AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Conservation under the ground is just as important as preservation above the ground. Graves and cemeteries hold answers to many questions we have about the past which are difficult to uncover without disturbing burials. Geophysical methods allow researchers to see beneath the surface in a non-invasive manner. Two of these methods, electrical conductivity (EC) and ground-penetrating Radar (GPR), are being used to identify potential burials in a cemetery with a long history but few markers at the Southwest City Cemetery (sometimes referred to as “Southwest Cemetery”) in Eudora, Kansas.

Geophysics can be useful in cemeteries as a non-invasive tool for conservation. EC and GPR provide valuable data that aids in preservation planning and can inform conservation and risk assessment efforts without any unnecessary disturbance. Additionally, geophysical methods can aid heritage researchers through the identification of unknown burials. In Eudora, Kansas, geoscience is working in conjunction with conservation methods to help preserve generational memory and conserve Southwest Cemetery, an African American cemetery. By providing a non-invasive and efficient way to map and assess subsurface structures and features, geophysics can help to improve our understanding of these important historical and cultural resources, and ensure that they are preserved for future generations (Beven, 1991; Kaulb, 2019). It is postulated that, through a combination of electrical conductivity, ground-penetrating radar, and conservation efforts, an under-represented community in a small Kansas town can come back to life through death.

Southwest City Cemetery was founded in the 1850’s and was the first cemetery in Eudora. As the first cemetery in Eudora, it was used by most of the township for around ten years until white citizens decided to segregate burials. It is unknown exactly what happened, but beginning in the 1860’s Southwest Cemetery became a primarily African American cemetery. Individual accounts have even suggested that white families disinterred their dead and moved them to the new cemetery, ultimately leaving the old cemetery for people of color (Beckman, 2019). The last burial known to take place was in the 1980s, based on visible headstone dates (Beckman, 2019).

Despite over 120 years of use, there are very few grave markings remaining making it difficult for drive-by traffic to know what the plot of land represents. The cemetery was once on the edge of town, but is now at the center of a popular neighborhood. The people interred at Southwest deserve to have their history preserved. Eudora has had a long history of African American occupation, and the goal of this project will be to remember the forgotten and connect them back to the community they rest within. This presentation will provide 1) an overview of the history and background of Southwest Cemetery; 2) results of the geophysical survey and historical research analysis of the site; and 3) recommendations for future preservation opportunities to recognize and remember an important community in Eudora’s history.

Princess Carolina was a South Carolina built, transatlantic trading vessel, launched in 1718. The ship was damaged in a storm in 1729, which resulted in its use as fill material for land expansion efforts in lower Manhattan, New York in the mid-eighteenth century. The remains of the ship were discovered under 175 Water Street in 1982 and were partially excavated. Recovered materials include nearly 400 timbers from the ship’s bow structure along with 14,000 artifacts found within the hull used as landfill of both organic and inorganic materials. All artifacts were sent to Groton, Massachusetts for conservation while a permanent home was identified. In 1985, the collection was donated to The Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Virginia for use in a proposed gallery expansion with conservation efforts continuing for an additional three years. Exhibition of the bow and associated materials never came to fruition, and like many archaeological collections, the assemblage disappeared into storage.

In 2018, conservation personnel began a major project to address the preventive conservation needs of the ship’s timbers which had been housed in non-climate-controlled storage for over 33 years. Following a condition assessment of the timbers, interest in the archaeological materials began to grow as staff across the institution started learning the story of the merchant ship, its artifacts, and why they were so significant. This renewed awareness set the stage for the development of a major rehousing initiative as well as scientific research focused on the effects of sulfur on formerly waterlogged wood, and revealed the incredible variety of objects contained within the fill collection.

However, reviving a project of this scale would take time, financial resources, and required gaining buy-in from Museum leadership, external and internal supporters, and donors. As a result, the rehousing of Princes Carolina’s timbers to appropriate storage was not completed until the summer of 2023. The task necessitated the use of lifting and rigging equipment, multiple personnel, a large mobile freezer, a triage-like artifact documentation and cleaning area, and the reorganization of space within the museum to properly house and provide access to the collection.

