Heritage professionals often hear that their collections are “at risk,” but what does this truly mean? How do those charged with protecting collections in museums and other institutions identify the most significant risks? What about smaller ones; what happens if we overlook those? Who is responsible for measuring these risks, especially when the process can seem so technical and uncertain? Would defining and addressing risks help institutions be more sustainable?
Curators, registrars, conservators, conservation scientists, facilities managers, educators, and directors are invited to spend a morning exploring these critical questions in a lecture and interactive Q&A session with conservation scientist and preventive conservation expert Stefan Michalski.
Michalski will guide attendees through the process of embracing quantified risk assessment, highlighting its key components—an essential foundation for developing sustainable preservation strategies.
Following his lecture, Michalski will spend time in a Q&A with the audience. Questions can also be sent in advance to mce@getty.edu.
This session offers a valuable opportunity to gain practical insights into risk assessment, and professionals from across disciplines are encouraged to participate. Diverse perspectives are crucial to this interdisciplinary conversation.
About Stefan Michalski
Stefan Michalski has taught museum risk assessment for over twenty years and been a researcher in preventive conservation for twenty more. He wrote the climate specifications section of the ASHRAE museum chapter in 1999 and worked with the team revising them for 2019. While at the Canadian Conservation Institute and in partnership with ICCROM in Rome, led the development of risk management methods, training, and a detailed manual. Most recently he worked on development of an online risk database in partnership with ICCROM and Fiocruz in Brazil.
This event is presented by the Getty Conservation Institute as part of its Managing Collection Environments Initiative, a program of scientific research and field work toward sustainable management of collection environments in museums, libraries, and archives.