Issues in Conservation Documentation

On April 27, 2006, representatives from over a dozen major museums in the United States and the United Kingdom—including museum directors, curators, conservators, and scientists—convened at the Metropolitan Museum, under the auspices of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for a frank dialogue regarding the current state of conservation documentation.  

Months in advance, participating institutions were provided with a series of questions for their curators, conservators, scientists, and administrators to consider in internal discussions.  A summary dossier of these internal deliberations, institution by institution, was circulated prior to the April meeting so that all participants arrived with a clear understanding of the attitudes and experience of the other institutions.  The dialogue on April 27 proceeded on the basis of these understandings.

On May 25, 2007, again under Mellon auspices, a meeting following the same methodology was hosted by the British Museum in London.  Representatives from thirteen EU and five U.S. museums attended.  A new summary dossier of internal deliberations was compiled and distributed.

• Conservation Documentation in Digital Form: A Dialogue about the Issues, by Angelica Zander Rudenstine and Timothy P. Whalen. Conservation, The GCI Newsletter, Vol 21.2 (Summer 2006): An article summarizing the purposes, substance, and outcome of the New York meeting.

• 2006 Summary Dossier: New York

• 2006 Transcript: New York  

• Conservation Documentation in Digital Form: A Continuing Dialogue about the Issues, by Ashok Roy, Susan Foister and Angelica Rudenstine. Studies in Conservation 52 (2007) pages 315-317.

• 2007 Summary Dossier: London

• 2007 Transcript: London  

• Current pilot projects launched since the April 2006 meeting

   

  Related Resources

• Mellon Digital Documentation Project (MDDP) Wiki - a forum for the exchange of technical ideas and developments related to the Mellon initiative in conservation documentation and its pilot projects. (Note: this site requires user name and password, available from the site's administrator).

• Mellon Digital Conservation Documentation Survey - a June 2008 call for international participation in an assessment of how institutions are "managing" conservation information in digital form.  Results due by the end of 2008.