Tag: environmental control

Survey: "Know anyone using display cases or glazed frames?"

Survey logoUniversity of Warwick SURVEY INVITATION FOR:

“Users of display cases & glazed frames for local environmental control of indoor heritage collections”

This survey (closing July 1st) aims to capture the recent behaviours & opinions of enclosure users from around the world – at a time of changing environmental guidelines.

It takes 20 – 30 minutes depending on the respondent’s experience.

Heritage conservators, registrars, curators etc are encouraged to consider completing the survey and to forward this announcement to colleagues in their workplace, region & international networks.

The survey is looking for responses from people around the world working for heritage institutions of all sizes & types, and with any level of experience.

A conservator researching heritage microclimates at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom designed the survey.

It was tested with conservators & scientists working for metropolitan and regional institutions in the United Kingdom & France:

  • The British Museum
  • C2RMF, Louvre Museum
  • Museum of London
  • English Heritage
  • Birmingham Museums Trust
  • The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum

It is expected this research will guide the future manufacture, testing, use & maintenance of enclosures for more sustainable conservation of vulnerable exhibits.

The results will first be presented at the Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology Conference taking place on Tuesday 14 & Wednesday 15 July 2015 at UCL, London. 

The Powerpoint presentation for that conference will be emailed to survey respondents who choose to be contacted. It will also be publically available for download – with a link from LinkedIn’s “Exhibit Enclosure Environments” discussion group. An extended written analysis & discussion of the results, in the form of a paper, will be submitted for publication to open access and peer-reviewed international heritage conservation journals.

Survey closing date: Wednesday, 1 July 2015 

Survey is here: https://goo.gl/5OqbkA 

Alternatively the survey can be shared via social media:

— James Crawford, PhD student, Department of Physics, University of Warwick

Committee On Sustainable Conservation Practices Collaborates with NEU Environmental Engineers and MFA Boston

On May 30, 2013 at this year’s AIC meeting in Indianapolis, the Committee for Sustainable Conservation Practices (CSCP) will host its second lunch session, “Linking the Environment and Heritage Preservation: Life Cycle Assessment of Loans, RH Parameters and Lights.” CSCP and environmental engineers from Northeastern University will present our collaborative project that examines the sustainability of loans, exhibitions and environmental control from cradle to grave based on case studies at the Museum Fine Arts, Boston.  After the presentations, lunch session attendees will have the opportunity to work with the CSCP and our guest speakers as we break out into groups and brainstorm about the next phase of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) project.  We will discuss how to implement the LCA findings- create blueprints and methods for new, sustainable best practices.
Since the 1990s industries and businesses have applied a quantitative method to evaluate the environmental and economic impact of materials use and related activities.  The process, called a life cycle assessment, looks at issues from cradle to grave by evaluating data using a range of computer software programs.  An LCA is a method developed to better understand and quantitatively address the environmental impacts associated with manufactured and consumed products throughout a lifecycle from raw material acquisition through production, use, end-of-life treatment, recycling and final disposal (cradle-to –grave).   To carry out an LCA, an issue, material, or action is researched, quantitative values are assigned to each aspect of a life cycle, and the values are inserted into selected database(s).  Software processes the data and the results are evaluated, analyzed and applied.
This tool can be incredibly useful to the art/heritage conservation community as we work towards determining sustainable best practices that will reduce energy consumption and lower related costs.  The LCA results can be implemented to achieve more efficient heating/cooling and lighting methods.  It can clarify cost and energy benefits that might result from wider relative humidity parameters and new lighting methods.  Through evaluating all aspects of loans and exhibitions, the LCA results can help museum staff to reduce associated waste and carbon footprint.
AIC CSCP/Northeastern University LCA Projects
The CSCP has collaborated with Northeastern University environmental engineer Dr. Mathew Eckelman and his students to conduct three LCAs related to museum activities and collections care. LCA 1 studies environmental control and energy and costs savings; LCA 2 looks at loans and exhibitions to identify the most and least sustainable aspects; LCA 3 will include a comparative lighting study. The Northeastern students are working with conservators and museum maintenance staff at the Museum Fine Arts, Boston to become familiar with museum practices and to set the LCAs in an actual environment. Their work will complete the first phase of this project in May 2013.  In the second phase, the LCA findings and proposed methods will be presented at future meetings, workshops and through publications to educate the AIC community and related fields about our work.
LCA Defined: www.epa.gov; www.iso.org; www.quantis-intl.com