AIC's 53rd Annual Meeting

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has recently implemented a novel lighting policy (discussed in detail in VanSnick & Gaspar, 2024) - seeking to strike a balance between the display of light-sensitive objects and their long-term preservation. This work offers an evaluation of the practical rollout of the policy, refinement of process, and stakeholder uptake.

This policy works by whittling down collection on display to those objects that have the most pressing light vulnerabilities, looking experimentally at those objects, and using that new information to inform how we select vulnerable objects in the future. The first step is determining light vulnerability on a broad material level, flagging objects on display made from materials academically known to be highly light sensitive. These broad strokes are of huge benefit as it ensures that the first action of this policy will target those objects with the potential to be currently undergoing massive light damage. The second phase invites curatorial colleagues to assign a relative value each object in the group of highly light sensitive objects, allowing resources to be targeted in on the most exemplar objects which are materially assumed to be highly light sensitive. Where possible, objects that are highly light sensitive will be rotated out of display in a time period dependent on their rating value. Where rotation is not possible objects are examined experimentally using Microfademetery Testing (MFT).

Objects are unique in their vulnerabilities and these vulnerabilities are not as linear, consistent and predictable as one might expect. Experimentally analysing objects using MFT has the potential to bring their actual current light vulnerability into sharper focus. Given the vast size of the V&A’s collection, it is truly unfeasible to experimentally analyse every object - however this policy allows precise targeting of experimental resources to the places in the collection where they are most immediately needed. The lessons learnt about discrepancies between the assumed light sensitivity and the current experimental reality found are fed back into the initial stages of this process, allowing us to redirect resources to more vulnerable objects. For example, MFT conducted on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean lacquerware as part of this process has found this material to generally be drastically less sensitive to fading in practice than was academically thought. Not only does this mean that these objects can have far greater lifespans on display, improving access and ensuring we are focussing on the collections that need us most. 

This is not a static system - it is a cyclical process that edits and allows a more accurate picture of the collection’s sensitivities to coalesce in each iteration. It allows us to learn about our collection today and to react as the composition and the needs of our collection evolves over time.