Art Technical Research and Conservation of Mixed-Media Ensembles. The Enclosed Garden (ARTGARDEN)

ArtGarden - BRAIN - Belspo ( 2016 - 2020)

Art Technical Research and conservation of mixedmedia ensembles:‘The Enclosed Garden’

Promotor KU Leuven Lieve Watteeuw, Promotor UA: Karolien De Wael, Coördinator: Caroline Meert KIK-IRPA

Website: http://gardens.kikirpa.be/

The ArtGarden research project tests and develops an efficient ("best practices") matrix (tool - protocol) for monitoring, imaging and documenting (art-technical), fragile historic mixed-media objects. This is used to facilitate decision making during conservation and preservation practice.The casus in ArtGarden is the conservation and preservation of the unique collection of seven Enclosed Gardens from the Mechelen City Museums. Their condition is similar to that of a vast number of museum objects kept in the Belgian Federal collections and even worldwide. Due to the multimedia nature of the Gardens this case study generates new know-how that can be applied to the conservation of other complex heritage objects. The aim is to develop ArtGarden as an international benchmarking project for conservation & preservation of original multi-media artefacts in museum environments. Promotors of the research project are the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, KIK-IRPA, the University of Leuven, and the University of Antwerp, Axes.