PRIMROSE - Photographic Records in Museums: Re-Organisation, Storage and Environment - was a project which trained 92 staff and volunteers from 55 museums in the Southwest.
An innovative project to improve care of the Southwest’s photographic history, PRIMROSE deservedly won the Award for Care of Collections from ICON, the UK Institute for Conservation in December 2010. ICON is the lead voice for the conservation of cultural heritage in the UK and the Conservation Awards recognise the highest standards of conservation skills, research and collection care. The Award was presented by Dame Liz Forgan, DBE, Chair of Arts Council England, at a ceremony at the Royal Institution in London.
Each museum attended a local workshop with plenty of hands-on training. They were then given guidelines, factsheets and archival quality supplies to allow them to start implementation immediately.
Workshops were led by experienced photographic conservator Sarah Allen, who showed people how to sort, identify, clean and re-house their collections properly. Well illustrated and lively talks were interspersed with practical sessions to build the delegates’ confidence and demonstrations to show the best ways to handle, clean and repack different materials. There was also plenty of time allowed to enable each museum to discuss their particular problems.
At the end of the day, each museum received a big bag of archival quality supplies to start their own repacking projects, with all the information to order refills. One delegate was so enthused he went straight back to his museum and started the project the same day. A helpline provides ongoing support.
Working regionally, Renaissance Southwest was able to deliver the project with maximum efficiency. If the museums had tried to do this work independently it would have cost 40% more, and they would not have experienced the added benefits of working in groups In addition to these savings, a range of other benefits have been experienced by participating museums.
‘Working with staff and volunteers on PRIMROSE resulted in very positive outcomes for everyone,’ said Helena Jaeschke, the Conservation Development Officer based at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, who led the project.
‘Those involved reported an increased awareness of the needs and value of photographic material as well as a more positive attitude towards the photographic collections and the museums’ ability to care for them. Through sharing ideas via the workshop sessions and collaborative problem solving, an enthusiastic community has been created to care for these specialised artefacts. As a result, members of the public will also benefit from the improved collections, which previously staff and volunteers had been struggling to look after,’ she said.
There were a number of keys to the success of the project, which also led to its being selected as the winner of the prestigious ICON Award last year. It was important to keep it local, with museums trained in clusters for their practical sessions. Another success factor was to start with each museum making a commitment to caring for their photographic collections . To demonstrate this, they signed the Primrose Charter, a 10-step promise of photographic care, at the beginning of the project. Materials were provided so museums could start putting what they had learnt into practice start straight away. It was also important to stay focussed to keep the project achievable.
The success of the project has been recognised and it is now hoped that each museum will continue to sustain their resources to ensure ongoing care of these important local collections.
For more information on this case study see the MLA research database.