#museumconservation

Raise your hand if you have held back a laugh when the newbie asks you what the (conservation) department budget is! If you don't work in GLAM, this is what it's like. 😖 Galleries - Libraries - Archives - Museums _______ Follow for more conservation and museum-related memes. ❤️ . . . .

There's this super glam expectation about GLAM. Visitors think we all work in teams of 10 in fabulous labs in super white labcoats with fancy vapour extraction trunks hanging from the ceiling, surrounded by a million beakers, LED lamps with magnifying glasses on them, cedar easels and $10,000 microscopes. Some of us do. But most of the time, it's just a single person with a bookcase, a long table, 5 beakers, a standing fan, and a couple very sharp scalpel blades. _______ Follow for more conservation memes. ❤️ . . . .

I can't speak for museums everywhere, but in my personal experience, this is the case. Only a minority of things in storage will look as good as the stuff you have on display - especially in smaller museums. Most of the stuff stored is not really up to "museum standards" in terms of how good it looks, so when exhibitions are being planned conservators are often consulted regarding how long it will take to treat certain objects curators would like to display. _______ Follow for more conservation memes. ❤️ . . . .

TMS is short for The Museum System. It is one of many different types of collections management database systems that collections around the world use to figure out a number of things such as - object name - provenance - exhibition inclusion - donor information - materials and conservation treatments - current location, etc., etc., etc. Now, when you are managing a collection that may well be over a million objects, 150 years old in the making, moved to three different buildings over the course of the museum's history, managed by 5 different generations of rotating staff and across Windows and Mac... you get an idea of how hard it can be to just find a thing. Raise your hand if you actually thought museums know where everything is all the time. 🖐🤣 _______ Follow for more conservation memes. ❤️ . . . .

I just found out that when you're going through a Permanent Residence application process, volunteering is fine as long as it's not activities that are usually paid work. If someone else is being paid to do the same activities or can be paid to do the same activities, then this will be interpreted by relevant authorities as work. Does anyone know of volunteering possibilities in museums in the GTA (preferably Hamilton) where this does not apply??? _______ Follow for more conservation memes. ❤️ . . . .

What do your insect traps look like? It's ok if you just can't tell. All bugs look like potential threats when you first start off learning about integrated pest management. To start you off, you don't need to get down to species level. You can ask for help and categorise them like this: - Yes Pest. Check @museumpests website to help ID. - No Pest. Accidental visitor that won't harm collections, but would be good to figure out how it got in here. If this got in, real pests can do it too. - No Pest. Regular inhabitant predator (e.g. spider). Don't worry, but maybe intensify cleaning if possible. - No Pest. Humidity indicator (e.g. springtails and woodlice). Certain insects will like very humid environments so finding them means you probably have a humidity issue to resolve. . . . ___ Follow for more memes and bite-sized useful information you can use to care for collections!

GLAM = Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums

IPM stands for Integrated Pest Management and involves monitoring the insect and rodent populations (among other less common animals) in your museum, archive, gallery, or library to make sure that they are not eating your collections or even your building itself. Collections care professionals will always be concerned about special catered events because fresh plants and food will always constitute a risk when it comes to potential insect infestations that could affect the objects in the museum. This also explains why most museums will not allow food or drink in the galleries. _______ Follow for more conservation memes and bite-sized information on art conservation and museums. ❤️ . . . .