The winners of the Icon Conservation Awards 2015 were announced at a ceremony hosted by the Royal Academy of Art’s Artistic Director Tim Marlow on Thursday 22 October 2015 at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The 2015 Anna Plowden Award for Research and Innovation was won by Tate, for the Rothko conservation project.   MANY congratulations to the Tate team!

The projects shortlisted for the 2015 Award are: The Magna Carta Project  The British Library IWM and the War Against Dust: Space vacuums, air bazookas and duster drones  Imperial War Museum The Rothko Conservation Project  Tate 

Thanks to fundraising success in recent years, the Trustees were able to award more bursaries than ever before - 19 awards to students studying on 13 courses at nine different institutions across the UK.

The Anna Plowden Trust has supported the Conservation Awards for many years and the Trustees are pleased to be able, once again, to offer The Anna Plowden Trust Award for Research and Innovation in Conservation as part of the 2015 Awards.

The Icon Conservation Awards 2015 are sponsored by Beko and the awards themselves are offered by a number of partners including the Pilgrim Trust, the Institute for Mechanical Engineers and the Anna Plowden Trust as well as by Beko

Two practising conservators who are past recipients of Conservation Bursaries from the Anna Plowden Trust, Tristram Bainbridge and Carol Weiss, have joined the Trust's board. Tristram is a furniture conservator in private practice who also teaches at West Dean and Carol is a paper conservator at the British Museum.

Seventeen bursaries have been awarded for the 2014-15 academic year to individuals who will be studying on 12 different conservation programmes at 15 institutions.  Specialisms to be studied include: stained glass, textiles, paintings, books and paper, archives, archaeological collections and ceramics.

We are delighted to announce that more companies operating in the conservation sector have agreed to lend their support to the Anna Plowden Trust.  

The most recent companies to become Corporate Supporters are:

Willard Conservation Ltd have agreed to become Founder Corporate Supporter of the Anna Plowden Trust. Paul Willard said, "as one of the world's leading producers of conservation tools and equipment, Willard Conservation is delighted to support the Anna Plowden Trust".

Natalia Zagorska-Thomas benefitted from an Anna Plowden Trust Conservation Training Bursary whilst she was studying on the MA Textile Conservation in 2003-4.  Natalia is now a freelance Textile Conservator.