Prepping for the American Institute for Conservation / Canadian Association for Conservation Meeting in Montreal

Preservation professionals are getting ready for the joint American Institute for Conservation/ Canadian Association for Conservation’s joint meeting in Montreal, May 13-18. I like to use the term “preservation professionals” rather than conservators. Many of us work closely together to … Continue reading

Share the Care: AIC’s Collection Care Network and the International Association of Museum Facility Administrators Joint Meeting in Montreal, May 13-14, 2016 at AIC and CAC Annual Meeting

Think about it: how much time do you spend working with colleagues to achieve preservation-conducive conditions at your institution and managing expectations? How much of that work have you had to do on the fly? In the hall? At lunch? … Continue reading

ARCS and PACCIN at New Orleans: Collections Stewardship’s Bright Future

Originally published at rebeccafifieldpreservation.com. Lots of folks go to New Orleans for conferences. Within the distinctive streets of the French Quarter, it’s not uncommon to trip across people tagged with conference badges. The overtones of business lend an air of … Continue reading

Conservation: We Can Be The Culture of Yes

When it comes to risk in a museum, library, or archive, what is worth it? What isn’t? How do we assess and mitigate collection risks and outreach strategies so that the institution’s stakeholders may benefit from access to collections in new … Continue reading

Museum Monday: Off to Miami! American Institute for Conservation’s Annual Meeting

I’m headed to Miami for the American Institute for Conservation’s Annual Meeting. I look forward to seeing friends and hearing about the hard work they have been doing in preserving our cultural heritage. I’ll be seeing a lot of the … Continue reading

A Brutally Intelligent Exhibition: War-Damaged Works at the Bode Museum Drive a Discussion about Conservation

When preservation fails, do we have the courage to discuss where to go next? Opening today, 19 March 2015 at the Bode Museum is The Lost Museum, an exhibition of 70 works damaged in World War II. Bullet holes, damage to faience … Continue reading

The Pain of Mosul – A Preservation Professional’s Perspective

I have spent my life caring for cultural heritage. As a museum collection manager, my work aims to preserve the physical and intellectual values of collections by limiting risks, such as pollutants, inappropriate environment, pests, physical distortion, loss of information, … Continue reading

Museum Monday: Collection Care’s Identity Crisis

You might have had it happen. You are working in the gallery, grimacing at the amount of dust that’s built up, gently stroking a brush across an object’s surface with vacuum in hand, and a well-meaning supporter or visitor mouths … Continue reading

Museum Monday: American Institute for Conservation Annual Meeting

I spent the last week of May in Indianapolis at the American Institute for Conservation‘s Annual Meeting. I’ve been a member of AIC for about 10 years, and this conference was the best I’ve attended. Hats off to the staff … Continue reading

Museum Monday: Tyvek Pillows for Object Transport

Never use sad, crumpled up pieces of tissue again for object transport! Switch to Tyvek pillows. While this isn’t a new idea, I assembled at least fifty of these in the last couple of years. I work with ethnographic sculpture, … Continue reading