Integrating Lifetimes in Heritage Capital
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Department Name: Bartlett Sch of Env, Energy & Resources
Abstract
ITHACA aims to articulate the economic value of caring for heritage. This project brings together an interdisciplinary team, including Associate Prof. Josep Grau-Bove (expert in damage prediction in heritage), Dr. Ricky Lawton (expert in developing evaluation frameworks for the UK cultural sector), Prof. Jane Henderson (expert in conservation and how it interacts with significance), and Prof. Kalliopi Fouseki (expert in critical heritage studies and the definition of heritage values). ITHACA responds to Strand D of the "Research culture and heritage capital with an interdisciplinary team" call, building on the ideas outlined in the Scoping culture and heritage capital report. This research will generate new knowledge and understanding of how heritage changes, and how the prevention of this change brings value to society.
The key innovation of the project is the consideration of the condition of heritage as a dynamic entity. Condition changes during the lifetime of heritage, and therefore the benefits that depend on it also change. Currently, there are no well-stablished methodologies to capture this relationship, and there is no existing data that reflects it.
The project is geared to impact and translational research. The ambition of the project is to advance towards an evaluation framework that considers the lifetimes of heritage. This framework needs to be not only theoretically sound, but aligned well with the needs of heritage organisations and policy makers. The main concepts used in this project, the notions of "value", "change" and "heritage asset", are complex terms that are used differently by the disciplines that collaborate in the research. The project will explore these intersections of meaning, uniting the idea of value used by heritage scientists, which is qualitative and refers to the different dimensions of significance, and the idea of value used in cultural economics, which can be quantified in economic terms.
The methodology is highly interdisciplinary. To understand how economic benefits depend on the lifetime of heritage, we first need to be able to define and predict lifetimes. This is achieved with damage functions, models that predict the degradation of heritage. This project will be a watershed moment for heritage science: it will expand the number of damage functions available to predict lifetimes, and it will integrate them in a policy context. One important challenge is that not all damage functions are developed to the same level. So far, the only complete damage function is for archival materials. This project will develop damage functions for three materials that are representative of the collections in UK museums: paintings, wood-based artefacts and art on paper.
ITHACA will answer the following research questions: (1) Which heritage asset typologies lend themselves to a prediction of lifetimes? (2) How do the flows of economic benefits change during the lifetime of heritage assets? (3) What is the value of care beyond extending lifetimes, including adaptation, reuse, increased access, and deaccessioning?
The developed damage functions will be used to make predictions of lifetimes in realistic scenarios. In collaboration with the Imperial War Museum, the functions will be applied to collections under relevant conservation strategies, contexts of exhibition, curation, and interpretation. This will reveal how lifetimes change with different conservation strategies, considering the balance between accessibility and preservation, and covering storage, intervention, as well as end-of-life decision such as deaccessioning. This data will then be used as part of a prototype valuation survey, which will elicit the values associated with care and its outcomes. The survey will stablish how the change in condition defines the estimation of value of users and non-users, and what are the challenges in conducting such measurements.
The key innovation of the project is the consideration of the condition of heritage as a dynamic entity. Condition changes during the lifetime of heritage, and therefore the benefits that depend on it also change. Currently, there are no well-stablished methodologies to capture this relationship, and there is no existing data that reflects it.
The project is geared to impact and translational research. The ambition of the project is to advance towards an evaluation framework that considers the lifetimes of heritage. This framework needs to be not only theoretically sound, but aligned well with the needs of heritage organisations and policy makers. The main concepts used in this project, the notions of "value", "change" and "heritage asset", are complex terms that are used differently by the disciplines that collaborate in the research. The project will explore these intersections of meaning, uniting the idea of value used by heritage scientists, which is qualitative and refers to the different dimensions of significance, and the idea of value used in cultural economics, which can be quantified in economic terms.
The methodology is highly interdisciplinary. To understand how economic benefits depend on the lifetime of heritage, we first need to be able to define and predict lifetimes. This is achieved with damage functions, models that predict the degradation of heritage. This project will be a watershed moment for heritage science: it will expand the number of damage functions available to predict lifetimes, and it will integrate them in a policy context. One important challenge is that not all damage functions are developed to the same level. So far, the only complete damage function is for archival materials. This project will develop damage functions for three materials that are representative of the collections in UK museums: paintings, wood-based artefacts and art on paper.