This paper will discuss the challenges of reengaging with a dormant archaeological collection and highlight that preventive conservation can be a mechanism to do so using the rehousing of Princess Carolina’s bow timbers as a case study. In addition, the paper will describe the building of project momentum (including fundraising through grants and donors) as well as the development of a multi-year stage-based and flexible conservation work plan.

The JIAA is testing and developing means with which to predict the risk of metal corrosion and ways to both prevent and mitigate corrosion that will lead to practical solutions. The goal is to replace interventive conservation treatments involving costly and toxic materials with non-invasive treatments using green and sustainable products, or simply by controlling the environment on the micro scale when climate control is not available. Our annual minimum and maximum readings in our storerooms range from approximately 32% to 90% RH and 2°C to 40°C. We have developed a protocol that involves testing the voltage, pH, and chloride content of the bronze objects and of their associated soil that provides indications of susceptibility to corrosion. This work was published in the JAIC this year entitled “Integration of Laboratory and Field Measurements on Soil and Bronze Artifacts: Facilitating Conservation Treatment and Management of Archaeological Collections”. We found that the bronzes measuring below a certain pH were most susceptible to corrosion. Burial depth has been found to be an important indicator of the porosity and degree of susceptibility of bronzes to corrosion in storage. Different corrosion processes were identified above and below the dripline in the soil profiles of archaeological sites. Recent tests that monitor oxygen depletion of bronze objects in Escal bags have shown the effectiveness of first drying bronze objects with ethanol and the overall effectiveness of this method for predicting corrosion activity. In some cases, desiccants and oxygen absorbers may not be required for the protection of bronze artifacts. Our recent tests involving microclimates show heat-sealed Escal bags can hold their seal for up to 10 years (and perhaps longer) and that silica gel will remain dry in the bags for this length of time. For these reasons the JIAA is switching from the more costly RP-A oxygen scavengers to color-indicating silica gel (to avoid including rather costly RH strips or dataloggers in the bags). Recent JIAA tests comparing cysteine, AMT, and BTA show cysteine as a much more effective corrosion inhibitor and that this inhibition may be lost through handling or by wetting the object. Corrosion inhibitors may be reserved for those objects destined for display in the museum when climate control is inadequate or non-existent. We have begun testing iron objects to determine if similar means of risk detection and prevention may be applicable. Our student interns have been testing green corrosion inhibitors such as garlic, black pepper, and ginger on copper and mild steel. We have had good results to varying degrees with all green inhibitors tested to date. The corrosion inhibitors were initially tested on new metal test coupons and recently we started testing some of them on archaeological bronzes. Five possible options are presented for the preventive conservation of archaeological bronzes: 1)applying chemical corrosion inhibitors, 2)drying bronze objects in ethanol by immersion before placing them in Escal storage bags, 3)storing bronze objects in Escal with a desiccant such as color-indicating silica gel, 4) storing bronze objects in Escal with an oxygen scavenger such as RP-A, and 5) no protective microclimate or treatments necessary based on the determination of low risk for corrosion.

Preventive conservation is growing: it features in project planning, there are increasing numbers of preventive conservator jobs, and there is greater availability of preventive conservation graduate training opportunities. But is the sign of preventive conservation success the proliferation of preventive conservator positions? Or is it embracing the diversity of perspectives that a range of practitioners bring and a focus on growing practice and engagement? Could the best way to advance preventive conservation be through recognition and development of a range of skill sets to address preventive conservation in different settings?

Preventive conservation may become stronger through growing practice centered on facilitation. To tightly define preventive conservator roles may be to risk the same pitfalls of tightly defining the conservator: to perpetuate transactional conservation relationships and inadvertently create barriers to conservation involvement in greater institutional planning, so critical for preventive conservation success.

Instead of identifying success through anointing practitioners with preventive conservator titles, should we instead build and strengthen collaborative training cohorts, coach future leaders, and work to establish institutional frameworks so critical to the recognition, deployment, and success of preventive conservation approaches? In supporting a range of professionals focusing on preventive conservation, do we instead create professional development benchmarks, providing accessible professional development opportunities for the preventive conservation technician to the director-level operational strategist? Given preventive conservation’s interconnectedness at an institutional level with facilities management, sustainable energy use efforts, storage design, health & safety, climate resilience planning, and other roles, facilitation-forward preventive conservation recognizes the many voices that collaborate in forwarding the field and opens doors.

