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

国家肖像画廊成立于1856年，其目的是通过肖像画的媒介促进对那些创造和正在创造英国历史和文化的人的欣赏和理解，并促进所有媒体对肖像画的欣赏和理解。这种专门的关注塑造了该机构及其收藏的发展，该画廊现在拥有世界上最大的肖像收藏。作为一个独立的研究机构（IRO），画廊的创造性研究文化使其藏品能够用于研究身份，历史，成就，公民身份以及艺术方法和材料等问题，与GLAM和HEI部门的合作伙伴合作。这些伙伴关系包括来自他们研究生涯各个阶段的人，从教授到被邀请参加画廊研究空间教学会议的学生团体，以及画廊工作人员开发和共同监督的合作博士生。合作伙伴还包括创意从业者，如设计师、开发商和作家，以及通过委托计划和年度国际肖像比赛与画廊合作的艺术家。总的来说，这些都放大了画廊对英国文化经济的影响，远远超出了画廊在伦敦的网站，在线存在以及国内和国际项目的足迹。在画廊的藏品中，有三个领域的藏品研究相对不足，因此投资研究能力将提供一个特别的机会：超过25万件作品的摄影集；主要馆藏、参考馆藏和档案馆藏中近10万件纸质作品；以及超过2500个微型模型。目前，这些作品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自习室的共享空间进行研究。由于缺乏专门的设备和专门的空间，技术分析和保护不得不外包给外部承包商，最近的项目包括分析底片，以便为他们的安全储存和长期护理提供信息，以及处理卢西恩弗洛伊德的一些素描本，这些素描本是艺术家遗赠给画廊的。以这种方式进行研究的相关成本，以及移动作品进行分析的复杂性，无疑限制了画廊与这些国际重要藏品有关的研究能力。然而，该画廊的变革性“鼓舞人心”项目（Inspiring People project）将于2023年完成，它在这些藏品的展示和管理方面引发了一个阶段性的变化。更多的作品被整合到新的展览中，并创建了专门的画廊空间来探索照片，版画，绘画和微缩模型的“制作”。与此同时，该建筑项目提供了第一次为照片、纸上作品和微缩模型创建专门的保存实验室的机会，并翻新了底片商店。正是在这种背景下，美术馆寻求资金购买分析设备，以优化美术馆与这些专业藏品相关的研究能力。购买FTIR，分光光度计，数码双目显微镜，3D显微镜和便携式提取装置将使画廊能够发展其在照片，底片，纸上作品和微缩模型的材料和技术方面的内部专业知识，从而激发和支持新的研究项目。除了从CResCa获得的资金外，画廊还将首次在核心员工中招聘纸上作品和摄影作品的专业修复师，从而承诺对员工能力进行投资。

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.