- 1 Coordonnateurs du programme ARCHLAB : Clémence Raynaud (2009-2012), puis Joëlle Crétin (2013-2014).
- 2 C’est le cas, notamment, du British Museum et du C2RMF (sur les fonds anciens du C2RMF, voir Raynau (...)
1Among the transnational accesses offered, the CHARISMA project included a new program, ARCHLAB, involving the archives of six laboratories. Managed by the Archives and Documentation Department of the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF, research and conservation center of the French museums), this program subsidized access to documentation and archives of cultural heritage laboratories located in five European countries: the British Museum and the National Gallery (London), the C2RMF (Paris), the Prado museum (Madrid), the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE, cultural heritage agency of the Netherlands, Amsterdam) and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (Florence). These institutions do have exceptional documentary holdings, established since their inception, for some, as early as the 1930s1. Just as scientific instruments and facilities (MOLAB and FIXLAB programs2), the archives would thus be regarded as full research facilities for the first time in a European project led by a consortium of laboratories.
- 3 Seuls les ressortissants d’un pays membre de l’Union européenne sont éligibles.
2The ARCHLAB operation was based on principles previously defined for other transnational access programs. Following the proposal selection procedure, European researchers3 could be granted a one-week stay in one or more host laboratories, which undertook to make available scientific documentation related to their research topic. This documentary material included not only study reports, but also databases, scientific imaging and samples taken for analysis purpose that the researchers could also examine. In a particularly difficult economic context, the advantage of ARCHLAB for researchers was not limited to financial support. Indeed, they would benefit not only from the assistance of librarians throughout their stay, but also from the expertise of researchers from the host institution, specialists in their field of study.
- 4 ARCHLAB Welcome desk : Monica Galeotti (Opificio delle Pietre Dure), Maria-Dolores Gayo-Garcia (Pra (...)
- 5 Au total, neuf appels à projets ont été organisés.
- 6 Vincent Serneels (université de Fribourg, Suisse), Michael Tite (université d’Oxford, Royaume-Uni) (...)
3Program management and coordination of its activities were carried out by a Welcome Desk made up of representatives from each laboratory, mostly research engineers4. Each semester, following a call for proposals5, the applications sent by the candidates were examined and selected by a Peer Review Panel composed of experts6 external to the CHARISMA consortium and to the ARCHLAB coordinator. This committee played a crucial role in the success of the program, assessing the scientific relevance of the submitted research proposals, once their feasibility was checked by the Welcome Desk. The latter could express an unfavorable opinion if archival sources proved insufficient, or if the research was on files currently being published.
4If the results of the very first calls for proposals were relatively disappointing in quantitative terms, the communication efforts carried out by the whole consortium were soon very successful. Thus, at the end of the CHARISMA project, in March 2014, the objectives were fully achieved, with a total of ninety-seven research proposals selected out of one hundred and fifty-seven received and reviewed proposals. The proposals’ origin, from twenty-one European Union countries (fig. 1), shows that the program was able to reach a very broad community of researchers. In four years, the number of subsidized access days adds up to five hundreds and seventeen, for a total of one hundred and twenty-five researchers received in the six laboratories.
Fig. 1. Le Welcome Desk d’ARCHLAB au KIK-IRPA en 2012
David Saunders, Ashok Roy, Marika Spring, Monica Galeotti (au second plan), Maria Dolores Gayo-Garcia, Ineke Joosten, Clémence Raynaud (au premier plan).
© Joëlle Crétin.
Fig. 2. Nationalities of applicants
- 7 Hélène Dubois (Institut royal du patrimoine artistique, Bruxelles) et Marie Postec (école La Cambre (...)
5From a strictly scientific standpoint, the program’s impact can be objectively assessed against publications (seventeen), oral presentations (seventeen) and posters identified as resulting from ARCHLAB subsidized accesses. The analysis of the beneficiaries’ scientific profiles shows a strong majority of researchers in sciences applied to cultural heritage. If the very small minority of art historians and archaeologists may be the expression of the current limits of the interdisciplinary of this field of study, however, a remarkable number of conservators were able to take advantage of this program as part of conservation projects. Some research stays were even related to major conservation projects simultaneously carried out on masterpieces of European heritage. Thus, the conservator Muriel Vervat was able to examine the documentation gathered at the C2RMF and at the National Gallery in London on the Battle of San Romano panels by Paolo Uccello kept in the Louvre museum and the National Gallery, prior to the conservation of the Uffizi Gallery panel in Florence (see, in this volume, article by Muriel Vervat). ARCHLAB also enabled two members7 of the team responsible for the conservation of the Ghent Altarpiece (also called the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Saint Bavo cathedral, Ghent) to consult the documentation at the C2RMF, the National Gallery in London and the Prado museum on the works and painting techniques of the Van Eyck brothers.