As I wrote in my blog “How Do We Enhance Collaboration: Do feelings of professional exclusion lead us to seek answers from those most like ourselves?” as part of Dr. Joelle Wickens’s project What is Conservation?, I challenge us to think about the bigger tent of conservation. We need to consider how to develop aptitudes and skills within a range of preventive conservation practitioners that connect outward, toward the finance, operations, capital planning, legal, and government relations areas of our organizations. Growing preventive conservation may focus on multiple stewardship models to staffing preventive care, each with their own strengths.

The Salon Doré, a gilded salon commissioned by a Count to convey a perpetual wedding celebration in 1770 Paris now finds itself in an Arts & Design School in Washington, DC. The Salon came from Paris to DC via a stop in the Fifth Avenue Gilded Age mansion of “Copper King” William Andrews Clark, a one-term Senator from Montana. It may be tempting to think that surviving the French Revolution, shipment across the Atlantic in the early 1900s, then transport down the mid-Atlantic roads of 1925, means that the greatest threats to the Salon’s preservation are over, however, a malfunctioning HVAC and benign neglect from University Facilities have resulted in notable damage to the gilding. The quest to get preservation attention for the room has taken years but by the time of the meeting, the Salon will have been incorporated into a larger HVAC overhaul, new UV film added to the windows, and conservation of the flaking gilding will have taken place.

What makes this case study more dynamic, however, is the effort undertaken to open the Salon to wider use by the School community. The Salon Doré is housed within the 1897 Beaux-Arts building that was built for the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Corcoran College of Art + Design that closed in 2014 and was transferred to the George Washington University. The Salon has been in a bit of limbo since 2014, being both literally and figuratively locked off from the School Community. There were exceptions for access but this was usually in the form of Art History symposia or musical performances in-line with the period of the room’s creation. But in response to the tumultuous events of the recent past, this mindset of use began to feel more and more elitist. Why can’t the Salon be used for a traditional piano recital as well as for a Hip Hop performance? What happens when Social Practice Master’s students want to host a tea and that tea is purple? How to activate the Salon in ways that all will feel welcome – from those who embrace its traditional aesthetic to those who rage against it – were explored more fully this academic year. Part of that journey involved a vibration study embarked upon to set decibel levels that led to the discovery of lingering dampness in one wall as well as the creation of User Guidelines that we realized needed to include the line: “Performance art pieces that use bodily liquids and/or additional organic materials or live animals must be approved by the Exhibition & Performance Associate and Corcoran’s Conservator, Mary Coughlin.” The quest to improve both preservation and access and the hurdles, both anticipated and unforeseen, that have arisen will be addressed.

The word traditional implies immutable, unbroken, or even stagnant. However, traditional methods of caring for cultural heritage can instead be culturally conscious, sustainable, and practical. The practice of using naturally insect-repellent plants to preserve cultural material was not developed for the Conservation of museum collections, but rather to care for items of personal value. Plants that naturally kill or repel insects, or botanical pesticides, have been used by communities throughout the world for centuries to protect valued belongings, including cultural items, from insect damage. Time-tested tools for pest management that utilize locally available plants are part of the shared, intergenerational wisdom, or traditional knowledge, of communities. Traditional knowledge is not static, but ever-evolving as new observations are made and stewards respond to changes in the environment, its resources, and adapt their knowledge to suit evolving needs. One recent adaptation of traditional pest management practices is their application in the preventive care of museum collections. Today, staff at museums in India have adapted the traditional practice of storing dried neem leaves with cultural items, primarily textiles, to keep insects that can feed on these materials safely at bay.

