In Person Workshop Opportunity: Deadline Extended to December 4: Changing Climate Management Strategies at the Getty Center, CA.
Sustainable Collection Environments and Monitoring Object Response
July 7–11, 2025
Getty Center, Los Angeles
Applications Now Open
Workshop participants investigating the relationship between damage, change, and value in the galleries. Cultural heritage institutions worldwide are increasingly under pressure to operate in a more sustainable manner in response to the global climate crisis, symptoms of which include rising energy costs and government mandates to reduce carbon footprints.
Recent environmental guidance in the heritage field has also signaled a shift away from prescriptive narrow ranges of temperature and relative humidity towards the adoption of broader environmental parameters suitable for many classes of objects. However, many heritage institutions have been reluctant to adopt these wider conditions due to a lack of evidence-based risk analysis for climate-induced damage and limited expertise on the sustainable management of the collection environment.
Workshop Content
This workshop, presented as part of the Conservation Institute’s Managing Collection Environments Initiative, will address obstacles in developing and implementing more adaptive environmental management strategies in museums.
Preworkshop: Encompasses online activities, including lectures about risk assessment, and object and environmental monitoring, a brief description of your case study, access to essential readings, and a discussion forum (~15 hours).
Day 1: Introduces the changing environmental and political contexts in which museums operate and includes discussion of environmental guidance, government regulation, sustainability, leadership, and participant case studies.
Day 2: Examines the key roles of life and cost cycle assessments as tools to support decision making, the impact of loans processes on sustainability, mechanical and non-mechanical environmental management strategies, and a gallery tour addressing damage, change, and value.
Day 3: Provides an introduction to material properties and responses and damage mechanisms, followed by discussion and demonstrations of select object monitoring techniques.
Day 4: Includes discussion of data analysis tools, followed by exercises on risk assessment, life cycle analysis, and environmental assessment; presentation and discussion of sustainability case studies.
Day 5: Features presentation and discussion of sustainability case studies, followed by participant discussion on the practical application of the workshop curriculum for a range of heritage contexts; optional speed mentoring sessions with workshop instructors.
Applicant Qualifications
The workshop is designed for a maximum of 40 participants. It is open to all stakeholders—conservators, registrars, curators, directors, facilities staff, engineers, architects—who:
are involved in the decision-making process on environmental management in museums
can directly apply lessons learned into practice, and/or
will disseminate the outcomes of the workshop (e.g., instructors and trainers)
The workshop organizers encourage applications from:
practitioners from North, Central, and South America, and from Hawaii
heritage professionals from small (1-5 staff members) and medium-sized (6-20 staff members) organizations
emerging professionals and current/recent graduate students interested in management of the museum environment.
Deadlines
December 4, 2024: Deadline for submission of online application and two-page curriculum vitae (CV)
December 18, 2024: Applicants will receive email notifying if they have been selected to participate in the workshop and, if applicable, receive financial assistance. A waiting list will be established for those not selected.
January 15, 2025: Deadline for participants to submit payment of the workshop tuition fee Applicants who do not submit payment by the deadline will have their registration canceled. Available spaces will then be offered to those on the waiting list.
You may find details of the workshop and how to apply here:
https://www.getty.edu/projects/managing-collection-environments-initiative/changing-
climate-management-strategies-sustainable-collection-environments-and-monitoring-
