November 19–20, 2015
This two-day conference provided an opportunity for exhibition designers, mount makers, registrars, collection managers, conservators, and scientists to explore the challenges of how materials are selected for use with art objects.
The planning for appropriate collection care before, during, and after display is dependent on accessing reliable information about the materials we use. The production of fabrics, painted surfaces, mounts, foams, and board materials facilitate the creative display of art objects. Understanding how these materials will react with artworks over time is a fundamentally challenging, but necessary, undertaking.
This conference explored practical considerations that facilitate and benefit collection care in museum exhibition workflows, and how they impact staff across departments. Presentations focused on designing exhibitions and fabricating display furniture; strategic approaches to collection care during the exhibition implementation process; designing storage environments; conservation work spaces; interpretation and sharing of analytical results from Oddy testing and alternatives to the Oddy test; and monitoring how materials change over time.