This presentation will describe the traditional methods of pest management that are presently used at museums in Rajasthan, a state in Northwest India, with particular focus on neem. The neem tree (Azadirachta indica) is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, where its pesticidal properties have been understood and utilized for centuries. All parts of the neem tree contain the active ingredient Azadirachtin, a limonoid or antifeedant and insect growth regulator. Unlike other botanical pesticides that are used in pest management, neem leaves are collected from abundant local trees and prepared on-site to be stored with collections, a process that requires no purchasing, packaging, transportation, or energy-consumptive preparation, making it a sustainable and resource-efficient pest management tool. Conversations with staff at museums in India in January and February 2023 informed further research about the effectiveness of neem on museum pests and the effects of neem on collections, including experiments to assess how exposure to neem affects the eating habits of Varied Carpet Beetles, Oddy Testing, and artificial aging experiments.

This research is a direct response to the need for increased accessibility and sustainable practice in Conservation that can be met by promoting preventive care and giving due consideration to traditional methods of caring for cultural heritage. Looking to traditional knowledge for pest management strategies that are locally available and culturally relevant meets the needs of stewards and contributes to a shift in the field of Conservation toward more inclusive and sustainable practice.

How does the community setting impact the conservation process? Thanks to funding for a research project during my 1-year National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in the Book Department at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts I was able to spend a week on site at George Floyd Global Memorial where I remediated mold on over 100 offerings, attended and spoke at the Rise and Remember Conference, and participated in other events for the Rise and Remember Celebration. This work presents the mold remediation process used and summarizes the creation of a quick reference guide for mold remediation for works similar to protest art. Next, the poster explores how the conservation process is adapted to the community setting by considering factors like limited access to resources, work space availability, and the necessity of relationship building. Finally, the poster begins to define the term “street conservation” and discuss its similarities and differences from “art conservation”.

We are experiencing the onset of a long-predicted climate crisis. While certain effects are far from unexpected, how exactly climate change will continue to impact our profession is impossible to predict. This talk will present a toolbox to help encourage professionals in the field of preservation to take action. We will highlight resources and fellow professionals that are innovating in this arena to help make it possible to safely care for cultural heritage without unduly impacting the planet. While this crisis feels daunting, we hope to inspire you and help you to feel part of the community that forms when we approach this problem together.

Roxy is the Clowes Conservator of Paintings at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) at Newfields. She has served on the AIC Sustainability Committee since 2019, and was chair from 2020-2023. Roxy enjoys sharing a vision for a more sustainable future with her professional colleagues and inspiring everyone to find community in this work.

Amy is the Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Book and Paper Conservator at the University of Michigan Library. She has served on the AIC Sustainability Committee since 2020, and is the current co-chair. Amy tempers her climate anxiety by doing things, big and small, to lessen her impact on this beautiful planet.

Engaging learners around climate change in ways that do not antagonize or dishearten is no simple task—one that museums have just begun to tackle. While many have argued that museums can and should be important sites of climate learning (e.g., Anderson & Williams, 2013; Cameron, 2012; Newell et al., 2016), empirical research is still comparatively nascent. Extant work has tended to focus on museum educators (e.g., Geiger et al., 2017), producing valuable knowledge on how to engage learners in productive conversations. Yet, research on exhibits is still quite emergent, at a time when it is critical to consider what specific exhibit elements lead to desired outcomes and what could inhibit such outcomes.

The Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) aims to advance the field by investigating visitor learning at an innovative climate change exhibit, A Climate of Hope, which opened in November 2023 after an intensive, research-based development process. By studying learning at A Climate of Hope—which offers a counternarrative to educational experiences that scare, polarize, and/or exclude—we work towards dismantling the current “spiral of silence” around climate change. Analyzing learners’ discourse and engagement with the exhibit, we seek to understand how design features, message framing, and interactivity of exhibit elements can shape visitors’ learning.

This session will provide an overview of the frames utilized in A Climate of Hope; how they differ from frames used in past exhibits about climate change; how we communicated the frames through interactives, images, and text; as well as what NHMU’s NSF-funded research is revealing about supporting productive learning about climate change among diverse learners in museum settings.

