Participants in a paper conservation workshop experiment with chelating agents. NEH funding makes continuing education opportunities like this one available to conservation professionals across the country, ensuring that they are equipped with best practices and up-to-date information when preserving heritage objects. Image courtesy of FAIC.
Museums, libraries, and historical societies in towns and cities across the nation hold and preserve some of our greatest treasures. Whether they are the papers and possessions of our Founding Families or images and personal items documenting the life stories of ordinary Americans, these collections tell our nation’s story and provide inroads to better understandings of our shared history. These collections are fragile, subject to the decay of time as well as environmental risks and natural disasters. With NEH funding, the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (FAIC) protects these collections by supporting conservation efforts across the country.
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Gene Taylor, a former U.S. Representative, gives the keynote address at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Response Forum at the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi on April 27, 2016. The keynote was titled “Katrina +10: Lessons Learned.” Image courtesy of FAIC.
A “County Caucus” session at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Response Forum at the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi on April 27, 2016. Representatives from collecting institutions met with their county first responders and emergency managers. Image courtesy of FAIC.
With the assistance of NEH grants, FAIC has helped organizations from around the nation prepare for and recover from environmental and other disasters. The Alliance for Response, one of FAIC’s major projects, develops networks for disaster response in vulnerable regions around the country. As part of a current NEH grant, FAIC is expanding training opportunities with existing networks, offering response team training for those individuals charged with protecting cultural heritage. Together, they get a crash course in disaster response protocols, take part in a simulation tailored to their region, and learn how they can draw upon each other’s strengths. In many regions, the threat of disaster is all too real. In 2017 alone, Alliance for Response networks in Miami and Galveston-Houston drew upon what they learned to respond to Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. NEH funding has also supported deployments of FAIC’s National Heritage Responders, volunteers trained in disaster recovery who assist affected collections across the country. Investment from the NEH has enabled the creation of valuable emergency response and salvage resources that have been translated and used by organizations around the world.
National Heritage Responder Robert Herskovitz visits a mold-infested institution in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017. Image courtesy of FAIC.
National Heritage Responder Molly O’Guinness Carlson instructs a staff member on how to effectively dry an object in the sunlight at a Puerto Rican museum. Image courtesy of FAIC.
FAIC supports preservation efforts more broadly by providing professional development workshops to conservators, helping them learn the newest techniques for cleaning, treating, and repairing delicate documents, photographs, textiles, ceramics, and a wide range of other items. NEH funding helps FAIC offer these intensive programs at a low cost and supports scholarships to a few participants in every course, ensuring greater access to training. In addition, a recent NEH grant is helping FAIC develop a life cycle assessment prototype. This tool will help conservation professionals and others assess their infrastructure, collections, and preservation programs in terms of their long-term effects on the environment and human health. The knowledge provided by the tool will, for instance, help organizations configure their HVAC systems in ways that protect their collections while using as little energy as possible. It will also help conservators choose between preservation methods, guiding them to use materials such as solvents that are less carcinogenic than others. Cumulatively, the assessments provided by the tool will help organizations preserve historical items while caring for the environment and their employees.
