I’m Gianna, a Preventive major starting my third month as a graduate intern at International Conservation Services (ICS) Sydney, Australia, the Eora Nation of Cammeraygal and Wallumedegal people.

ICS is the largest private conservation company in Australia, with five offices in major cities across the country, offering conservation consulting and services. The company’s founder and my main supervisor Julian Bickersteth has championed sustainable and collaborative heritage preservation for decades through his leadership at ICS. My internship with ICS has been a great experience working for a private conservation lab with strong regional and global connections to diverse clients.

In the last few months, I’ve completed a range of preventive projects. I’ve assisted with a storage and preservation plan for a regional museum, prepared estimates for packing and long-term storage housing for a government archive, and provided consultation on pest management and environmental monitoring. I’ve worked with the paper conservators on mold remediation of flood-salvaged books and a rehousing project for a state government photographic archive.

One recent project was a light level assessment at The Everglades House & Gardens. Located an hour’s drive outside of Sydney on Dharug and Gundungurra Country in Leura, tucked into the Blue Mountains is a unique 1930s property managed by the National Trust of New South Wales. Everglades boasts acclaimed gardens and an Art Deco house. The collections on display include temporary exhibitions from the National Trust archives, original and reproduction furnishings, and a few original artworks to the house.

Prior to my visit, Everglades staff were well aware of the risk of light damage to archival collections displayed in the sun-drenched interiors of the former home-turned-museum; this prompted the installation of light and UV filtering shades and the use of UV filtering glazes and vitrine bonnets in the two main exhibition galleries. Therefore, I was invited to assess the light levels more thoroughly, determine management strategies for the collection, and make recommendations for displays going forward.

Spot readings for illuminance and ultraviolet light were collected with a handheld Elsec 765 Environmental Monitor. The data was used to calculate approximate annual exposures. Using recent conservation literature, I was able to recommend display times for light-sensitive items and suggest additional strategies to eliminate UV completely and to reduce light exposure further. This type of assessment is so typical of the common challenges faced by collections in historic buildings that rely on natural light, especially those that want to simultaneously showcase a surrounding heritage landscape. It was a great way for me to apply what I have learned at WUDPAC, in particular the tools and resources from a preventive seminar on light management taught by Dr. Joelle Wickens and Anisha Gupta.

My current project is a series of condition assessments for White Rabbit Gallery [hyperlink: https://whiterabbitcollection.org/], which has one of the most significant collections of Chinese contemporary art in the world. I’m thankful for my year-long partnership with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Voices of Contemporary Art (VoCA) before this internship which has prepared me well to work with this amazing collection.

- Gianna Puzzo, WUDPAC Class of 2025