- 8 Jean-Philippe Echard, Studies of series of lake-containing model paint sample, recherches réalisées (...)
- 9 Projets portés par Camille Bourdiel, Francesca Nucera, Maria Ida Catalano, Gabriella Prisco et Ange (...)
6To some extent, the results provide a unique snapshot of European research in the field of sciences applied to cultural heritage. They reveal the significant imbalances between different areas. Among the selected projects, a clear majority relates to easel paintings. If archaeology then appears as one of the most dynamic sectors, book and paper, photography, technical and industrial heritage, sculpture or art objects (textiles, furniture, silversmith’s and goldsmith’s works) are particularly in a minority, when they are not simply absent. Wishing to encourage research in all heritage areas, the ARCHLAB program nonetheless subsidized a substantial number of projects conducted on original subjects. This is the case, for example, of research on musical instruments varnishes done by Jean-Philippe Echard8 (musée de la Musique, Paris), or of work carried out by French and Italian teams9 on the development of scientific research on cultural heritage in the 1930s in Europe.
7The interest of ARCHLAB would have been limited if the project had not also at stake, beyond the strictly contractual objectives, to promote exchange between researchers and institutions of European Union member countries. From this point of view, the meetings organized by the Welcome Desk between ARCHLAB beneficiaries and specialists in host laboratories, sometimes together with museum curators, may have been one of the most interesting contributions of the scheme. Thus, in a number of cases, providing access has been crucial for the realization of collective projects involving on the one hand, these laboratories, and on the other hand, the institutions of the beneficiary researchers. This is the case, among others, of the access granted to Marc Étienne (the Louvre museum, Egyptian Antiquities Department) and Benoit Mille (CNRS) to the Scientific Research Department of the British Museum to carry out research on Egyptian bronzes manufacturing techniques, a joint project of the C2RMF, the Louvre Museum and the British Museum. Conversely, some projects have been disappointing due to the lack of real exchanges with visiting researchers, no scientific return having been received despite the investment provided by the host institutions.
- 10 Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Institut royal du patrimoine arti (...)
8Thanks to the semi-annual meetings and the ongoing exchange between the members of the Welcome Desk, ARCHLAB has finally enabled the emergence of a European network of archives of the significant laboratories dedicated to cultural heritage, which scientific benefits should be lasting. Indeed, renewed under the IPERION CH project (2015-2019), ARCHLAB should not only consolidate the links established by CHARISMA, but also develop them through the expansion of the network, reinforced by four new laboratories in Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Spain10. The program leadership, provided by the C2RMF for four years, now falls to KIK-IRPA, another European pioneer in the field of documentation applied to the study and conservation of cultural heritage.
- 11 Voir Raynaud, 2013-2014.
9Beyond the results for which it was committed to the European Commission, which fully confirm the interest of such a program for researchers, CHARISMA has contributed significantly to the establishment of the ARCHLAB platform, to the promotion of laboratories archives and to the collaboration between institutions11. Fostering their international influence, it has also helped in the conservation of these unique archival holdings, which traditionally have been granted much smaller funds to those attributed to scientific facilities. Indeed, the laboratories participation in ARCHLAB was accompanied by compensation that allowed departments responsible for these archives to speed up their dematerialization (digitization, indexing) and to renew their equipment (reconditioning material, storage cabinets, etc.). Lastly, the ARCHLAB results confirm the potential of archives considered as scientific exchange platforms. By encouraging access to and exploitation of these archives built up for decades, this program has undoubtedly given them a new role in the development of research applied to cultural heritage.
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the overall CHARISMA project coordinator, Bruno Brunetti, whose unfailing support has been crucial throughout the program, as well as to Christiane Naffah, C2RMF director from 2005 to 2010, whose support was decisive in its implementation. The success of Archlab also owes much to the efficiency and dedication of the members and contributors of the Welcome Desk (Monica Galeotti, Maria Dolores Garcia-Gayo, Catherine Higgitt, Ineke Joosten, Maïte Jover, Ashok Roy, David Saunders, Marika Spring and Maarten Van Bommel), we here salute their spirit of openness and solidarity. Finally, the significant selection work carried out by Vincent Serneels, Michael Tite and Jørgen Wadum within the Peer Review Panel was crucial for the scientific success of the program. Our most sincere thanks go to all.
Flux RSS
