Accessing Modern and Contemporary Art Materials Research RICHeS at Tate

Project aims

This project has two key objectives, to expand Tate’s scientific equipment, team and expertise to underpin the broadening of its modern and contemporary art research to better address new art materials and the climate emergency, and to facilitate external access to Tate’s scientific and research resources through the development and trialling of an access request system to be launched in 2026. This will forge new collaborations and approaches to heritage science research and conservation practice within and beyond the museum. Using new scientific equipment for material research, Tate will develop new approaches to collection care to address the changing needs of Tate’s collection and influence conservation practice beyond the institution; contribute to the Heritage Science Data Service to share and protect art collections in the face of the climate emergency; and develop a model to support external access requests to Tate’s heritage science facilities, research and expertise to support UK-wide research goals.

Access and outcomes

Tate’s access offer will be trialled, evaluated and finessed through collaborations with its project partners, the National Trust and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and it will develop ways of employing our suite of portable equipment at Tate sites located outside of London. These case-study trials will facilitate development of guidance and procedures for Tate’s permanent external access offer to be launched in 2026. Enhancing Tate’s analytical and team capacity as well as offering access to external researchers will bring multiple benefits including new queries, knowledge and networks, quickly leading to new collaborative research. Reciprocal access to its project partners and the wider heritage sector will undoubtedly flourish through RICHeS; promoting an open, effective and joined up heritage science and conservation research community.

Context

Excluding the Turner Bequest, 60% of Tate’s collection dates from c.1945, and over the past decade, modern and contemporary art (M&CA) acquisitions have accelerated to over 90% of all works coming into the collection. Tate has embraced and developed expertise in material challenges posed by M&CA through pioneering research into twentieth-century paints, polymers, innovative cleaning science and plastics. As the preservation of our evolving material-based heritage continues to be underpinned by collaborative heritage science, the need to explore and understand artworks containing new, lesser-known, degradable and other novel materials entering collections is becoming increasingly urgent and particularly within the context of the climate emergency.

Project partners

Funder

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council  as part of the Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS) programme which aims to promote excellence in the UK heritage science sector.

This generous grant builds on the two key Capability for Collections grants awarded to Collection Care by AHRC in 2020–22, which transformed the ways heritage science and materials-based research is carried out at Tate. The new awards will enable Tate to better address the challenges posed by the scope of its growing collection, within the wider context of the climate emergency. In addition to the scientific equipment, two conservation science roles will be established in 2026, alongside a framework for requesting access to Tate’s conservation equipment and expertise from external intuitions and researchers. Tate was one of only a handful of institutions to be awarded two grants under this scheme, representing another exciting and transformative opportunity for heritage science and conservation research at Tate where internal and external researchers will be able to discover, visualise and share, leading to new research and greatly enhancing understanding of Tate’s collection.