As a museum conservator, I persevere to raise the visibility of collections care in all of the museums in which I have worked over the years. Without consistent and conscientious collections care, there would not even be physical museums, only virtual ones. Our umbrella organization, the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (www.culturalheritage.org), has been dedicated to raising the awareness of collections care and conservation for decades. Unfortunately to date, conservators are often still conflated with “conservationists” (otherwise known as environmentalists) by the public. Despite the plethora of information, on a weekly if not a daily basis, via the internet and in traditional newspaper articles that are laser focused on high visibility conservation projects around the world, the collections care field is still very much relegated to a “behind the scenes'' activity and generally regarded as “non-essential” to the basic functioning of a cultural institution.

Some museums certainly have had success raising funds specifically designated to endow, visible “windows” into the world of collections care for the public’s education and benefit, such as at the Walter’s Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Additionally, glass-walled conservation labs that literally allow for “insight” into the the field of museum conservation, such as at the Harvard Art Museums, are being more commonly integrated into museum renovation projects throughout our country and beyond in order to educate and entertain the public as well as potential donors about the importance of collections care. “Conservators under glass” (as they are sometimes affectionately referred to) are celebrated in some museum galleries as “live exhibits,” such as at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and are popular educational tools offered by museum public programming mandates that can often attract significant crowds.

As a result of the current Covid-19 crisis, one of my largest concerns as an Objects Conservator is that collections care and conservation as a field, which can so effectively serve the museum as a potential fundraising opportunity, as well as a rich and unique educational public forum as outlined above, could become even less physically visible throughout the museum. If this indeed does become the new reality, I fear that all of the momentum of our field which has been carefully, gradually and painstakingly built-up over time, will recede into the proverbial “wood work.”

Collections care is fundamental to the very existence of all collecting institutions. It is a bit disconcerting to imagine how the “new normal” will affect the essential collections care work that has to be constantly undertaken by all manner of museum staff including conservators, museum technicians, registrars, collections managers and installers, just to name a few.

Going forward, new innovative techniques will need to be integrated into the educational work all museums do regularly in order to continue to inform and share with the public that the art and historical artifacts that are so well preserved in our institutions are not the result of a “happy accident’ or fortuitous good luck but rather the result of countless highly skilled museum professionals.

What could be the new way(s) of conveying to the public regarding the very existence of highly trained and experienced museum staff who painstakingly attend to stabilizing the condition of the art and artifacts prior to their exhibition and loan? Hopefully, more video, instagram and social media posts will provide an opportunity to increase the awareness of the intricacies and complexities pertaining to collections care that are required to keep the often historic museum envelope, as well as its contents, in pristine condition.

Perhaps this pandemic crisis will result in a new reimagining how an object’s conservation history could be more seamlessly integrated into the descriptive “tombstone” information found on a typical museum wall label. Historically the succinct 100 words of a traditional wall label (as is our current practice at the RISD Museum) has not allowed for the inclusion of any conservation notes or scientific analysis relevant to an object’s history.

Therefore, I would like to strongly advocate for more in-depth virtual labeling via QR codes (or similar) that could link to the collections care/conservation work that has been undertaken on individual art and artifacts. This would allow the public to learn not only about the relevant curatorial, historical and educational aspects of a work of art or artifact but also to learn about the care history for that individual piece including the multiple steps that were involved in its preservation.

How exponential would the potential learning capability be for those visitors who chose to access the conservation or collections care link to a particular work they were interested in studying more deeply! For college students and scholars of all levels this could be a game changer. The inclusion of technical details of an object’ s conservation history could raise the visibility of collections care and the field of art conservation in unprecedented ways to the public at large.

Former popular and successful public fundraising efforts such as “Adopt an Artwork” campaigns or newer “crowd-sourcing” initiatives could be augmented by potentially securing additional funding for collections care in this new way and perhaps other ways yet to be realized. More now than ever before, we need to be thinking outside of the “archival storage box” and collectively brainstorming to reimagine the concept of a museum collections care post COVID-19.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay