My NCACL Internship
By Maia Vincent

I am a student in the Faculty of Art and Design at UC completing a Bachelor of Arts in Culture and Heritage where I can focus my studies on conservation.  I was warmly welcomed to complete my internship with the NCACL to work with some original artworks. When I approached Belle, she immediately had the idea for me to start working with the SRA Australian Stories collection produced during the 1970’s and 1980’s – which is a series I incidentally am very familiar with through my studies. I chose to conserve The Black Swans and enlisted the help of another intern in the same degree for assistance.

The entire series had been donated to the NCACL the previous year along with the original artworks that had been sent to China for printing. The artboards were donated still in the state for this printing process with 14 boards comprising 3 layers each, all stuck together with pesky sticky tape. The first layer of each artboard is a tissue paper with scribblings from the printers and some quick remarks from the publishers. The second layer is a plastic sheet with a glued-on text block that would be the text for each page. The final layer of each art board is the beautifully coloured watercolour artwork.

This SRA series is a brilliant example of Australian literary and publishing history and the Australian education system of the 1970’s and 1980’s. The layers of tissue paper and plastic give an insight to the publishing practices of the 1970s and 1980s which is not as accessible when looking at a finished book. The series shows the greater attitude of Australian culture and ideology and Australia’s’ attitude to children’s stories. It shows a time of wanting Indigenous culture but not understanding the need to include Indigenous voices. This series can be used as another level of teaching Australian children about these practices and the changes.

Through our examination of The Black Swans we noticed the tape was degrading, staining the surfaces it was placed on and releasing from the materials it was meant to hold together.  We also noticed staining from white out – used potentially to cover up mistakes – had leaked out into the paper. We determined that these stains were not likely to continue to degrade, they were at their worst already. There were tears and rips along the folds of the tissue paper and some general wear and tear expected of a 50-year-old artwork.

It was a great learning curve to be able to apply the classroom teaching to a real item of consequence and I think we took on the opportunity with a good measure of care and delicacy (and secretly a little fear). We were able to slowly work through a proposal of how to preserve the artworks and after conferring with our degree heads we were reminded of the ‘better to do less’ rule and we reconfigured our plan of attack.

Then we entered the working phase of the internship where we moved the artworks to UC’s heritage lab and started on our revised plans. We measured the pH levels (below left) of the tissue and artboards to make sure they were stable and not acidic. We measured the colours for fading which can now be rechecked for monitoring.

We ironed out creases on the tissue paper (below right) to ensure it would lie flat in storage. We then fixed the holes and tears using a glue-like starch paste and Japanese mending tissue paper. Finally, we placed non acidic tissue between the plastic and artwork to act as barrier. From there we have created a report and general guidelines for future interns and other historians of the work we completed and how to use the standards we formed. This work we hope can be transferred across the other books and their correlating artworks in similar conditions.

Overall, this was a fantastic opportunity, and we are so lucky to have had the support of the NCACL staff over our 8 weeks with plans to stop in and cause trouble with everyone again.

Introducing Maia Vincent:
‘I’m Maia and I am about to finish my undergrad in culture and heritage where I will continue my education to join the workforce as an object conservator. Art and history have always been a big part of my life, so this was a natural career choice for me. I endeavour to always present culture with humility and care.’  Maia was invited to present her work on the SRA project at the ACT Region Heritage Symposium ‘A Future for the Past’ on 2 August 2025. She was also interviewed on ABC Radio along with her University of Canberra supervisor, Associate Professor in Cultural and Creative Futures Alison Wain.

Everyone at the Centre enjoyed Maia who had a cheeky sense of humour and was always a pleasure to have around – she worked very hard!

* Featured image Graduate Certificate in Heritage Materials Conservation, University of Canberra online image 2021

See also:
Documenting Collection Items – NCACL blog created by Dr Alison Wain Associate Professor in Cultural and Creative Futures Discipline Lead Cultural Heritage and Conservation University of Canberra, Australia

The Longevity of Sticky tape! – NCACL blog created by Bob Graham September 2023

Restoring Bib and Bub Newspaper Comic Strips – NCACL blog created by the late Margaret Hamilton AM and Gaye McDermott February 2023

 

Posted by: NCACL | Published: 10 Aug 2025