AIC and FAIC’s Commitment to Sustainability 
In June 2023, FAIC published Held in Trust: Transforming Cultural Heritage Conservation for a More Resilient Future. Growing out of a four-year collaboration between FAIC and NEH, the report articulates a vision of a vibrant and resilient future for conservation grounded in social justice, equity, and environmental action. Early in the research process, one topic area repeatedly arose as an issue of critical importance: climate change. It was clear that without addressing the effects of climate change on cultural heritage, the other findings and recommendations from the HIT project became irrelevant.
In strategic planning efforts launched in 2023, both organizations focused on Sustainability and Climate Impact as one of four core values underlying all of our work. We are putting this into action with the 2024 launch of Climate Resilience Resources for Cultural Heritage, expansion of Sustainability Tools in Cultural Heritage (STiCH), sustainability training, consideration of climate impact in the current review of the AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice, and more.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a powerful research tool for evaluating the environmental impact of human activity. The Sustainability Tools in Cultural Heritage (STiCH) project has been a leader in the use of LCA research to analyze conservation-related materials and processes. This panel discussion will feature Dr. Matthew Ecklemann and Sarah Nunberg, two of the principal investigators on the STiCH project, along with Dr. Cassandra Thiel, who uses LCA techniques to analyze various environmental impacts of the medical field. We will discuss some of the basic principles of LCA research, how it has been used in the conservation and medical fields, and its future potential for lowering the environmental impact of our professional activities.

The use of substituted and manufactured ceramic fragments are both known to be historic restoration techniques. Unexpected cracking of an amphora’s handle at The Mariners’ Museum and Park, in Newport News, Virginia, would lead to a treatment full of pivots. As will be highlighted, through conservation, it was identified that three to four different amphoras had been used to reconstruct a Dressel 1 type held together internally by iron dowels. Lack of information relating to this reconstruction made the discovery a surprise. Only when the iron dowels in the ceramic had begun to corrode was there an indication that alterations had been made to the artifact.

While keeping the historic reconstruction would highlight past techniques and allow for interpretation to use it for display, the instability of the iron dowels meant further damage to the amphora was inevitable if left in place. Discussion with curators about the reconstruction and understanding of the Frankenstein-like nature of the amphora changed as treatment progressed.

This paper will provide an overview of the treatment and ethical challenges associated with the mechanical removal of the embedded iron dowels and additional reconstruction materials along with overpaint, and artificially applied marine growth. In addition, discussion will be given to what was learned about the composite object’s history during the conservation treatment and how that knowledge plus treatment limitations led to a final decision on how the object would be presented post-conservation.

Since its abandonment in 1775, the mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi has undergone severe erosion and loss. Although its incorporation into Tumacácori National Historical Park in 1990 has guaranteed protection, the site’s preservation still challenges the park as to the best methods for its interpretation and display.

Current conservation measures employ the application of a sacrificial mud shelter coat, a technique commonly employed at the park and at other exposed NPS adobe ruin sites. These protective shelter coats, however, have rendered the eighteenth-century adobe church and associated mission structures difficult for the visiting public to understand and appreciate.

This research examines the use of repeat photography and virtual reconstruction of Guevavi Mission to visualize and quantify deterioration of the church while also improving visitor understanding of the site. Repeat photography processed through JuxtaposeJS provides an interactive mode of viewing changes over time, while 3D modeling creates a digital reconstruction of the complex during its occupation. Both methods taken together also provide a a semi-quantitative means of documenting material loss of the Guevavi Mission church over time and monitoring loss and the efficacy of current and future preservation methods.

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is preparing 201 ancient Cypriot artifacts for permanent installation in the historic Museum of Art building in Sarasota, FL. This installation will constitute the first significant and extensively researched and interpreted exhibition at our museum, highlighting a small portion of the over 3,000 antiquities in the collection, which is the third largest collection of its kind in North America. A majority of these objects were purchased by John Ringling in the late 1920s from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was deaccessioning a portion of their extensive collection of ancient Cypriot art excavated by Luigi Palma di Cesnola in the late 19th century. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the goals of the Cypriot Conservation Project and how it fits within the context of a busy and vibrant museum program, as well as highlight the various challenges and successes that have presented themselves amidst other institutional priorities and a demanding staff workload. These challenges include managing unexpected shifts in the overall project timeline and funding, balancing other demands on staff time, and the availability of contracted conservators to assist. In addition, shifts in treatment approach based on research, collaboration, examination, and preliminary testing, and their impact on the overall installation design will also be discussed. Finally, the primary author will reflect on her experience managing the conservation end of this complex project and lessons learned while preparing these extraordinary and unique objects for display.

