Preserving Collections in the Age of Sustainability Course

This course, held March to December 2017 at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and July 2019 to May 2020 at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, brought together different disciplines, emerging knowledge, and the skills required to communicate and build consensus on the most appropriate approaches for climate control. It provided up-to-date information that put theory into practice and connected with participants' working contexts by drawing on their experiences and by fostering continued learning through distance mentoring.
Managing collection environments while providing long-term access to cultural materials requires a complex set of technical, analytical, and social skills. The preservation of collections has evolved into a discipline that has acknowledged the complexities and uncertainties that are present at all stages of environmental management. Recent and on-going debate about appropriate climates has eroded the certainty of prescriptive approaches to reveal that no single field of study holds the solution and no one solution can be applied universally.

This innovative course brought together different disciplines, emerging knowledge, and the skills required to communicate and build consensus on the most appropriate approaches for climate control. It will provide up-to-date information that puts theory into practice and connects with participants' own working contexts by drawing on their experiences and by fostering continued learning through distance mentoring.

The course aimed to disseminate recent research and thinking on technical aspects of environmental management while enhancing participants' critical thinking and analysis to different kinds of information and enhance their decision-making and influence within institutional frameworks.

• Update and refresh technical knowledge in order to analyze and communicate collection risks
• Discuss the management of collection climates from the perspectives of architects, conservators, curators, facilities managers, scientists, and institutional administrators
• Blend the experience and knowledge of experts with your own institution's situation
• View problems and solutions within institutional contexts, while exploring decision-making that balances all issues and stakeholders and builds towards institutional consensus
• Help develop holistic, sustainable solutions that are based on the needs and capacities of your institution
• Develop a network of professionals dedicated to sustainable preservation of historic material

The course covered a range of topics from analysis of the situation to implementation of decisions. Topics included: climates and building envelopes, material response to climate, causes and concepts of "damage", monitoring and data analysis, risk-based approaches, sustainable options for control and management practices, long-term strategies, program briefing, strategies for communication, and leadership.

The course was presented in three phases: 1) ten-week online learning; 2) two-week, in-person intensive workshop, 3) six-month distance mentoring.

To support informative classroom discussion and embed learning in practice, the course commenced online with tasks, readings and discussion. All participants were required to complete a number of assignments during this initial phase of the course; some assignments will require information-gathering and consultation with other institutional colleagues. Participants needed 2-3 hours per week to complete work assigned during the initial 10-week phase. The second phase was held on-site. The third and final phase of distance mentoring was individual to each participant.

• Provided up-to-date knowledge on technical advances, practical implementation, and decision-making skills for collection preservation
• Blended learning with participants’ experience through the use of case-based learning, including exercises related directly to participants’ institutions, and in-practice mentoring
• Helped develop participants’ personal skills to communicate, justify ideas, and to understand and respond collaboratively to other perspectives and needs