THE PILGRIM TRUST CONSERVATION AWARDS 2002

Our cultural heritage is irreplaceable. Buildings and collections provide enormous pleasure and enlighten us about our past. People value them highly. Yet our heritage is a fragile resource, made of perishable materials in a hostile environment. Individual artefacts, museum collections, historic buildings which house collections, and the contents of libraries and archives all depend for their well-being and survival on active policies for conservation, restoration and prevention of future decay.

Central to these challenges are the skills of conservation. Conservators not only ensure the long-term future of items, but also use their scientific, technological, aesthetic and historical knowledge to ensure that the stories hidden within artefacts are revealed to a wide audience, and that images and meaning are made intelligible.

The Conservation Awards, generously sponsored by the Pilgrim Trust, and supported by English Heritage, the National Preservation Office, Resource and the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, focus public attention on the skills of conservation professionals in the UK by celebrating excellence in conservation and restoration projects. An additional sponsor this year is the Anna Plowden Trust, with a new award recognising the importance of research and innovation in preserving and understanding the heritage.

This year
This is the seventh year of the Conservation Awards.

There will be three categories of entry for the 2002 Conservation Awards:

• The Award for Conservation, worth £15,000
• The Student Conservator of the Year Award, worth £10,000, with £5,000 being awarded to the student and £5,000 to the training institution
• The Anna Plowden Trust Award for Research and Innovation in Conservation, worth £2,000

The awards will be presented at a high-profile ceremony to be held at the British Library on the evening of 12 November 2002. All short-listed entrants will be invited to attend the ceremony. A rotating image of the Trophy can be seen here.

THE AWARD FOR CONSERVATION
This Award celebrates excellence in completed conservation or restoration projects in museums, galleries, historic buildings, libraries or archives.

What is the Award for?

• the Award is made for a project judged to be the best of those submitted
• to be eligible, projects may focus on the conservation of individual items or collections, on the decorative elements or fixtures associated with a historic building, or on monuments and sculptures, or
• they can be projects to improve the environment in which a collection is housed
• projects must be accessible to the public in the UK
• projects must be completed between 31 January 2001 and 28 February 2002

Who is eligible to apply?

• Conservators or teams working in the public or private sectors. The application must be supported by the organisation(s) which commissioned the work.

THE STUDENT CONSERVATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD
This Award highlights the achievements of students and the high standards of UK conservation training courses.

What is the Award for?
The Award is for the conservation project judged to be the best of those completed during training, between 31 January 2001 and 30 April 2002.

Who is eligible to apply?
Current students, 2000/01 graduates, or trainees or interns based at a UK institution. Entrants should be authorised by course tutors or trainees' supervisors. Applications from students will be automatically considered in this category.

Criteria for assessment for the Award for Conservation and the Student Conservator of the Year Award
In entering projects for these Awards, applicants should be able to demonstrate the following features, as appropriate:

• exemplary and innovative conservation work, which may influence future practice
• communication of the conservation project to the wider community
• evidence that conservation has increased and/or improved the quality of access to the item, collection or building
• high quality of collaboration with clients and professional colleagues.

Other factors which will be taken into account as appropriate are:

• project planning and management
• documentation and clarity of methodology
• cost-effectiveness.

THE ANNA PLOWDEN TRUST AWARD FOR RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN CONSERVATION
The Anna Plowden Trust Award recognises the achievements of those involved in conservation research, development and application.

What is the award for?
The award is for the best completed programme of research or development aimed at furthering the practice of conservation. This may relate to materials, equipment, systems or techniques for improved conservation and collection care, and could be for examination, analysis, treatment or monitoring. The work must have been accepted for publication or put on the market in the UK between 31 January 2001 and 28 February 2002.

Who is eligible to apply?
Scientists, conservators, designers, manufacturers or suppliers based in public or commercial sector laboratories, studios or workshops. The application should be made by the head of the laboratory or studio, or manager/director of the company. In the case of joint initiatives, the application must be supported by the co-operating organisations. Projects which are primarily aimed at analytical investigation, with only minimal conservation content or implications, are not eligible.

Criteria for assessment for the Anna Plowden Trust Award for Research and Innovation
In assessing projects submitted for this Award, the judges will be looking for some or all of the following features:

• wider benefit to the conservation of heritage
• excellence in experimental technique, imaginative investigations, innovative solutions, resourcefulness
• extent of potential uptake and wider application
• revelations or discoveries
• quality of collaboration with clients and others
• good documentation, clarity of methodology and presentation
• training benefits and applications
• enhancement of public understanding and appreciation
• cost-effectiveness.

Timetable and Judging
The applications procedure has been changed this year. Entrants for the Award for Conservation and the Anna Plowden Trust Award should submit a short application by 29 March 2002 (see "How to apply" below for details). These will be sifted and considered for short-listing by the Conservation Awards Screening Panel and the Anna Plowden Trust. Only short-listed candidates will be asked for full details of their projects. All short-listed candidates for the Award for Conservation and the Anna Plowden Trust Award will be informed in late April and asked to submit full details of their projects by 31 May 2002.

