Private practice in institutional lab

Anne Lane <alane [at] rhtc__net> writes

>One of the thoughts being bandied about our institution right now is
>the concept of establishing a dual-duty conservation lab as part of
>a proposed new storage facility in a renovated school building. The
>proposal is to hire a staff conservator who, in addition to caring
>for our own stuff, would take on private commissions using the same
>facility.

We have had a conservator working for us for many years (15+), in a
similar set up.  She is considered a contract worker and uses our
lab space as her office.  She does private projects on her own, but
is also available whenever we need any kind of conservation work
done or need to ask her advice on a problem or concern about the
collection.  It is basically set up as a trade:  we pay her for her
work by allowing her to use the lab space for her own projects.  If
she does a lot of work in a particular month for us, then we
sometimes end up paying her if it exceeds the amount of time she
used the lab for her own projects.  If you have any specific
questions, let me know off-list, and I'll see if I can answer them,
or let you know who here can.  I can say, that as we have a small
staff, it is unlikely we would be able to have a conservator on
staff without the system we currently have in place.  It gives us
the benefit of having a trained conservator who is familiar with the
collection (she's has been here longer than most staff members!)
which is priceless.  Good luck,

Shannon L. Parker
Collections Manager
Indian Arts Research Center
School of American Research


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:38
                Distributed: Saturday, January 13, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-14-38-007
                                  ***