Behind the scenes at the National Gallery

Working for a leading fit-out company, I’m familiar with the need to complete projects without sacrificing the comfort, health and business aspirations of our customers. But I sometimes wonder if people outside our industry realise the work that goes on behind the scenes, more than just the building works. There are so many other aspects of the buildings’ life and use that must be taken into account and the National Gallery is the perfect example of this.

I'm leading a team that's updating key areas of the National Gallery's interior, enhancing facilities that enables over 5.5 million visitors each year to see for free the work of artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Canaletto, Constable, Ingres, Monet and Van Gogh.

The scope of our work involves refurbishing Gallery 32, the largest within the National Gallery, as well as parts of the existing basement and ground floor areas.

A world institution

A cultural hub of global renown, it is crucial we operate as a ‘silent contractor’ to avoid negatively impacting any of its acclaimed pieces of art or the visitor experience.

This was underlined on a museum tour during a pre-opening viewing with Principal Scientist Dr. Catherine Higgitt, of the Scientific Department, and Paintings Conservator, Lynne Harrison, of the Conservation Department. Joining us were supply chain partners whose involvement is also crucial in delivering our customer's aspirations.

Alongside enjoying the experience of walking around a completely empty museum, we observed the delicate nature of weathered canvass and the life cycle of vibrant oil paint.

Touring the museum with Dr. Catherine Higgitt and Lynne Harrison drove home the importance of maintaining an excellent relationship with our customers and stakeholders.

From dust to damage

Gallery 32 holds pieces that span various movements and time periods, allowing audiences to celebrate longevity as well as artistry.

To understand the potential threats to the collections we had to understand the paintings on a microscopic scale.

We explored how small dust particles from construction activity, such as drilling, could migrate and sacrifice the quality and durability of the paintings. More specifically, damage could happen while cleaning the pieces, as the act of wiping scrapes the dust against the paint and scratches it.

While one dusting on its own doesn’t sound too catastrophic, we have to know that this repetitive action across the centuries really does threaten the quality of the work.

During our refurbishment, we employ various control measures to prevent air pollutants travelling around the gallery. In addition to sealing off our site, we use dust dampening; an action involving spraying a pre-determined amount of water over an affected area to prohibit the dust from migrating further afield.

This reduces the amount of dust created through construction activities.

Turning off vibration settings

Dust isn’t the only culprit that poses a risk to the Gallery’s collections. The effects of noise and vibration can also take a heavy toll.

The threat lies in the tenuous relationship between a canvass and its paint, which is often that of oil in Gallery 32.

In its early years, oil paint is flexible and supports the fluctuations behind it on the canvass. However, it loses its elasticity through time and becomes increasingly rigid. When noise and vibration levels increase they cause the paintings to tremble as a result of their higher frequencies. This effect means that the canvass can move with ease, but the stiff paint cannot. As a result, the paint begins to crack and crumble.

Work activities from the use of small hand tools to heavy drilling can produce the above types of noise and vibration levels. However, a combination of site procedures and collaboration with the museum allows us to cancel out any damaging influence of either noise or vibrations that we produce.

We apply a colour-coded traffic light system that we share with the National Gallery and which alerts us to whether our noise and vibration levels are too high. Our stakeholders have equal access to the monitoring system and liaise with us on any feedback or concerns that they have regarding the art and our construction activity.

In addition to the above approach, we also have a noisy works schedule that the National Gallery pre- approved before we started work on site. We comply with noise and vibration threshold values within this time and also move through our programme without disrupting the Gallery’s visitors.

Looking to the future

One of the many joys of our morning excursion through the museum was the positive feedback we received from our customer. Our relationship with the museum continues to be positive as we execute the works and ensure that no harm comes to the artwork and art lovers who populate the Gallery’s esteemed corridors.

I personally found the whole experience of learning about the risks and how to mitigate them fascinating.

It was really rewarding to know that we can do our bit to help preserve these magnificent works of art for generations to come whilst also helping create a fabulous new home in which people can enjoy them!