Artlab

“We need to be here in the middle of things because this is where our core clients are located,” says Artlab Australia’s Director Andrew Durham.

Artlab’s conservators have been caring for the state’s and nation’s treasures for 20 years and those “core clients” include the Art Gallery of SA, the SA Museum, the State Library of South Australia, the SA History Trust and other small museums dotted around Adelaide.

In a city rich in the arts and cultural diversity, Artlab has emerged as an integral part of the arts and heritage landscape of a city that is increasingly being seen as the hub of Australia’s heritage industry.

First established as the State Conservation Centre in 1985, Artlab was launched as a centralised conservation facility in 1990 – a state-funded business, but with half of its income earned from non-government activities.

“We’re doing work all over Australia as well as in countries such as Taipei and the Asia Pacific,” says Andrew, an English art historian who recently joined Artlab after nine years directing the award-winning Conservation Centre in Liverpool. He had previously worked as Head of Conservation at the Australian National Gallery in Canberra.

“Artlab is a business that needs a commercial presence in the City,” he says. “To be outside the City would take it outside the core culture of the City, where it belongs.

“We also need easy access for the public for the commercial work that we do, and the tours and regular clinics that we hold for the public. Raising public awareness of the importance of heritage conservation is very important to us.

“People are fascinated by heritage objects and the clinic days that we hold twice a month provide them with an opportunity to have these objects assessed for their value and for an expert opinion about their restoration,” Andrew says.

“We have a role, too, in working with the other major institutions to attract people to come and visit Adelaide’s cultural precinct. We need to have a shopfront, a visible public presence is important to us and being part of this cultural precinct is vital.”

Fast Facts

● City location close to clients
● Raising public awareness of heritage conservation
● Linked to cultural attractions of City