PRACTICs

April 30th 2011 marked the end of PRACTICs; a European project for interdisciplinary collaborative research, sharing knowledge and learning about the conservation of contemporary art. 33 leading museums, institutions and universities joined hands for two years to assess and implement knowledge gained through European projects of the last decade.

The project was managed by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE)* and co-organised by six European organisations that in turn collaborated with national and international partners. Co-organisers were: Tate, England; Restaurierungzentrum Düsseldorf in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Cologne, Germany; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Spain; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Belgium; Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (SBMK), The Netherlands. This group of co-organisers also collaborated on the successful project Inside Installations www.insideinstallations.org (2004-2007).

The multi-facetted and heterogeneous challenges of contemporary art conservation have led to the current trend of diversity in practices. During PRACTICs, knowledge gained from previous international and regional projects was shared and complemented with case studies on the most urgent issues of contemporary art conservation: installation art, documentation, artists’ participation, decision-making, research and education. The International Network for the Conservation for Contemporary Art (INCCA) was enlarged with the creation of new network groups. In addition, a sub-project on public access to contemporary art conservation (Access2CA) was carried out.

Main project results were:

• International symposium »Contemporary Art: Who Cares?« (Amsterdam, June 2010)
• Book »Inside Installations. Theory and Practice in the Care of Complex Artworks« (Editors, Tatja Scholte and Glenn Wharton)
• Documentary film »Installation Art: Who Cares?«
• Access2CA seminars Ljubljana (2009) and Porto (2011) plus diverse access projects and activities.
• Creation of new INCCA groups: INCCA Central and Eastern Europe and the INCCA Education Network.

[Source: http://www.incca.org/projects/64-current-projects/475-practics]