25 years ... and 25 iconic projects

25 years ago today marks the day that Julian Bickersteth founded International Conservation Services (ICS). Well, not quite, in that it was originally called Campbell Conservation before morphing into ICS in 1991. Back in 1986 a wonderful man called Chick Campbell, who owned and ran the Campbell Group, was prepared to back Julian's idea that there was an opportunity in the Australian market for a privately-run multi-disciplinary fine arts conservation business, and the rest, as they say, is history.

At ICS, we've chosen to acknowledge and celebrate our past 25 years of conservation in a number of ways.  One of the ways, as is obvious by the image at the beginning of this post, has been with a commemorative logo.  We'll also be celebrating with our staff, and with the Australian conservation community, over the next couple of months.

But one of our most enjoyable, and interesting, exercises earlier this year was to identify 25 iconic projects that ICS has completed over the past quarter of a century.  Selecting them was very difficult - and we cheated a bit in the end!  A few of the 'projects' are more like relationships - where we have carried out a range of projects over many years for a single client or institution, including Old Parliament House in Canberra, and the National Trust of Australia (NSW).

Then there are projects where we contributed to the conservation of a significant heritage place. These projects include the Capitol Theatre in Sydney, the Parramatta Justice Precinct and the Sydney Harbour YHA (Big Dig in Cumberland Street, The Rocks).

 

We've also included projects where we developed new conservation techniques (Childrens' Chapel, St James), acquired new skills, or ventured into new fields of work.

And of course, there is one of the first projects worked on by Julian Bickersteth when he started the business in 1986 - co-ordinating the ‘Treasures of the Holy See' exhibition from the Vatican for Expo 88 in Brisbane.

All of the projects and objects we work on have stories to tell. But the projects we've selected as our 25 iconic projects have particularly interesting stories to tell, and they are special ICS stories that we treasure.

Visit our website to discover more about our 25 iconic projects.

David West
Executive Director
internationalconservationservices

Museum of Australian Democracy at OPH

The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House was opened last week.

Our contribution to MOAD was relatively small - particularly compared to the amount of work we've undertaken at Old Parliament House over the past few years - but important nonetheless. During the design of the new exhibitions in 2008, we provided detailed recommendations on how to install the exhibitions into the building with minimal impact on the significant heritage fabric of the building.

We were fortunate enough to be part of the soft opening for museum and heritage professionals last night. Primed by an inspiring speech on the nature and value of democracy by artist Robyn Archer, we were most interested to see how the galleries that housed the National Portrait Gallery (now of course housed in their own purpose-built building almost over the road) had been redesigned.

Context is everything they say, and there can no more appropriate building in which to talk about democracy, or indeed space within a building, as the Museum opens directly off King’s Hall, with the House of Reps on the left and the Senate on the right. The themes it covers are those to be expected; Bill of Rights, the Constitution, suffragettes etc. but the nature of the space, which is the old Parliamentary Library, suits silos of information delivered in this way.

It’s a didactic exhibition, i.e. heavy on words without a large number of objects, but there is a lot of information to get across. The main gallery is dominated by the ’timeline’, a vast lectern type installation with a series of touch screens, which allows you to data mine deep into a whole range of issues and events according to the period you have selected.

I never find openings the easiest time to assess exhibitions, but this has the look and feel of a well researched and well presented exhibition. It is not as big as I thought, but it has the relocated and revamped Prime Ministers of Australia Gallery next to it, a new visitor experience now happening in the cabinet room (Cabinet in confidence), and a temporary exhibition called Living Democracy: the Power of the People soon to open.

Overall, I am a great fan of Old Parliament House as a building, and it is great to see its reason for existence post Parliamentary use finally having real resonance and meaning.

Julian Bickersteth
International Conservation Services