For the Student Conservator of the Year Award, full applications should be submitted by 31 May 2002. There will be no intermediate application stage for this award. Short-listed candidates for the Student Conservator of the Year Award will be chosen by the Conservation Awards Screening Panel and informed in June.

Members of the Judging Panel will visit all the short-listed projects during June/July in order to meet those involved and see the outcome of the projects at first hand.

Conditions of application

• the work must have been carried out in the UK
• the project must have been completed, or in the case of the Anna Plowden Trust Award, accepted for publication or put on the market, between 31 January 2001 and 28 February 2002
• student projects must have been completed during training between 31 January 2001 and 30 April 2002
• joint applications from conservators or others working in collaboration are acceptable
• applications may be made for both the Award for Conservation and the Anna Plowden Trust Award
• all applicants should be clearly identified on the application form
• entry material will not normally be returned
• English Heritage, the National Preservation Office, Resource and the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation reserve the right to publicise the projects as submitted
• all award-winners and short-listed applicants will receive a certificate
• a trophy will be presented to the winner of the Award for Conservation and the Student Conservator of the Year. A rotating image of the Trophy can be seen here.
• the decisions of the Judges are final.

HOW TO APPLY

(i) The Award for Conservation and the Anna Plowden Trust Award
If you are applying for the Award for Conservation and/or the Anna Plowden Trust Award for Research and Innovation in Conservation, please print off and complete the printer-friendly application form provided and enclose a project description of no more than 500 words or two A4 sides. This should make clear how far the project meets the criteria for the award(s) applied for, which are set out above. Any application which fails to do this will not be considered for inclusion in the short-list. Two photographs (not slides) illustrating the project must also be sent with the application.

Closing date
Please send your completed application form, plus the project description and photographs, to arrive no later than 29 March 2002, to UKIC (Awards), 109 The Chandlery, 50 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7QY.

Electronic applications
This year it is also possible to apply electronically for the Award for Conservation and/or the Anna Plowden Trust Award for Research and Innovation in Conservation. The on-line version of the application form, together with full instructions, is available here.

(ii) The Student Conservator of the Year Award
If you are applying for the Student Conservator of the Year Award, you should complete the application form and ensure that you have enclosed the following information before returning the form:

• application form, counter-signed by the course tutor or supervisor
• general project description of no more than 500 words or two A4 sides
• up to ten images, on slide, CD-ROM, disk or video. Slides should be labelled, numbered and described on a separate sheet with a one-sentence explanation, and submitted in a clear A4 holder
• a letter of authorisation and support from any outside organisation or individual involved in the project

Please note that original objects should not be sent. Further supporting documentation may be included and will be made available to the Judging Panel if necessary:

• other visual material - photographs, drawings, diagrams, videos etc.
• technical details of no more than 2,000 words or 4 A4 sides

Closing date
Please send the completed application form and accompanying material to: UKIC (Awards), 109 The Chandlery, 50 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7QY, to arrive no later than 31 May 2002.

Any questions?
If you have any queries, or would like further information, please contact the Awards Co-ordinator by telephone or fax on 020-7326-0995 or by e-mail to: [email protected]

Recent Award-winners

Award for Conservation 2000: Hanna Conservation and Martin Stancliffe. Investigations into the causes of deterioration of carvings of leaves and animals in the 13th-century Chapter House, Southwell Minster, used as the basis for a new approach to long-term preservation.

Award for Conservation 1999: Virginia Neal and Wiltshire County Council. A collaborative project to conserve a fragile Bronze Age shield found at South Cadbury and put it on public display.

Award for Conservation 1998: Keith Barley. Conservation of historic stained glass windows in St. Mary the Virgin Church, Fairford.

Student Conservator of the Year 2000: Mamiko Matsumura, Southampton University Textile Conservation Centre. Development of a simple test to detect harmful fumes given off by 19th and early 20th-century costume accessories, enabling them to be stored and preserved effectively.

Student Conservator of the Year 1999: Laura Jane Davies, RCA/V&A joint course. Investigation into the process of manufacturing cuir bouilli leather and development of improved conservation techniques for objects made by this process.

Student Conservator of the Year 1998: Victoria Purewal, National Museum and Galleries of Wales. Analysis of pesticide residues present on herbarium sheets in the National Museum and Galleries of Wales.

The Application Form
You can download the Application Form and accompanying notes as an Acrobat (PDF) file by clicking on the link below. You will need the free Acrobat Reader to view and print this file, which you can download from the Adobe UK Web site if you do not already have it installed on your computer.

Form and Notes (PDF version - 460Kb)

The Application Form alone can be downloaded as a Microsoft Word file by clicking on the link below.

Form only (MS Word version - 37Kb)

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