Peters, R. 2008. The Brave New World of Conservation. In Diversity in Heritage Conservation: Tradition, Innovation and Participation - Preprints of the ICOM-CC 15th Triennial Conference. Allied Publishers Pvt Ltd: New Delhi, Vol 1, 185-190. (original) (raw)
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Conservation in Museums and Inclusion of the Non-Professional
Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies
Just as object meanings are defined by people, so too can identities of individuals, groups and communities be implicit in their relationships with particular objects. The transformative quality of the museum environment and display formats, with regard to objects and object relationships, is fundamental to the socio-cultural responsibilities of these institutions and their ability to affect social issues. To understand the potential utility of heritage conservation in this respect, it is necessary to explore the complexity of the relationships that can form between objects and people and so establish some key issues and implications of conservation activities. This paper first addresses the role of materiality and material interactions in the construction and communication of identity aspects, and considers professional conservation with regard to these relationships. It will be shown that material interactions can have great significance concerning identity and that the subjectivity of object values is a key issue in the conservation of material heritage. It will be seen that though the management of heritage can be problematic, the resonance of heritage status gives museums a unique capacity for addressing both intangible and tangible social needs.
Managing cultural heritage beyond professional boundaries: problem or opportunity?
Multifaceted collections preserved in memory institutions show that a more comprehensive approach to the description, management and access of collections is necessary. The traditional distinction between books, documents and works of art falls short when a true image of certain types of collections is required (personal fonds, or mixed collections), also in order to enable the user to find various sources, which are typologically different yet related to one another. The paper proposes a theoretical frame which determines why a more flexible interpretation of professional boundaries is required, both concerning the characteristics of objects and collections, and access to them. Case studies are then proposed, in order to highlight the various ways for carrying out a critical revision of cultural heritage classification.
Call for papers - Contested Conservation - Special Issue Museums & Social Issues
Museum conservation in the West has long focused on the physical preservation of objects. Today, the heritage regime is being questioned and challenged in many ways. If collecting, storing, and exhibiting have participated as epistemological tools in the classification of the world, can artifacts be reconnected to living practices? What changes are needed for concerned communities to take agency in storage? How can we rethink cultural transmission and reconceive the role of collections without reconducting the cultural hegemonies inscribed in their history?
2024
The International Committee for Museums and Collections of Ethnography (ICME) has welcomed through the years museum professionals from around the globe, to discuss and exchange the ideas, values and aspirations that surround ethnographic museums, their communities, and territories. Each year, the conference is organized in a different country, for which a partnership is established with a local museum or cultural institution that serves as a host. ICOM's national, international committees and regional alliances are also invited to play a crucial role, providing this event with a local/international impact, and shaping the themes according to the most urgent needs of our sector. This year, with an inclusive approach and following our desire to promote diversity in all our components, the 2024 edition of our conference will be held at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, whose development for six decades and rich collections of Mesoamerican peoples turn it into one of the largest ethnographic museums in the world, and one of the most relevant institutions for the preservation of the American continent pre-Hispanic and contemporary history.
Museums and Conservation: Integrity, Selection Criteria and Limits of Intervention
The concept of integrity of objects under conservation is composed of at least twelve interrelated parameters, namely the material, structural, aesthetic, conceptual, artistic, historic, integrity of the parts of a whole, archival, scientific, cultural, religious and the social. In practice this interrelation mostly takes the form of conflicts, which obstruct the work of the conservator and set him before dilemmas of choices regarding the preferred dimension. This paper stresses the holistic character of integrity, identifies conflicts among its parameters through examples from applications and proposes a framework of objective criteria for the resolution of those conflicts. The objectivity of these criteria rests in their origin, i.e. they are preferred either because they have been officially recognized by the international community, or because they are embedded in the collective conscience of an entire nation, or, finally, because they are merely the product of science. The inclusion of the proposed framework among the postulates and general principles of conservation will provide useful guidelines for decision making as to the identification, in each case, of the most salient components of integrity that will in turn indictate the nature and limits of the conservation treatment.
From the Guest Editor The Dollars and Sense of Managing Archaeological Collections
Heritage Management, 2010
Archaeological collections, including artifacts, associated records and reports , are part of the irreplaceable and nonrenewable archaeological record, yet are often threatened. Sometimes a collection is never taken out of the original field bags and either decays in those containers or the labels on the bags disappear. With the provenience information lost, the research value of the collection is greatly reduced. Sometimes a collection is properly bagged, labeled, and boxed using archival quality containers, but those containers are stored in a garage or under a stairway in a university building for "safekeep-ing. " Instead, the collection becomes lost or abandoned by the original investigator who goes out of business, changes universities, retires, or passes away. Sometimes a collection makes it to a repository in good condition, but the repository does not have the resources to maintain its upkeep through inventory , inspection, and conservation. That collection then becomes less accessible for exhibit, research, resource management, interpretation, education, and heritage uses. These are just a few of the scenarios of loss and inaccessibility that often occur due to the significant costs to recover and manage archaeological collections in perpetuity. These costs are generally poorly understood and seldom budgeted for, a chronic problem across the globe (e.g., Mabulla 1996; Perrin 2009). For years, archaeologists rarely covered the expenses of long-term curation, including cataloging, conservation, and packaging, in their field project budgets and expected museums to take on those responsibilities and related costs (Sonderman 2004; Sullivan and Childs 2003; Swain 2007). In the US, museums and repositories actually curated a large number of collections for free, especially collections owned by government agencies, up through the 1980s and 90s (e.g., Collins et al., this volume). They did so in exchange for full access to the collections for exhibit, research, and teaching. When federal and state historic preservation laws were enacted in the 1970s, the number of collections recovered began to sharply increase. Regulations for the curation of federal collections, "Curation of Federally-Owned and Administered Archeological Collections" (36 CFR 79), also were promulgated to improve standards of federal collections care. Subsequently, repositories
Conservation Practices in Museums
2022
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Decolonising Museum Conservation Practice: A View from the UK
This paper examines how museum practice around decolonisation is reflected in conservation practice. It reviews changing conservation attitudes through guidelines and seminal publications. It charts changes in conservators' approach, especially regarding the treatment of artefacts belonging to Indigenous and underrepresented groups, mainly in the UK and English-speaking world. I suggest that current changes to conservation practice are not radical but are part of a slow and considered trajectory.
Contemporary Museum Policies and the Ethics of Accepting Human Remains
Curator: The Museum Journal, 2014
The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology has a policy of accepting all offered human remains into its collections. These remains come from law enforcement agencies and private persons. By accepting Native American and other human remains, the museum assumes all associated legal, ethical, and financial obligations, including complying with NAGPRA regulations and state laws regarding archaeological human remains. However, many museums are ill equipped to accept responsibility for-or have policies againstaccepting human remains. There are costs and benefits associated with accepting human remains and associated objects that each museum must consider. We explain the perspective of the Maxwell Museum in its continuing policy of accepting human remains and NAGPRA objects, and explore the consequences of that decision. We also present the results of a survey concerning museums' policies on and experiences with accepting new collections of human remains and artifacts.