Online course on museum artifacts

MS213: Museum Artifacts: How they were made and how they deteriorate
Feb 1 - Mar 19, 2010
Price: $475
Instructor: Helen Alten
Location: online at <URL:http://www.museumclasses.org>

Description: Every museum object is unique, but items made of
similar materials share characteristics. Museum Artifacts gives
participants an understanding of the materials and processes used to
make objects - knowledge that better prepares them to decide how to
care for their collections. Participants study two objects that
represent all materials found in our museums. Through an in-depth
analysis of their components, participants explore all possible
objects found in any museum.

Course Outline:

    Introduction
    Organic Object: Aleut Hunting Regalia
    Plant Materials
    Animal Materials
    Modified Organics
    Inorganic Object: Art Deco Fireplace
    Stone
    Ceramic
    Glass
    Metal
    Mixed Media
    Conclusion

Required Text Books

    Demeroukas, Marie, ed.
    Basic Condition Reporting: A Handbook.
    Southeastern Registrars Association, 1998.

Logistics: Participants in Museum Artifacts work through 12 sections
on their own. Instructor Helen Alten is available for scheduled
email support. Materials and resources include online literature,
slide lectures and dialog between students and online chats led by
the instructor. The course is limited to 20 participants.

Museum Artifacts runs six weeks. To reserve a spot in the course,
please pay at <URL:http://www.collectioncare.org/tas/tas.html> If
you have trouble please contact Helen Alten
<helen<-at->collectioncare<.>org>

The Instructor:

    Helen Alten, is the Director of Northern States Conservation
    Center and its chief Objects Conservator. For nearly 30 years
    she has been involved in objects conservation, starting as a
    pre-program intern at the Oriental Institute in Chicago and the
    University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. She
    completed a degree in Archaeological Conservation and Materials
    Science from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of
    London in England. She has built and run conservation
    laboratories in Bulgaria, Montana, Greece, Alaska and Minnesota.

    She has a broad understanding of three-dimensional materials and
    their deterioration, wrote and edited the quarterly Collections
    Caretaker, maintains the popular
    <URL:http://www.collectioncare.org> web site, lectures
    throughout the United States on collection care topics, was
    instrumental in developing a state-wide protocol for disaster
    response in small Minnesota museums, has written, received and
    reviewed grants for NEH and IMLS, worked with local foundations
    funding one of her pilot programs, and is always in search of
    the perfect museum mannequin.

    She has published chapters on conservation and deterioration of
    archeological glass with the Materials Research Society and the
    York Archaeological Trust, four chapters on different mannequin
    construction techniques in Museum Mannequins: A Guide for
    Creating the Perfect Fit (2002), preservation planning,
    policies, forms and procedures needed for a small museum in The
    Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums' Collection
    Initiative Manual, and is co-editor of the penultimate book on
    numbering museum collections (still in process) by the Gilcrease
    Museum in Oklahoma. Helen Alten has been a Field Education
    Director, Conservator, and staff trainer. She began working with
    people from small, rural, and tribal museums while as the state
    conservator for Montana and Alaska. Helen currently conducts
    conservation treatments and operates a conservation center in
    Charleston, WV and St. Paul, MN.


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 23:27
                Distributed: Thursday, January 28, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-23-27-007
                                  ***