Conservation in the Community: Collection Storage, Environmental Monitoring and PNA
I have had the pleasure of working closely with the staff at Fairfield City Museum and Gallery over the last year. The Fairfield City Museum and Gallery had begun the enormous task of digitising their entire collection and this prompted some upskilling of staff in object handling and collection storage.
I was contacted in late 2019 and the project developed into several separate full day site visits on practical activities and a comprehensive Preservation Needs Assessment (PNA) of the collection.
Laure Prouvost - All That Is Here With The Two Cockatoo Too (Dog Leg Tunnel)
Collection Storage
The focus of the site visits was to work closely with individual staff and on specific collection types and storage locations and provide guidance on condition, vulnerability, storage and handling.
We began with a board overview of the entire collection. Together we walked through each building and discussed objects, access, handling, collection storage options and any concerns. Fairfield City Museum and Gallery has two temporary exhibition spaces, The Stein Gallery and The Old Council Chambers and the Vintage Village which comprises 8 small historic buildings which are on permanent display. These spaces are embraced by the community with scheduled school visits, regular workshops and art classes.
Each building and display area posed various challenges for the staff. The overview allowed both myself and the staff to determine the priority areas and plan for future visits.
We enjoyed three days thoroughly delving into each drawer, box, cabinet, compactus and building. Discovering objects such as domed photographs, textiles, badge collections, certificates, musical instruments, objects related to local industry, ceramics and many more. I provided recommendations and practical demonstrations on handling and archival storage options for each material type.
How to pack a textile object. How many objects in a box. Labelling options for ceramics, textiles and paper based collections.
New storage at Fairfield City Museum and Gallery
What type of materials? Tissue? Tyvek? Polyester? And which box?
It was delightful to return after the first site visit to see the work that staff had implemented. The beautifully packaged objects. The neatly applied labels. The supported textiles. Staff were now able to easily locate objects, confident in their handling and this was of great benefit during the digitisation program for Heritage Collections.
The Blacksmiths Workshop
Environmental Monitoring
In addition to the practical sessions Fairfield City Museum and Gallery followed my advice and purchased several data loggers to monitor the environmental conditions within various spaces. Staff knew that the environment was not ideal but had no evidence of the conditions. The data loggers provided a clear graph of conditions and therefore during each site visit we would download the graphs and discuss the issues.
I provided explanations of how to interpret the data, what to look for and any areas of concern such as high temperature or relative humidity within a given space. We discussed the importance of positioning the logger and how this is reflected in the graphs that are produced. Over the summer months it was interesting to see how each building responded with the rise in temperature. And this last summer certainly had some extreme days.
The staff are now quite familiar with how to use the loggers and I have referred them to the AICCM Environmental Guidelines to use as a guide on the parameters that they should be aiming for. I hope that they are able to use the monitoring system, data and graphs to support applications for storage improvements.
The PNA for Fairfield was comparable to 10 mini preservation needs due to the quantity of buildings and diversity of collections
Preservation Needs Assessment
The final phase of the project was the development of a Preservation Needs Assessment (PNA). This was due to commence in March however due to COVID19 lockdowns and restrictions we postponed the site visit.
An important part of the PNA process is identification of the significance of the collection and/or individual objects within the collection and gathering of background information. Roslyn Russell Museum Services conducted the Significance Assessment for FCMG and I used this during the PNA. During the COVID lockdown staff and I continued correspondence via email to gather all the relevant information for the PNA.
The PNA for Fairfield was comparable to 10 mini preservation needs due to the quantity of buildings and diversity of collections. When lockdowns were lifted we arranged a site visit within COVID Safe Guidelines. Each building was assessed in detail, described and analysed for its risks, level of protection of the collection, environmental factors, collection contents and recommendations made accordingly.
Developing a plan that would work with the staff levels, resources and budget was an enjoyable challenge. It was important to establish priorities according to risk and provide recommendations that fit within the budget. Plus incorporate longer term recommendations that allow funding to be allocated and planning to be implemented.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with all the staff at Fairfield City Museum and Gallery and I hope that by sharing some of my knowledge and experience that they are confident in planning for the preservation of the Collection.
