Conservation
Caring for collections is a vital part of a museum’s work, which aims to prolong the life of an object for as long as possible and for future generations to enjoy.
Preventive conservation helps you to manage the changes which happen to objects over time, and to try and reduce the rate of deterioration. Whereas preventive conservation can be carried out by museum teams, remedial conservation is the work that happens after damage has occurred.
Conservation Advice
South East Museum Development work with a dedicated team of conservation professionals at Spencer & Fry, who offer free initial support on our behalf to museums across the south east region who require advice on preventive conservation and potential remedial conservation needs. For information about booking a free, one-hour surgery, please look at our Preventive Conservation Surgeries webpage.
If you have a conservation need:
- Browse the conservation resources on our website(below) to seek if they can solve your query.
- Contact your local Museum Development Officer (MDO) to discuss your needs.
- Your MDO may be able to assist in the first instance, if not they can put you in touch with Spencer & Fry team for a quick consultation (by phone, email, or virtual platform).
- For more complicated interventions, you may want to hire a conservation specialist. Our Collections Care Grants could help with the cost, and other grant funders are listed at the bottom of this page.
Preventive Conservation Surgeries
We offer museums free, one-hour surgeries with conservation specialists, Spencer and Fry, to answer questions about preventive conservation and collections care.
For more information on how to access this service, please look at our Advice Surgeries webpage.
Online Resources
Preventive conservation can cover many aspects of collections care, and aims to mitigate the agents of deterioration. Advice on how to manage these agents of deterioration can be found below.
- Environmental Monitoring
- Museum Pests
- Handling museum objects
- Packing museum objects
- Inventory Marking
- Emergency Procedures
- Environmental Monitoring Systems
- Mould on Historic Collections January-2021
- Freezing guidelines for controlling insect pest infestation
- Practical Approaches to Pest Management Handout
Training
Check out the South East Museum Development YouTube Channel for recorded training delivered by Spencer and Fry:
- Emergency Planning
- Collections Care and Conservation Policies and Plans
- Back to Basics: How to Care for and Conserve Collections
- Conservation Basics
- Practical Approaches to Pest Management
- Hazards in Collections (with a focus on mould)
- Introduction to showcases
- Buying a showcase
- Controlling the environment in showcases
- Compatible materials within a showcase
Useful Links
ICON – The Institute of Conservation website provides information and advice on how to care for different material types, how to find a conservator, training, conservation standards etc
Museum accreditation – Arts Council England website
Museum of London e-learning tools – A collection of e-learning tools designed by the Museum of London covering emergency planning, handling museum objects, museum pests, packing museum objects for storage and packing museum objects for transport
Preservation Advisory Centre guidance booklets – Downloadable leaflet on a range of topics including basic preservation, cleaning books and documents, managing the library and archive environment, managing mould outbreaks, managing pest outbreaks, salvaging library and archival material, and more …
Conservation suppliers list – list of useful conservation suppliers
Agents of Deterioration – an quick overview of what could be affecting your collection
Collections Trust – useful links complied by the Collections Trust
SWFed Collections resources – Advice on collections development, documentation and care.
Protect Photos, Documents and Other Papers from Natural Destruction over time – A site dedicated to the preservation of paper based items
Groups
South Region Conservator’s Network – This group meets up periodically to discuss items related to working in the field of Conservation. This includes, but is not restricted to, tours of facilities, talks on specific subject matters, seeking advice from members and discussions of ethics, treatments, and methodologies.
NatSCA – The Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) is a UK based membership organisation and charity run by volunteers from the membership.
NatSCA’s mission is to promote and support natural science collections, the institutions that house them and the people that work with them, in order to improve collections care, understanding, accessibility and enjoyment for all.
MuseumPest.net – The Integrated Pest Management Working Group, (IPM-WG) is a group of collection managers, conservators, entomologists and other professionals interested in issues surrounding the implementation of integrated pest management in museums and other collection-holding institutions. The group meets annually hosted by supporting institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, Rubin Museum of Art and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP) – The Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP) program is a global initiative that seeks to improve the availability and quality of conservation education and professional training worldwide.
ICON Special Interest Groups – Each Group is dedicated to a different branch of the profession and has a committee which organises events, training and networking opportunities. You need to be an ICON member to join a group.
Conservation Grants
AIM Preventive Conservation Grant scheme – The AIM Preventive Conservation Grant Scheme has been set up to help small museums develop a more sustainable approach to the conservation and management of collections through improvements to preventive conservation within their museum.
AIM Conservation Grant scheme – The AIM Conservation Grant Scheme, supported generously by The Pilgrim Trust, is intended to assist AIM’s smaller members with conservation of important objects in their collections.
Art Fund – Apply for funding
Association for Industrial Archaeology Restoration Grants – Grants are available for a range of historic and industrial archaeology purposes (see criteria for details)
Charles Hayward – Heritage and Conservation – Charles Hayward (charleshaywardfoundation.org.uk)
Esmee Fairbairn Foundation – Museum & Heritage Collections: This strand focuses on time-limited collections work including research, documentation and conservation that is outside the scope of an organisation’s core resources.
Glazier’s Trust – Grants are available to churches and other public buildings exclusively for the restoration and conservation of historic and important stained glass.
Idlewild Trust – Idlewild Trust awards grants in two areas within the Arts and Conservation
Leche Trust – The Trustees award grants in the following areas: Historic buildings of the Georgian period or earlier; Church furnishings of the Georgian period or earlier; Conservation of historic collections in museums and other institutions; Professional performance in theatre, music and dance.
Museums Association – Kathy Callow Trust – The trust was founded in 1994 from part of the residue of the estate of the late Kathy Callow. It makes awards to small museums with a long-term benefit for the purposes of assisting with the costs of conservation projects relating to social history artifacts and evidence.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund – NLHF has also reopened its grants programme New project funding and loans to support sector resilience.
National Manuscripts Conservation Trust – The NMCT is the only UK grant-giver that focuses solely on the care and conservation of manuscripts in the UK.
The Pilgrim Trust – Our main emphasis is on projects that conserve historical buildings, monuments and collections
Wolfson Foundation – We award grants to support the display of permanent collections in museums and galleries throughout the UK.
