RST successful in community grant funding for art preservation

Successful Community Heritage Grants – RST Art Collection

The Royal Society of Tasmania has been successful in gaining funding through the National Library of Australia Community Heritage Grants (CHG) program. The CHG program is an Australia-wide plan helping community organisations preserve locally owned, but nationally significant, Australian cultural heritage collections. The application involved a significant amount of work from the RST Art Fundraising Committee, Honorary Curator and Art Committee.

Gaining a grant from the CHG of $6500 represents an acknowledgement that our collection is of national significance. The grant will be specifically used for a significance assessment, preservation needs assessment, and the purchase of cataloguing software, to help in the management of the collection.

The services of qualified experts in the fields of significance assessment and art conservation have so far been successfully secured, and we look forward to pursuing further opportunities to advance the preservation of the collection using the CHG grant.

The Art Fundraising Committee has also been successful in gaining a $2000 grant from the Community Underwriting Small Grants Program, a yearly initiative of Community Underwriting, an Australian insurance provider for not-for-profit organisations. The grant will provide further contribution to the restoration of the RST Art Collection. Honorary Curator Dr Anita Hansen will work alongside the recently appointed Art Conservator, Amy Bartlett, to identify appropriate works for restoration. Warm appreciation is expressed to both the CHG program and Community Underwriting for their support.

The bulk of the Royal Society of Tasmania Art Collection was assembled from the 1890s, through donation, purchase and exchange, in a deliberate effort by the Society to acquire important Tasmanian cultural items. A recent valuation confirmed the unique nature and importance of many works in the collection. Learn more about the collection here.

See below an example of an artwork needing conservation assessment. At some time, the card mount was pasted to the artwork. Click on the image to see more detail.