NWCG Meeting November 15th 07

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Venue:

Bolton Museum

Attended:

  1. Pierrette Squires-Conservator, Bolton Museum
  2. Irit Narkiss, Manchester Museum
  3. Rachel Hammond-Conservator, Museum of Science & industry
  4. Fran Clarke- Conservation Assistant, Museum of Science & industry
  5. Mitchell Robinson, Conservation volunteer Bolton Museum
  6. Joanna Lewis, Conservation volunteer Bolton Museum
  7. Vivian Lochead, Conservator, Peoples History Museum
  8. Simon Cottle, Assistant conservator, Eura Conservation.
  9. Emily Somerville, Lancs. CC, LCMS
  10. Jenny Turan, Objects conservator for Lancs. CC, LCMS
  11. Kaye Tetlow: Collections Liaison Officer for MLA and LCMS
  • Introduction-Irit Narkiss, Conservator at Manchester Museum/ Pierrette Squires, Conservator at Bolton Museum.
  • Kaye Tetlow then talked a bit about her new post as Collections Liaison Officer.
  • Feedback: Irit Narkiss, Conservator at Manchester Museum talked about the British Museums’ Conservation Ethics for the 21st century Seminar, which was held in June.
    • Interesting new approaches to conservation ethics are emerging which encourage a change in the way we approach the decision making in the treatment of an object. Much heavier focus on stakeholders.
    • Discussed some examples such as cleaning old dirt from Crompton’s Mule and cleaning / treatment of external exhibits.
  • Conservation documentation: looked at and discussed some condition report / treatment record forms. Very useful to have tick boxes / definitions of terms, words such as good / poor for condition are too subjective particularly if non-conservators are carrying out the condition checking.
    • Fran Clarke has used the Scottish Museums Council, Condition Assessment Tool (CAT) in the past and found it useful to help standardise the approach. This is downloadable from the SMC website. 
    • Irit mentioned that on the 7th Feb there will be a training session on Condition Reporting for curators organised by the MLA at Manchester Museum.
    • Also discussed reports from freelance conservators, content of reports, contracts etc. There is no standard contract or report content. Fran pointed out that often the initial condition reports & treatment proposals contain more detailed information than the final report as the conservators are trying to get the contract.
    • Question: Should we think about trying to use standard definitions of Good, Fair, Poor (etc..) condition within the NW? Would people like to find any existing definitions they can by next meeting and we could try and agree on a standard?
  • Andy Smith, from Daresbury, had emailed to highlight the AHRC/EPSRC Heritage Science Studentships see: www.ahrc.ac.uk/apply/research/sfi/ahrcsi/science_heritage.asp Andy would be happy to help if anyone from the group has research they want to carry out.
  • Pierrette to put info re NW conservators group onto Bolton museum website.
  • Irit brought up the risk of the Textiles Conservation centre in Winchester being shut down due to lack of funding from Southampton University. There is a petition you can sign. see email below:

Dear All,

I am currently studying for an MA at the Textile Conservation Centre (TCC) Winchester, which is part of the University of Southampton. Unfortunately the University is planning the closure of the TCC in the near future due to funding issues.

This facility is extremely important to the heritage of this country and has an outstanding international reputation in the field of textile conservation. If the TCC closes it will be an enormous loss and many well renowned academics will lose their jobs along with the loss of some very important courses.

Please support me by signing up to the petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/TCCClosure/ which I have registered at No. 10 Downing Street, in an effort to raise awareness of this matter and hopefully to secure the future of the TCC whether at Southampton University or some other Academic institution.

Thank you for your support and please forward this message to as many people as you know.

 Regards
 Mandy-Jane Patterson

  • Simon Cottle spoke a bit about the work of Eura conservation; the company works on a lot of large scale & industrial/architectural metal work and employs specialisms such as engineers and blacksmiths besides conservators.
  • There was then a brief discussion about conservation of industrial collections, Rachel Hammond mentioned that she is about to start on the IMAT scheme which trains conservators in industrial machinery conservation-Gary Rag at Hampshire County Council organises this scheme.
  • Pierrette brought up the upcoming seminar in London she is attending, if anyone has any points they want to bring up please email them to her. Pierrette will feedback from this seminar at the next group meeting ; seminar details below:
    • Real Earth Science - consultation workshops
    • Friday 23 November 2007
    • 11:00 – 15:30
    • The Natural History Museum is working on a six month feasibility study to facilitate a three year project due to commence in September 2008.
    • The purpose of each day is to review how earth science currently features in the curriculum, how museums with natural science collections can impact on the teaching and learning of Earth Sciences and to consider future developments and collaborations.

            Agenda:

    • Secondary science curriculum – what are the opportunities with regards to curriculum changes and how can museums with natural science collections meet curriculum needs?
    • Teacher CPD and classroom practice
    • Onsite content for schools visiting museums
    • Online and videoconferencing content
      • These consultations will feed into a findings summary and initial development proposals for the Real Earth Science project.
  • Disaster Planning came up as it is part of Kaye’s new role, though Kaye does not have time to co-ordinate a regional disaster plan alone. Group briefly discussed where we had got to with the disaster planning discussion, a few people agreed to consult on the plan with Kaye. Kaye is going to organise a regional disaster planning meeting soon.