Relaxing climate control

Karen Potje <kpotje [at] cca__qc__ca> writes

>   "Indianapolis relaxes climate controls: Leading directors have
>    been questioning the scientific validity-and cost-of running air
>    conditioning to the current standard specification" By Javier
>    Pes From issue 212, April 2010 Published online 8 Apr 10, 2010
>    (Museums)
>
>    (c) The Art Newspaper 2010
>
>    <URL:http://www.theartnewspaper.com/
>        articles/Indianapolis-relaxes-climate-controls/20440>

A few people have emailed me their responses to my DistList
submission. Here Is Mark Gottsegen's response, posted with
permission.

    Dear Ms. Potje,

    I have been following this subject with great interest since I
    first read Marion Mecklenburg's paper about it many years ago.
    You asked for people's reaction to the two articles, and here is
    mine.

    I am an artist--neither a conservation scientist nor a
    conservator--but I have some research interests in museums in
    different parts of the US and western Europe.  I have seen
    first-hand over the last 5 years in my tours of these
    institutions what affect their environments have had on my test
    color specimens, and no doubt on all the other objects in a
    museum's care.

    HVAC is the most expensive part of a museum's budget, by far,
    from the building of the building to the day-to-day operations
    over a year in which the T and RH on the outside fluctuate,
    sometimes wildly.

    In times of economic stress when museum incomes go out of
    balance with expenses, it seems to make sense to relax "the gold
    standard" when possible.  Of course, there will be cases where a
    particular object will have to be maintained or stored in a
    special environment, and I suppose figuring that out will become
    the responsibility of an institution's scientists and
    conservators.

    Mark Gottsegen
    Materials Research Director
    Intermuseum Conservation Association
    2915 Detroit Avenue
    Cleveland  OH  44113

In a followup message, Mark wrote:

    Marion Mecklenburg sent along some further references:

        <URL:http://www.si.edu/
            mci/downloads/reports/Mecklenburg-Part1-RH.pdf>

        <URL:http://www.si.edu/
            mci/downloads/reports/Mecklenburg-Part2-Temp.pdf>

    **** Moderator's comments: The above URLs have been wrapped for
    email. There should be no newlines.

Karen Potje
Chef, Service de la conservation/restauration
Centre Canadien d'Architecture


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 23:43
                   Distributed: Tuesday, May 4, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-23-43-011
                                  ***