Natural History Museum, London receives IIC Keck Award

IIC is pleased to announce that the 2016 IIC Keck Award is awarded
to the Natural History Museum, London, UK, for their "Blue Whale
Project".  The Award itself will be presented at the 2016 Los
Angeles Congress, which runs 12-16 September 2016.

The project:  In September 2015, the Natural History Museum's
conservation team began the work of checking, cleaning and
dismantling a 25 metre long, 4.5 tonne blue whale skeleton.  The
specimen had been on public display in the Mammals Hall of the
Museum since 1934, and will be re-suspended from the ceiling of the
Museum's main Hintze Hall from the summer of 2017.  The whale will
take the place of the Diplodocus cast that has stood in the Museum's
main entrance for 35 years.

The Blue Whale Project was an opportunity to promote the Museum's
conservation work.  There had already been a large amount of media
coverage about the move, and the team have embraced the project's
engagement potential through many channels.  This includes paper
presentations, installation of a "pop-up" Conservation studio,
lectures and informal chats with the public, the use of social media
and the museum's film production team as well as international media
team producing a documentary.  Due to the size of the skeleton the
conservation team worked across three sites, including the newly
installed pop-up conservation studio in the Museum's Darwin Centre.
Visitors are able to watch the conservation work on the individual
bones and talk to the team directly about their work.  Further
signage outside and within the pop-up studio promotes the background
story of the blue whale and the conservation work.

The conservation story of the Blue Whale is also being documented in
a series of films by the Museum's broadcasting unit.  These films
can be found on the Museum website as well as through the Museum's
YouTube channel.  An international media team are also following the
team throughout the two-year project from dismantling to
installation.

This project has provided the conservators with a unique opportunity
to engage with the public in new and exciting ways.  The team
working on the project have a strong commitment to promoting and
sharing the importance and relevance of conservation more widely and
will continue to do so on other projects in the future.  It has
provided an opportunity to share the ethical and practical issues
that every conservator has to face when completing a project and is
helping to give the public a new in-depth insight into the world of
conservation.

See

    <URL:http://www.nhm.ac.uk/whaleteaser>
    <URL:http://www.nhm.ac.uk/whalemove>

Graham Voce
Executive Secretary
International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic
    Works
3 Birdcage Walk
London SW1H 9JJ, UK
+44 20 7799 5500
Fax: +44 20 7799 4961


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 30:14
                  Distributed: Friday, August 19, 2016
                       Message Id: cdl-30-14-003
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