Hello and welcome to my first post for the SPRI conservation blog. My name is Janette Dutton, and my job here at SPRI includes a mix of conservation, moving objects into the new museum store, and putting objects that are at risk of pest damage through the freezers (as Fiona explained in her entry about interesting smells!).

One of my recent tasks has been to find new homes in our museum store for a group of Inuit art pieces that have been acquired thanks to the HLF Collecting Cultures scheme. A selection of the sculptures and artwork will be going on display when the new museum opens later this year. They range from early pieces (from the late 1940s and early 50s) to more contemporary sculptures and a wonderful collection of stonecuts from communities across the High Arctic.

Three of the pieces in the store

The sculptures are made from a range of materials, including stone, relic whalebone and caribou horn. Some of the stone pieces are large and extremely heavy, whilst the relic whalebone and caribou pieces are fairly small and light; all need to be handled with care.

As with all new acquisitions and loans, a condition check of each object was carried out to ensure that they all arrived without any damage and a note was made of any previous repairs.

Condition check

All of the objects had arrived in one piece thanks to our team of couriers who carefully packaged them for transportation and ensured they arrived safely. Now the pieces will have to sit in their new home and wait in anticipation before going on display!

We are so fortunate to be able to show some very significant and impressive pieces of Inuit art and we hope to see you there when the exhibition opens!

Earlier on I posted a blog entry about one of our objects being included in the regional selection of ‘The History of the World in 100 Objects’.

Heather and I had a visit from Radio Cambridgeshire. You can listen to the broadcast online.