Online course on museum artifacts

MS 213: Museum Artifacts: How they were made
and how they deteriorate
Instructor:  Helen Alten
Price: $475
Dates: Feb 7 - Mar 18, 2011

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 at helen<-a t->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.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:37
                 Distributed: Sunday, February 6, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-37-023
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