out on a Flemish retable consisting of carved and polychromed wood and oil paint.

AE monitoring was chosen by the project team because it is very sensitive, capable of operating in harsh environments, and of detecting crack initiation and growth in wooden heritage objects at a microscale.

During 2020, the collaborative project and travel plans drastically shifted due to COVID-19 travel restriction. In-person installation of the AE system by Conservation Institute scientists became unfeasible and led to a reimagining in which practical knowledge on instrument installation, data collection and analysis were shared among colleagues with varying backgrounds.

Once the NGV was able to reopen, the AE system was shipped to Melbourne and installation and initiation of monitoring was carried out by conservators at the NGV with remote training and guidance by Conservation Institute scientists. Details concerning the selection of the most appropriate object for AE monitoring and suggested locations and attachment methods for sensor placement were discussed in a series of online meetings. Through these interactions, the scientists and conservators broadened their roles, with the former becoming more aware of the practical complications when working with art objects, and the latter fully engaged in the technical issues related with AE monitoring. Paradoxically, the inability to maintain specialist roles within the project fostered creativity and developed trust among the team.

The collaboration between NGV and Getty achieved the primary goal of successful collection of AE data on the selected object, which helps to inform and optimize the climate control strategy adopted by the NGV. But equally important were the numerous ancillary benefits from the project: seamless integration of the AE system into the didactic display of the Flemish retable, improved AE training to convey technical information to a non-technical audience, and a 2023 NGV-GCI workshop on AE monitoring to demonstrate the practicality of the technique as an assessment tool for the wider conservation community.

By expanding the traditional roles of conservation scientists and conservators, collaborative projects between remote institutions can similarly expand the possibilities of what can be achieved and deepen the impact on the individuals involved and the field writ large.