Course
Outline:
1) Introduction
2) Agents of Deterioration
3) Health and safety for the object and for you
4) Equipment and supplies
5) Cleaning techniques
6) Documentation
7) Spring Cleaning: Housekeeping Manual
8) Conclusion
Logistics:
Participants in Museum Cleaning Basics work through
sections at their own pace. Instructor Gretchen Anderson is
available for scheduled email support. Materials and resources
include online literature, slide lectures and dialog between
students and online chats led by the instructor. The course is
limited to 20 participants. To reserve a spot in the course,
please pay at http://www.collectioncare.org/tas/tas.html
If you have trouble please contact Helen Alten at
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Student Comments for MS217:
Museum Cleaning Basics:
The course content and lectures were very informative, the
instructors were very helpful and pleasant, and the assignments,
particularly the hands-on tests and cleaning, brought the
lectures to life, as we practiced what we had learned.
I liked the examples that followed the explanations. This helped
to visually show what had been discussed.
A very informative course…instructors were very knowledgeable
and made the Powerpoint lectures fun. I give you an "A"!
I liked the fact that the class was extremely well organized. We
did not waste time while the instructor figured out what to do
next.
I liked that high museum standards were pushed for cleaning
(this is very important), but that the instructor (Gretchen
Anderson) did not condemn those who could not implement every
single facet. I know we can implement most, but not every single
thing at my institution. This is certainly the case at museums
smaller than my institution. I believe every museum employee
wants the very best for the museum artifacts, but sometimes
institutional funds prevent full implementation. Nevertheless,
people should know best museum practices and strive to meet them
as much as possible.
The Instructor:
Objects conservator Gretchen Anderson learned
her craft at the American Museum of Natural History, the
Smithsonian's Conservation Analytical Lab, the Canadian
Conservation Institute, Getty Conservation Lab, the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, and the Minnesota Historical Society. She
established the conservation department at the Science Museum of
Minnesota in 1989. She is the co-author of A Holistic
Approach to Museum Pest Management, a technical leaflet
for the American Association for State and Local History and
established a rigorous IPM program for the Science Museum. She
was a key member in the planning team that designed and built a
new facility for the Science Museum of Minnesota. This endeavor
resulted in not only a state of the art exhibition and storage
facility, but also a major publication about the experience of
building a new museum and creating the correct environments: Moving
the Mountain. In 2009 she accepted the position of
conservator and head of the conservation section at the Carnegie
Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Ms. Anderson is a
member of the American Institute for Conservation and the
Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. She
lectures and presents workshops on preventive conservation, IPM,
cleaning in museums, and practical methods and materials for
storage of collections.