The need to transport a valuable work of art or cultural heritage object continues to strike fear into the hearts of many conservators. This fear is often fanned by the one or other anecdote about a “major disaster” which occurred during a museum loan. The lack of experimental data on what objects can take in terms of vibration and/or shock, and the lack of a proper background in mechanical properties of materials and mechanics in the conservation profession are also major contributors to this fear, a fear of the unknown as it were.

While such testing is lacking, there is actually a large source of data which can place the fear of transport in context or even allay that fear, and can also be used to assist in providing guidelines for transport decision-making. This source of data is all of the loan transport documentation stored in the registration systems of museums and other institutions themselves.

The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) therefore conducted a two-year project to investigate the statistics of loan transport, in particular, how often damage occurred. Fourteen museums on four continents were found which were willing to participate anonymously in the study. The author spent approximately one week at each of the museums going through their transport documentation starting from the most recent completed loan, and then going back chronologically until he ran out of time. The study thus covered a period between roughly 2015 and 2022. The author looked for the following information,

* type of objects loaned
* where they went
* how they were transported
* how they were packaged
* whether there were “changes” based on courier reports.

The information was carefully documented for analysis. Any “changes” noted in the courier reports were color-coded based on how serious the changes were considered to be, and then discussed with the museum staff (conservators and registrars) at the end of the week. All of the information was then anonymized so that no one could even indirectly know which museums participated in the study.

At the time of the writing of this abstract, the data from over 500 loans and 3600 objects had already been analyzed. Changes were reported for 177 of the 3600 objects, which actually is over 7200 movements to and from the loaning museum with some objects having multiple destinations. of those changes, 136 occurred during transport and the rest during exhibition. Only 14 (fourteen) of the changes during transport were considered to be serious Most of the reported changes, whether serious or not, were ultimately caused by poor handling and human error, and not by vibrations or shock transport vibrations and shock in and of themselves.

The results of this statistical study show the number of “serious” changes to objects in transport is quite low compared to the number of object movements. As is well known, statistical studies can be interpreted in a number of ways, valid or not. However, studies such as this containing a large amount of data provide a solid basis and food for thought when considering the future of loan transport.

One can consider the following thoughts:

- The statistics show that the probability that something “serious” will happen to an object under current ways of transporting objects is low. This should allay fears caused by “what-aboutism”, the citation of a single “disaster” as the reason for limiting loan transports, and/or trying to develop expensive high-tech solutions for vibration and shock mitigation. The exception is not the rule.

- on the other hand, the statistics do not necessarily give museum administrators carte blanche to consider cost-saving measures such as the increased use of virtual couriers. While vibrations and shock per se are not the main cause of changes in object condition, the human factor appears to be the cause of most changes reported during loan transport.

- In the past, this author has suggested the development of a “vibration-dosimeter” to determine how often an object is exposed to a vibration (and/or shock) environment. In fact, the transport documentation which museums have is, in fact, a form of dosimeter. If one goes all the way back through the records, one can determine which objects have been loaned more frequently and whether they incurred changes in the past. By looking at their own records, conservators and museum staff therefore do not have to work in the dark when dealing with transport loans.

- and as a final afterthought, this study also begs the question as to whether museums should even be organizing so many special (blockbuster) exhibitions with the concomitant number of loans.

Changing ideas about community engagement in museums and promoting access to collections can lead to unexpected and unconventional exhibition environments, that many conservators would consider dangerous to fragile objects. When a curator chooses to mount a daring exhibition that breaks with precedent and shakes things up, how can conservators and mount makers rise to the challenge to support that effort and make sure it is just precedent that is broken, and not the precious objects themselves?

Such was the case recently in the Harvard Art Museums, when an exhibition of porcelain sculpture by the contemporary artist Arlene Shechet was combined with the museum’s collection of 18th century Meissen porcelain. The artist and curator imagined an exhibition without vitrines on pedestals and wall cases, or barriers around clusters of porcelain suspended from the ceiling. The proposal was unexpected–and even shocking. The works would be densely packed into a relatively small gallery, all within easy handling distance of museumgoers. Conservators and mount makers exercised both creativity and diplomatic advocacy to protect the objects under their care, while “making it work”.

