Daly Conservation

The final version of my paper on HVAC shut downs has been written, edited, and turned-in to my advisor Dr. Joelle Wickens.  It will live in the files at Winterthur, and hopefully I will find a forum where I can talk about my findings with other interested conservators or building managers.  This project has made me more aware of groups like the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) who may be interested in energy saving practices from a art conservation point of view.  Following is my project summary:

This study investigates how the environmental parameters required by a collection can be met using sustainable practices.
To save both energy and money it is possible to turn off Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. If the systems are turned off when the buildings are unoccupied it is more likely the conditions in the buildings will remain stable. By turning off HVAC systems for short periods of time, the systems can be run in a more sustainable way as there will be less wear on  motors and fans.  The project researched the practice of these short shut-downs, and included a three-day HVAC shut down test at Winterthur.

Winterthur is a historic house that has 175 period rooms with various materials including: furniture, decorative arts, works of art on paper, books, paintings on wood and canvas, leather, basketry, glass, metals, and textiles. The building has thick masonry walls, insulation, and double pane windows.  The HVAC was installed in the 1960’s. The parameters at Winterthur in the winter are: 68°F-72°F, Relative Humidity (RH) 40% +/- 5%; in the summer the parameters are: 72-75°F, RH 50% +/- 5%. These parameters are a conservative standard for the materials in this collection.
A mild week in September was chosen for the shutdown, as the outside conditions would be similar to the collection parameters. During the 12-hour shutdown it was decided (by Bruno Pouliot) that if there were trends in the temperature and humidity moving quickly away from the parameters the systems would be turned back on.  Monitoring was done in a thorough and
systematic way, with readings taken by: building thermostats, thirteen dataloggers, and the building engineers took readings every two hours with a hand-held hygrothermograph.

The shutdown was for 12-hours, the entire system was turned off from 6:00 PM until 6:00 AM, three nights were tested.   The building temperature and RH remained within the parameters and the systems did not have to be turned on to regulate the environment.

There were fluctuations, the overall trend was that temperatures were elevated a few degrees, and the RH was elevated a few percentages.  The elevated temperature and RH is noticeable in the data charts, but when the data is examined in long time the changes during the shutdown are similar in degree to other general environmental fluctuations.

Interviews with conservators, archivists, and building managers gave insight into similar practices that will or have been taken at other institutions. These professionals described their experiences shutting down systems for days, weeks, or a season in a variety of climates spanning the United States.  They spoke positively about their experiences, the environment in their collections remained stable or improved and they saved energy and funds, in some cases thousands of dollars were saved. Data was also collected about system setbacks, and the buffering ability of buildings with no environmental control. The success of these conservators and of the Winterthur test case may indicate to other museums the possibility of using similar methods to save energy and funds while maintaining the environmental parameters required by their collection.
This research may continue as I move on to my third-year internship, and I will definitely continue to study sustainable facilities management as I find time and support for my research.

Portrait of an articulated skeleton on a bentwood chair,
originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

Here’s a quick blog post to catch up about the project and the strange and wonderful places it has taken me.  I got a huge response from conservators internationally from the posting to the OSG-l and the consdist list.  Since no one is an island, speaking to these conservators has been very helpful for me to realize that There is a great deal of interest in sustainable practices among conservators and collections managers.  I have conducted phone interviews with numerous people, including Sarah Brophey, the co-author of The Green Museum.

One of the more interesting discoveries from these interviews is the sense of responsibility that museum professionals feel toward sustainability.  The sentiments from the  Getty interview with Tim Padfield, Ernest Conrad, and Franciza Toledo demonstrates two sides of the issue that I found really intriguing. Whether sustainability is a moral or a pratical decision.  To me it is both, if the purpose of conservation is to ensure that cultural heritage is preserved, then you should also be working to preserve the environment as well.

I sincerely thank everyone who has contacted me about this project, whether it was to offer data, allow me to interview you about your practices, and especially to those who wrote me quick notes of encouragement or pointed me to someone else who could be helpful.  I have been incredibly impressed by the interest and support I received.

So, where is this project going?  With a 5,000 word limit and I have realized I have so much information that it will have to be more focused.  I will focus on the Winterthur HVAC shut-down test case, and the information I have from other conservators will be summarized in a more general way.

I have already thought about a Phase II for the project, possibly next year or further in the future to study more about what can be done without systems to maintain the correct collection environment.  I hope I will be able to attend the IIC Roundtable at the AIC 2010 meeting in Milwaukee about Guidelines for the Museum Environment. It will be exciting to see the authors of some of the papers I have been reading.

It was a hot night in Montreal, Saturday August 15th.  I had trouble sleeping from the heat, and I took a break from reading guidebooks to watch a fireworks display.  Probably part of some festival, that weekend there were numerous festivals in the city.

In the morning, I decided to see another museum and another church to round off my weekend.  I headed for St. Joseph’s Oratory. At the front of the church pilgrims and the very devoted go up the stairs on their knees, there is a wood staircase just for this reason. It is quite a show, this type of devotion would be seen throughout my visit.  I began with a tour of the crypt.  It is amazing, a windowless vaulted tunnel with 10,000 vigil lights flickering on chandeliers and votive racks.  Collected along the walls are racks of canes and crutches, from pilgrims who came to be cured by Saint Joseph.  It is really moving to see these canes and crutches, I am a Roman Catholic and I do believe   faith will heal you.  From the crypt I walked up to the basilica, sat for Mass for a half-hour, then walked the gardens and the stations of the cross.  I met two young women in traditional clothing who were nice enough to let me take their photo.

I then went to the McCord Museum.  I had heard a great deal about it but I was still not sure what to expect.  I was impressed by their exhibits about the Being Irish O’Quebec, Simply Montreal: Wintering, Enjoying, Prospering, Meeting, eSpace, and an exhibit of photographs of Norman Bethune.

They also have a gorgeous Haida totem in their atrium.

After the McCord I went for lunch and a coffee, then drove back to Vermont to begin the last two weeks of my internship.  I really enjoyed the city, it must be one of the most multicultural places I have ever been.  I hope I can come back to Canada more often, I feel like I have seen so much of Europe that I should spend more time exploring North America.

I recently came across the Museum of Jurassic Technology (http://www.mjt.org/).  I loved reading about the surreal exhibits and a jaunt through the gift shop recommended reading will leave you laughing.  Being a modern kind of girl, I was drawn to the exhibit of modern materials, called “Rotten Luck: The Decaying Dice of Ricky Jay” which is about his collection of dice made of modern materials like Celluloid and Cellulose Nitrate which is falling apart and there is really very little that can be done about it.

It reminded me of the recent Slate article about plastics degradation.  The article was so popular that I received a few e-mails from friends outside of the conservation field asking me what I thought of it.  Plastics are problematic because at a certain point I don’t think you can really bring them back.  You can see in the slideshow of images of Ricky Jay’s dice that once detrioration goes so far, there really is nothing left to consolidate.  Ricky Jay and the Museum of Jurassic Technology are resigned to let the dice deteriorate while on public view.  This decision sounds a call to art conservators, scientists, and artists-we must decide how to deal with the deterioration of plastics in museum collections.