ITHACA will answer the following research questions: (1) Which heritage asset typologies lend themselves to a prediction of lifetimes? (2) How do the flows of economic benefits change during the lifetime of heritage assets? (3) What is the value of care beyond extending lifetimes, including adaptation, reuse, increased access, and deaccessioning?
The developed damage functions will be used to make predictions of lifetimes in realistic scenarios. In collaboration with the Imperial War Museum, the functions will be applied to collections under relevant conservation strategies, contexts of exhibition, curation, and interpretation. This will reveal how lifetimes change with different conservation strategies, considering the balance between accessibility and preservation, and covering storage, intervention, as well as end-of-life decision such as deaccessioning. This data will then be used as part of a prototype valuation survey, which will elicit the values associated with care and its outcomes. The survey will stablish how the change in condition defines the estimation of value of users and non-users, and what are the challenges in conducting such measurements.
Publications
Grau-Bové J
(2025)
Using damage functions to map heritage climatology at a global scale.
in The Science of the total environment
| Description | We have developed a predictive model that, for the first time, enables a direct comparison between two types of collection degradation: sudden risks and continuous deterioration. This allows museum managers to assess, for instance, whether a fire risk poses a greater threat to a collection than the gradual decay caused by excessive humidity. Early findings suggest that the strong focus on temperature and relative humidity monitoring in museums may overshadow the impact of other, less easily measurable risks that can be more destructive. For example, wear and tear or accidental loss may reduce a collection's lifespan more significantly than high temperature and humidity. The project continues to explore the applications of this model, with further insights expected in the coming year. |
| Exploitation Route | Yes, DCMS and IPSOS use our model within a project to assess the effectiveness of funded interventions and improvements in museums. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| Description | DCMS |
| Organisation | Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | On the back of this project, a close working relationship has developed with DCMS, reflected in an appointment of the PI to the College of Experts. This is an independent process, but the experience gained in ITHACA played a strong role in stregthening the application. While some aspects of the collaboration began before the award (2022), the most significant developments have occurred afterward, including: Joint publications (since 2023) Participation in the College of Experts (2024) A jointly accepted conference session (2025) The extension of a consultancy project (2023) |
| Collaborator Contribution | DCMS and UCL have collaborated on multiple occasions. Alongside ITHACA, there has also been collaboration with IPSOS on a consultancy project evaluating the impact of government-funded improvements in UK museums. This project has been notably strengthened by ITHACA. |
| Impact | It is highly multidisciplinary (cultural economics, heritage management and heritage science). The methodologies cover risk assessment, chemical degradation of collections and economic valuation. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | DCMS |
| Organisation | Ipsos MORI |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | On the back of this project, a close working relationship has developed with DCMS, reflected in an appointment of the PI to the College of Experts. This is an independent process, but the experience gained in ITHACA played a strong role in stregthening the application. While some aspects of the collaboration began before the award (2022), the most significant developments have occurred afterward, including: Joint publications (since 2023) Participation in the College of Experts (2024) A jointly accepted conference session (2025) The extension of a consultancy project (2023) |
| Collaborator Contribution | DCMS and UCL have collaborated on multiple occasions. Alongside ITHACA, there has also been collaboration with IPSOS on a consultancy project evaluating the impact of government-funded improvements in UK museums. This project has been notably strengthened by ITHACA. |
| Impact | It is highly multidisciplinary (cultural economics, heritage management and heritage science). The methodologies cover risk assessment, chemical degradation of collections and economic valuation. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Title | General Collections Degradation Model |
| Description | Within this project we have created a simulation model capable of predicting the future degradation of museum collections due to a large diversity of risks. It is the first of its kind and it is being used in this project and related work with DCMS to evaluate the lifetime of collections. |
| Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | At present, it is used within the project. It has been presented and has sparked considerable debate and excitement in the sector, but as far as we know, it does not yet have users beyond the project. |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.01192 |