The conservator’s primary concern was that with conventional metal mounts, the porcelain sculpture, figurines, cups, and saucers would be damaged by the mount itself if objects were grabbed, lifted, or twisted. Therefore, we would have to design mounting systems with built-in flexibility— in effect planning from the start that the objects might be handled by the public.

Thinking outside the box, an entirely novel flexible mounting system was devised to hold a variety of porcelain object types, relying primarily on adhesives, barrier tapes and coatings to allow reversible attachment of the objects to mounts and pedestals. These mounts incorporated flexible rubber elements to allow the plates, cups, figurines, and sculpture to move resiliently when being handled. This was particularly important for the dozens of plates, cups and saucers suspended from the ceiling in constellations within easy reach of the public.

While the conservators and mount makers worked to test and refine the flexible mount designs and materials, they also worked with the exhibition designer, engaging the artist and curator to modify the original plan so that more of the museum’s Meissen collection were placed under vitrines. Objects left exposed to public handling were fastened invisibly using temporary adhesives. Security measures in the gallery were increased, and the numbers of museumgoers in the small gallery at any one time were limited.

The presentation will document the development of the flexible mounting systems from rough proof-of-concept prototypes and mock-ups through to final fabrication and installation, including mistakes made along the way. Novel mounting materials included silicone RTV adhesives, tape barrier systems, flexible elastomer interface pads, as well as bulked B-72 adhesives. Observations and advice will be offered on how to provide constructive feedback to artists and curators on exhibition design, conditions of loan, and other aspects of exhibition planning.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) is a globally recognized cultural institution, with an encyclopedic collection of over 2 million artworks and artifacts spanning 5,000 years of human history. In 2021 the museum launched a new venture, taking advantage of the renovations of Michael C. Rockefeller Wing to organize an international tour of artworks from The Met’s Oceanic a collection. Artwork and artifacts from Oceania are almost exclusively organics, and many of the raw materials used these works contain parts or derivatives of species which are listed on the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), the Lacey Act, and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973.

In preparation for the tour, a dedicated conservator spent approximately 9 months systematically working through the tour pieces in partnership with registrars, curators, onsite scientists and outside experts to correctly identify and document all CITES materials. During this process it became clear that The Met was in need of better training, more resources, and development of an institution wide approach to CITES materials going forward. The challenges facing cultural heritage institutions in identifying material to a species-specific level in compliance with these regulations are different from those faced by natural history collections. Art objects generally incorporate processed derivatives of species, often without associated literature on material sources, making this endeavor particularly challenging and conservators, while trained extensively in material identification, may not be equipped with the expertise needed to correctly identify and name species in all instances. In addition, registrars, curators, and legal counsel all need to understand the process of permit applications fully, as well as developing a knowledge of certain intrinsic limitations, as well various permitting paths and requirements.

Through a deep understanding of the laws, conservators and other stakeholders can ensure that they are meeting international legal standard and requirements in support of these important regulations, while also being able to share cultural materials with the public. To address this knowledge gap at The Met and set a standard for the institution, we have created a working guide for dealing with applicable art objects, in addition the development of a reference library and applicable training. This project was born due to a lack of clear information and protocols relating to the required research and permitting for objects that fall under these laws, forcing many staff, both at The Met and at similar cultural institutions to struggle to produce correct, consistent work, and remain current with evolving rules and regulations. Our quick guide and step by step guide will provide a solution to allow museum professionals to confidently and effectively report their art objects that fall under these laws.

As a result of climate change and land management practices, the United States has seen an increase in the number of severe wildfires, negatively impacting air quality. Cultural heritage spaces have long been invested in preserving their collections, but the increase in hazardous air quality events has prompted additional need for monitoring to protect collections as well as human health. In an effort to assess climate risks to a historic house museum collection, a sampling path and schedule with NOx, total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) and PM1 (particulate matter), PM2.5, and ozone measurements was implemented. Deployment of this instrumentation throughout the collection has helped assess climate control strategies and implement air quality benchmarks for access to these spaces.