the value of recognition

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been reflecting on the value of recognition; and in particular, the recognition that arises from awards.  In the heritage conservation sector in NSW, the annual Energy Australia National Trust Heritage Awards are the most prominent; a range of professional organisations include a heritage award within their annual awards (e.g. the Australian Institute of Architects' annual Lachlan Macquarie Award); and an increasing number of local governments hold annual heritage awards.

All of these awards programs have several things in common:

• They promote best practice in heritage conservation
• They recognise and acknowledge the work involved in achieving good heritage conservation outcomes
• They publicise the efforts of owners of heritage items or places, and of the participants in the heritage conservation process

And of course, because awards have to be presented, they usually provide an opportunity for members of the sector to gather together and share experiences.

The catalyst for my reflection on the value of heritage awards was the recognition given to several projects that International Conservation Services has contributed to over the past couple of years at the 2010 Energy Australia National Trust Heritage Awards presented at the Westin Hotel in Sydney on 12 April 2010.

Christ Church, Bong Bong
Award, Conservation of Built Heritage

Dunbar Anchor
Award, Maritime Heritage

Royal Botanic Gardens Heritage Statuary Conservation
Commendation, Conservation of Built Heritage

Sydney Harbour YHA, The Rocks
Commendation, Development

But the real purpose of this blog post was to reflect on how we can all do better at sharing the knowledge, the skills, the experience, and the conservation outcomes, that derive from these award-winning projects.

First and foremost, we need to promote the awards.  We need to tell stories about the awards, and about the award-winning projects.  We need the winners of the awards to post the information on their websites, send newsletters and emails about the awards, and not be shy about promoting the news that they received an award.  Why?  Because publicity about the awards builds interest and builds recognition that the award winning projects represent a benchmark, a level of practice that is desirable and that is achievable.

Secondly, we need to share stories about the work that was done on the projects that were awarded.  We need to publish the reports (online preferably); create photo galleries (online again); give presentations and tours; tell stories about the challenges, the successes, and the failures (yes, the failures) that occurred in the course of completing these award-winning projects.  Sharing these experiences will help us all develop our skills, and disseminate the knowledge that will help more of us do better work more of the time.

Finally, we need to encourage our peers, our partners, our clients, our consultants and our contractors to nominate their projects for awards.  At International Conservation Services, we have been nominating projects for the National Trust Heritage Awards for more than a decade.  Along the way, we've had a number of projects which were recognised with commendation, and this year, 2010, two of our projects received awards.  We're proud of all of these projects.  Just as we're proud of all our other projects that were nominated and not recognised, or the vast array of projects that we didn't nominate for a wide variety of reasons.  Our challenge to ourselves is to share more information about our projects with our community.  Which in a way brings me full circle to the reason why we write this blog!

David West
International Conservation Services

Christ Church in Bong Bong

One of the great things about working in conservation is that almost all of our work makes a difference, both to the objects that we conserve, and for the people to whom the objects are significant.

But from time to time, we get the opportunity to work on projects where the difference our work makes is highly visible, even transformative.

Such was the case late last year with our work on the decorated interiors of the Anglican Christ Church at Bong Bong in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Listed on the NSW State Heritage Register, it is the oldest church in the region, dating from 1845, and for some time, it was the only church between Sydney and Goulburn.

International Conservation Services was originally requested to conserve the interior paintings and decorative elements of the church. But after some discussions with the parish, we found that we could help the church with a broader project involving advice on the colour scheme, redesign of the internal church lighting, as well as work on the timber pews and running a training course for the parish members on how to care for them.

The large areas of flaking paint found in the artwork and decorative paintwork of the ceiling were of primary concern to our painting conservation team of Adam Godijn, Arek Werstak and Matteo Volonte, who spent a long fortnight working in demanding conditions of up to 40 deg C just below the ceiling of the church.

The flaking paint areas were consolidated as a priority before the extensive cleaning works required to the decorative ceiling were commenced. In order to avoid the heat, the team worked as early in the morning as possible.

After cleaning and consolidation of the paint layers, the losses were filled and inpainted before a final varnish layer was applied. This reversible varnish layer serves as a protective coating from the dust, dirt and debris that will collect in time, and also improves the appearance of the decoration by saturating the surface.

During planning for these works, we undertook a variety of paint investigations around the church to confirm the extent of original decorative finishes, and to attempt to identify the original colour scheme. These investigations uncovered many interesting things.

We discovered that the white gloss enamel painted window frames originally had a wood grained finish. A specialist decorator was brought in to re-create this original wood-grained effect. Apart from looking much more interesting the dark oak-like wood grain significantly enhances and highlights the beautiful stained glass windows.

Investigations around the gothic lettering at the front of the church found that the original lettering was much more ornate, and much more in keeping with the style of the surrounding decorations. The existing lettering was quite harsh in blue and red, whereas the original lettering had three colours - red, blue and gold leaf. After some discussions, the original lettering was replicated.

The plain sections of the church interior were repainted by a local tradesman using a colour scheme developed from original colours revealed by our paint scrapes, and in consultation with representatives of the churchwardens.

During the painting works, all of the plaques on the walls had to be removed, so the opportunity was taken to clean and polish them all before they were re-installed after the painting works were complete.

And finally a new lighting system was installed that provides both uplight onto the ceiling decoration and also spotlights the decorative verses on the two end walls.

You can read more about our work in this article in the Southern Highland News.

We are delighted to have been able to contribute to revealing this real gem of a church interior in a historic region of NSW. Services are held in the church each Sunday if you are interested in visiting.

David West and Adam Godijn

International Conservation Services