Working on a canvas in the Hunterian Art GalleryThe Getty Foundation has awarded £115,000 to the University of Glasgow's College of Arts and The Hunterian for Conserving Canvas, a three year training project led by Dr Christina Young, Head of Technical Art History at the University of Glasgow.

The initiative aims to mitigate the lack of experience and knowledge within easel paintings conservation, in the structural conservation of canvas paintings, which has occurred over the last forty years. The project-based training includes conservator-curator pairs and trainer-trainee structural conservation treatments on paintings examined and discussed in workshops.

The canvas paintings are from the collections of The Hunterian, National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) and Glasgow Life. The participants are experienced paintings conservators (trainers) and curators together with early-to-mid-career conservators (trainees). Two of the paintings are the portraits of Lady Maynard and William Harvey which form part of the William Hunter and the Anatomy of the Modern Museum exhibition at the Hunterian Art gallery from 28 September 2018. 

A workshop will be held at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA) next year when the William Hunter exhibition tours there. The first workshop was held in June at Kelvin Hall which included participants from The Hunterian, Glasgow Life and NGS.

First published: 2 August 2018

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