Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund Scotland, Caring for the Collection is a project that will focus on Art in Healthcare’s vast art collection, enabling us to undertake a programme of maintenance and conservation of artworks currently in our art store.
We are delighted to have the support to recruit two technical roles, who will be dedicated to working with collection artworks and improving how they are stored safely. In November, we appointed Giulia Gentili, our Technician, who brings several years of experience working with a wide range of artists and organisations as an art technician, fabricator and artist.
Followed by the recruitment of our Collection Technician Apprentice, Mina Brennan, who will work closely alongside Giulia. Together, they will review, maintain and restore artworks, with the aim of placing them in hospitals, care homes and community spaces across Scotland. In addition to gaining hands on experience working with the collection, Mina will gain a Museum and Galleries Technician Modern Apprenticeship [SCQF level 7] qualification.
As part of this project, and to celebrate Art in Healthcare’s 35th Anniversary, Mina has launched a blog exploring 35 works from the Art in Healthcare Collection and her findings from her apprenticeship.
Image: ‘Monkeys at the Zoo’ by John Busby
Welcome to the fifteenth blog post from the Collection Technicians!
Recently Giulia and I attended a day’s paper conservation training with Helen Creasy at The Scottish Conservation Studio in South Queensferry. The Carriage House at Hopetoun House has been restored and converted into a conservation studio, and has been made into a beautiful space to work in. The Scottish Conservation Studio was established in 2005 and its team specialises in textile conservation, paper conservation and artifact conservation. During our visit Tuula who is the textile conservator at the studio was working on restoring a large amount of historical Scottish uniform. It was an incredibly inspiring environment to be in, with brushes tools and restoration happening all around us.
Helen Creasy is an extremely knowledgeable conservator and really broke down all the processes we were going to be working on.
Our collection has many works on paper from drawings to prints and we wanted to find out a bit more about what goes into conserving these pieces. Helen taught us how to cut mountboards correctly, how to pick a complimentary colour for each piece and, how to secure the pieces correctly in their frame. The piece I’m pictured working on below is titled ‘Monkeys at the Zoo’ by the artist John Busby, we brought it with us as it needed a slight clean which we did using a special silicone sponge which picked up any surface dirt on the artwork. John Philip Busby was born in Bradford and studied at Edinburgh College of Art where he later became a teacher. John always loved nature and has illustrated many books, this drawing is very illustrative showing multiple monkeys jumping from branches and sitting in trees.
Images: Mina taking part in the paper conservation training, working on John Busby’s ‘Monkeys at the Zoo’
Caring for the Collection is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund Scotland.
Thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to dedicate time to improve the condition of our artworks currently in our store, so that they will be able to be displayed in health and social care settings across Scotland.
Museum & Galleries Technician Modern Apprenticeship is supported by Museums Galleries Scotland provider of the apprenticeship, mentor and SCQF level 7
25 June 2026 by
Amy Miles