Integrating Lifetimes in Heritage Capital (ITHACA)

ITHACA aims to illustrate the impact of care and sustainable usage of heritage assets, and advance evaluation frameworks that consider the lifetimes of heritage.

ITHACA sits within the ‘Culture and Heritage Capital’ programme, which aims to develop a robust and holistic approach for capturing and articulating the value of culture and heritage.

ITHACA builds on the existing discourse about heritage value and hopes to give a better understanding of how heritage assets change and how the prevention of this change can impact the values that society gives to heritage. And combines heritage science and economic valuation to do so.

In collaboration with the Imperial War Museum, ITHACA will look at damage functions and models that predict the degradation of heritage on three types of materials of museum objects:

• wooden furniture,
• textiles, and
• paintings on canvas and panel.

The examination of how the lifetimes of these objects can change will consider different conservation strategies as well as decisions and interventions that try to balance:

• accessibility,
• preservation,
• display,
• interpretation,
• storage, and
• deaccessioning.

The ITHACA team

Dr Georgios Alexopoulos
UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage

Dr Josep Grau-Bove
UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage

Prof. Kalliopi Fouseki
UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage

Prof. Jane Henderson
Cardiff University

Dr Ricky Lawton
IPSOS

 

Funding

ITHACA is funded by

• Arts and Humanities Research Council
• Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Image credit

Unsplash: Demure Storyteller