2014 Yearbook

R E V I E W 17 THE ART OF CONSERVATION DAVID KINCAID The title of the 2014 ihbc Annual School is ‘The Art of Conservation’. The school will seek to rebalance the essential but more practical skills of management and intervention with the thinking and aspirations of ‘educated, artistic people’. The concern is that we have lost sight of our artistic roots, first put forward by William Morris in the 1877 Manifesto of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings: If, for the rest, it be asked us to specify what kind of amount of art, style, or other interest in a building, makes it worth protecting, we answer, anything which can be looked on as artistic, picturesque, historical, antique, or substantial: any work, in short, over which educated, artistic people would think it worthwhile to argue at all. The other articles in this yearbook address this concern by looking at the ‘arts’ of sympathetic intervention, master planning, conservative repair, negotiation in the planning process and lighting the historic townscape. The articles highlight a number of case studies, such as the restoration of Astley Castle in Warwickshire for the Landmark Trust and the lighting of the Walled City of Derry~Londonderry. The themes discussed in the articles inevitably raise the question: ‘Is conservation an art or a science?’ Opinion remains divided. It was Aristotle who first separated subjects into arts and sciences and most modern universities still have distinct faculties of arts and sciences. Of the 19 IHBC-recognised courses in conservation in the UK (see page 85), 13 are designated as science qualifications and four as arts (the two remaining postgraduate diplomas don’t use the ‘art’ or ‘science’ label). To some extent this division is artificial but conservation courses do tend to be seen as science- rather than art-based. Within the IHBC’s eight areas of competence only one, ‘Philosophy’ specifically mentions artistic concerns (‘aesthetic values’). However, the ‘Design and Presentation’ competence would of course also involve art and aesthetics. The emphases of the six remaining competencies have a technical and practical slant rather than an artistic one. This association of conservation with scientific and technical disciplines is rather comforting, as we have objective research and facts to underpin our decisions and advice. Indeed this scientific or technical knowledge is essential when we are considering repairs to heritage assets. Other than vandalism and accidental damage, the environment is the main cause of decay in heritage assets and artworks. Oxygen, air pollutants produced by the burning of fossil fuels, light, changes in temperature and humidity are all responsible for the inevitable decay of artefacts. As soon as an artefact is created it begins to undergo chemical reactions with its environment. In order to intervene and carry out repairs it is necessary to understand how the artefact interacts with the environment. Once this is fully understood one can determine what methods to use to halt or prevent its decay. A dramatic new lighting scheme has transformed the walled city of Derry~Londonderry. The project is discussed in Paul Millar’s article on page 32. (Photo: Sammonds Photography)