Preventive Conservation: Museum Collections and Their Environment

November 6 to November 24, 1995, Oaxaca, Mexico

The Getty Conservation Institute, in cooperation with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), will be offering this course for conservators and conservation scientists who have worked in museums in Latin America. The course focuses on the technical and organizational factors that affect implementation of preventive conservation. It combines technical information on the museum environment with a review of strategies for working with museum colleagues and other specialists to integrate preventive conservation into museum policies and operations. With the assistance of an advisory group of Latin American conservators and scientists, the GCI has adapted the curriculum of this annual GCI course to reflect the needs of museums in the region.

Course topics will include: how the museum building functions as a buffer for the collections; historic and contemporary buildings as museums; monitoring and controlling temperature, relative humidity, and light; controlling external and internal pollutants; integrated pest control; preventive conservation in exhibitions and storage; packing and transit; and management and implementation of preventive conservation policies. Instruction will be in the form of lectures, case studies, discussions, demonstrations, and exercises.

For further information, please contact Kathleen Dardes of the GCI Training Program at 4503 Glencoe Avenue, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA. Telephone: 310-822-2299 / Fax: 310-821-9409.