Conservators working in open air museums

I lead the conservation unit based at St. Fagans: National History
Museum, part of the National Museum Wales.  The museum has some
conventional galleries, a country mansion house and around forty
re-erected period dwellings, all spread across an hundred acre site.
Our accessioned collections are displayed in all these areas, for
the most part on open display where the visitor can really get
intimate with the objects.  I would like to make contact with other
conservators working in similar institutions (size is not important)
and those working where accessioned collections are kept on open
display. Initially, I am interested in discussing the kind of
environments you are able to provide and sustain for your displayed
collections since the challenges we face are different to
conventional museums.  I would also be particularly interested in
knowing of the existence of any specific conservation
groups/discussion forums already looking at these challenges.  If no
such group exists, is there any interest in forming such a
specialist group to allow the sharing of ideas, experience, etc?

Sue Renault
Head of St. Fagans Conservation Unit
St. Fagans
Cardiff CF5 6XB
+44 29 20573453


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 21:7
                   Distributed: Monday, May 28, 2007
                        Message Id: cdl-21-7-022
                                  ***