From: Valerie Tomlinson <[email protected]> To: "'[email protected]'" Subject: Re: [Consdistlist] best practices for maintaining/cleaning open Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2017 21:56:27 +0000
"We have recently installed a new exhibit which features a large amount of items on open display - textile, wool, leather and fur garments, wood and leather "tools" and instruments. Looking for best practices to maintain/clean these open display items." Joanna P McMann Conservator Hi Joanna, I guess I could put in my 2 cents worth on such things although I don't consider myself a complete expert. -Concern number one with open display is: if things can be touched, they will be touched, even if there are barriers. If things can't handle being touched, avoid open display. Avoid things that can be picked up and walked off with. That too will happen. Even handles and knobs on drawers and other ornaments, or detachable parts of things will have a tendency to walk away. Clothing on manikins will get rearranged, and wigs damaged or removed, drawers and doors will be opened, chairs sat on, etc.. A daily cleaning schedule/display check would be needed to check on such things and set them right. Log any incidences, and if patterns emerge, see if you can address root causes. -Next concern would be dust. Have a display cleaning schedule to remove any dust and dirt. Have standard cleaning procedures for the people who clean, so they know what can be dusted regularly and what shouldn't be touched, unless it's done by a conservator. They should also know the reporting procedure to get the conservator to look at concerns they have. Take into account how much handling an object can withstand, as well as your dust build up levels in your cleaning schedule. You may want to do some dust monitoring to establish standards for each room. All displays and display cases need to be easily accessible for any cleaning or conservation work necessary. At our museum we suffer from completely inaccessible displays, where in some cases, the glass has to be cut open by glass contractors and the things taken apart to address any problems inside. This means we sometimes wait for years to address dust issues or do full loan checks. Try to avoid this scenario with your case/display designs (that's not so much an open display issue though). I have read that dust is mostly a problem within one metre of the floor. Above that level, air movement is significantly less likely to stir dust that high. Displaying things this high up off the ground or higher would then reduce the need to clean things frequently. Look into your air quality in the building, and the filters used. If dust is a problem, you may want to improve filtering. If your area suffers from forest fires, gravel roads, or high traffic motorways in the area, then there will be times of higher particulates in the outside air that may affect indoor air quality. See if there's anything you can do to address that. -The final things to consider is light levels, although that affects both open and closed displays. If you have organic materials such as fur and textiles, and even unfinished wood, then light needs to be controlled. It's not just a question of setting the maximum levels at 50lux and then forget about it. Even at 50 lux, things will fade if they're on display for decades, so have an object rotation schedule to take things off display and be replaced with other items after a set amount of time. If you don't have microfader technology at hand, and don't know specifically the light exposure to just-noticeable-fade, then rely on the Blue-Wool standards. We have a system that, e.g. items in the blue wool standard category #1 can only be displayed at 50 lux for 3 months out of a 10 year period, then have to spend another 9+ years in dark storage before it can be displayed again, in order to maximize its lifespan ( or you can display it for 1.7 years if you put it in the dark for 50 years a fter that). Something in category #3 can be displayed for nearly 3 years out of a 10 year period, etc. ****** Unsubscribe by sending a message to [email protected] Archives through August 2016 at http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/ Archives from September 2016 onward at https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
