The Conservation Department (originally called the Restoration Department) was established at the Tate Gallery in 1955 by the restorer Stefan Slabczynski with two craftsmen. It was located in the south-east quadrant basement of the main building in Millbank. A second restorer was appointed in 1956 and with a further appointment in 1958, the department moved into larger premises in the semi-basement of the north-west quadrant adjacent to the inner courtyard, now the site of the Centenary Development.
The Photography Department was established in the vacated area, initially to provide a specialist service for conservation. Two more restorers joined in 1964 and 1965. There were several other restorers who also worked in the department for short periods at this time. When two trainee restorers were taken on in 1968, space in part of an extension on the north-east side of the building was made into an additional studio, until work on building the 1979 extension began.
In the early 1970s Stefan Slabczynski was re-graded from Chief Restorer to Keeper of Conservation and the Craftsmen to Museum Technicians, who worked mainly on frames. It was in the late 1970s that Restorers were re-graded as Conservators – the same time that Assistant Keepers and Research Assistants were re-graded as Curators.
To deal with the increasing expansion and activities of the Gallery more posts were established, including the first specialist paper conservator, Kasia Szeleynski, who took up her position in 1971. At this time there was a serious shortage of skilled conservators and on the initiative of the Tate’s then Director, Sir Norman Reid, the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery sent a paper to the Government putting the case for a central institute for training in the Conservation of Works of Art. As a response was slow in coming, the Tate and the National joined with the V&A in putting forward a provisional scheme for training a small number of conservators in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute of Art. Finally, with the support of the Gulbenkian Foundation's report on 'Training in the Conservation of Paintings', the Courtauld was elevated to a Central Training Institute and a joint training scheme established.
In 1975, it was found that the floors of the Conservation Department were gradually subsiding. An immediate evacuation took place to the nearby lower galleries and a room near the coffee shop for paper conservation. This coincided with the retirement of Stefan Slabczynski and the appointments of Alexander Dunluce as his successor and department’s first full-time administrator. (It is interesting to note here that at this time there was only ONE photocopier for use by the whole gallery and no computers). The floors of the old department were strengthened and the area became the paper conservation studios which, due to the rapidly growing print and archive departments, required more space and staff. Additional paper conservators and the first paper conservation technician were appointed.
The department, except the paper section, moved again in 1979 into purpose-built accommodation where Frames and Paintings Conservation are still housed today (now known as the Conservation Tower), and the number of staff increased again. This new space was part of the 1979 extension to the Gallery, which also included new accommodation for the Photographic Department and additional stores.
In the late 1980s, the student scheme run in conjunction with the Courtauld Institute had to be ended due to the Tate’s increasing workload, especially with the opening of Tate Gallery Liverpool in 1988. However, the department continued, and still does continue, its active internship programme in all sections in order to provide opportunities for recently qualified conservators to gain museum experience.
The growing need for sculpture conservation was addressed in 1984 with the appointment of Derek Pullen who was tasked with planning and developing a dedicated sculpture conservation section. This was set up, with substantial financial help from the Henry Moore Foundation, in part of the former Queen Alexandra Military Hospital building (QAMH) on Millbank which houses various Tate departments. Up to this time, the paintings conservators had dealt with sculptures where they could, sometimes with help from sculptors, their assistants and the V&A’s sculpture conservators. Another venture that started in the mid 1980s was the development of the Frames Conservation section under John Anderson.
New accommodation was built for paper conservation as part of the Clore Gallery which opened in 1987. This was particularly necessary as 20,000 works on paper by JMW Turner were transferred to the Tate from the British Museum and consequently additional staff were also recruited. The old paper conservation studios were used for the expansion of frame conservation.
The Conservation Science section started in 1987 when the Leverhulme Trust funded Joyce Townsend to carry out a four year PhD research project on Turner's painting technique. A second Leverhulme funded PhD research project, a study of modern paint media, was begun in 1993 by Tom Learner. On completion of their projects, both conservation scientists stayed on as permanent members of staff. The research programme continues in association with other institutions and organisations under Stephen Hackney, now Head of Conservation Science and Research.
Under restructuring that took place at the end of the 1980s, Alexander Dunluce became Director of the new division called Collection Services. In 1995 one floor of the Conservation Tower was taken over for use as the 'Art Now' space so Conservation Science, administration (now with more staff), the department’s library and meeting room were relocated to the QAMH site. It was in this year that Jim France succeeded Alexander Dunluce on the latter's retirement and Roy Perry became Head of Conservation. Two years later Piers Townshend was promoted to Head of Paper Conservation when Kasia Szeleynski retired.
In 1998, due to the Centenary Development, the Painting Conservation Technicians lost their machine workshop and Frames Conservation their accommodation. The technicians were relocated to new facilities at the Tate stores in South London and Frames Conservation moved into the technicians' former workshops in the tower.
With the emergence of Tate Galleries at Liverpool and St Ives, additional conservators were appointed in the early 1990s to take on specific responsibility for these sites. Most recently, new posts have been established to provide conservators for Tate Modern which opened in May 2000. They are based mainly at Tate Modern and the stores, along with the recently created posts of Sculpture Conservators for Time based Media.
February 2007
