Beyond the craft of conservation, Amerrudin is also consulted on the patterns of the gallery’s operations. His team needs to consider factors such as the budget and space allocation.
“There needs to be a strategy,” says Amerrudin. “How to store [the artworks], when to display and the capacity of the storage area. For example, how big or heavy is the artwork? How many years can the area contain the artwork?”
“Your collection is ever expanding so you need to estimate for ten years, 20 years ahead,” says Ameruddin. Other considerations include the cost of electricity: after all, storage rooms need to be kept at a certain temperature.
“We are not a for-profit corporation. We are a non-profit and using taxpayers’ money,” Amerrudin points out.
All acquired artworks are part of the national collection and cannot be sold to generate income in any way. So what happens if the gallery wants to acquire a new artwork but does not have the necessary funds?
“There is a clause called ‘deaccessioning’,” explains Amerrudin. “Deaccessioning means if we have a lot of artworks and we feel like we need to acquire more, we can exchange with another museum.”
The conservation team has also been working on projects outside the gallery. For example, they have recently been restoring a wall mural in
Sultan Suleiman Mosque, Klang. It was built in the 1930s and over the years, the original mural paintings were covered with limewash while some areas were cemented over.
Several public sculptures around town falls under Balai's upkeep too. However, sometimes a sculpture with national and historical significance belongs to another government body. Amerrrudin laments the incident in 2016 when the
Puncak Purnama (Lunar Peaks) sculpture by Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal was demolished by DBKL, without Balai’s consultation.
While Malaysian art history is comparatively young, Balai’s collection is important because it denotes significant events in our socio-political history as well as marks the paradigms of changing art practices.
Although Amerrudin’s name may not hang on the wall alongside the artists, his job helps to secure these artworks for future generations.