Project aims
The overall aim of Tate’s RICHeS Collections project is to scope, design, establish and render discoverable the Tate Conservation and Heritage Science Archive (CHSA) for the first time. This will be realised via two technology platforms: The Museum System collections database and a new heritage science data platform Arches for Science (AfS), which is an open-source tool aimed at enabling the secure retrieval, visualisation, comparison and sharing of heritage science and project data, supported by the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles.
Winsor and Newton oil paint swatches from 1947 in visible and UV light
Access and outcomes
Tate’s access offer will be trialled and finessed with its key case study heritage partner, the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, across the project period. This will help define and establish external discoverability of these collections with pathways developed for requesting access for external researchers in 2026, to be supported by the new RICHeS Scientist role. This resource will promote deeper looking into the body of existing heritage science and technical information held by Tate on the UK’s collection of British as well as modern and contemporary art, resulting in new queries, research ideas and national and international collaborations.
This project will evolve Tate’s approach to heritage and conservation science research, contributing to ongoing and new research ambitions and strengthening Tate’s participation in the European CAMA (Consortium for the Research of Artists’ Materials Archives) network. During the project, Tate will contribute data to the Heritage Science Data Research Service and determine priorities for follow-on funding to continue to make our rich research collections available for Tate and the wider heritage science and conservation research communities.Context and objectives
Context and objectives
The Conservation and Heritage Science Archive (CHSA) consists of two collections – made up of physical items and born digital information. The physical collection includes Tate’s existing Conservation Archive, overseen by Conservation Science for decades, and other collections such as its modern paint tubes, synthetic organic pigment collection, samples created within research projects and over 15,000 samples removed from works of art to date. The paper-based and born digital collection consists of four decades of files and reports from the analysis and imaging of Tate artworks and research projects, which are currently not usefully organised, searchable or shareable. These two inter-connected collections will be aggregated for the first time within these two technology platforms, where they will form searchable databases.
Project partner
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.
