Call for contributions--Climate for Collections

Call for Contributions
'Climate for Collections: Standards and Uncertainties'

A conference to be held in Munich, 7-9 November 2012, as part of the
European Commission funded 'Climate for Culture' research project,
on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Doerner Institut. The
climate conference is co-organised by Verband der Restauratoren and
supported by WTA, the International Association for Science and
Technology of Building Maintenance and the Preservation of
Monuments.

In recent years heritage professionals have been engaged in animated
debate about appropriate climatic conditions for collections held in
museums, galleries and historic buildings. The emotive issues in
this debate have included inflexible standards, unsuitable modern
architecture, unreasonable loan conditions, predicted climate change
and rising energy costs. Scientific attempts to measure and predict
changes to art objects have been challenged as they do not relate to
the ways that art objects are perceived and valued.

The aim of the conference is not only to consolidate up-to-date
knowledge about object-environment interactions but also to promote
radical new strategies that will be needed for the preservation of
cultural heritage given the constraints of climate, architecture,
equipment, economy and ecology.

Critical contributions are invited on:

    Heritage professionals' observations of the interaction between
    objects' materials with their local environment,

    The determination of damage functions,

    A critical review of standards and their future development,

    The interaction between old, new and renovated buildings (such
    as museums, libraries, archives, churches, and historic
    buildings) and their local climate conditions,

    The influence of predicted climate change on cultural heritage,
    and

    The sustainability of our preservation mission

Contributions about uncertainties are as welcome as those on
standards, so long as they are based on critical object
observations, theoretical scientific reflections or analytical
measurements. Proposals that give a historical view of the climate
management strategies and low-tech building solutions of former
times are encouraged. The organisers welcome contributions from all
climate zones reaching from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from
America to Asia.

Prospective authors are invited to send abstracts (up to 1,000
words) via email (climateconference<-a t->doernerinstitut< . >de) by 31
October 2011. Please include your CV (250 words) and state whether
this is a proposal for a paper or a poster. Abstracts will be
reviewed by a technical committee of international experts. Accepted
contributions will be published on the internet as PDF. To save the
world's resources, the paper edition will be available as print on
demand only.

Jonathan Ashley-Smith
Consultant in Collections Risk
Home address:
27 Richmond Road
Cambridge CB4 3PP


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:10
                  Distributed: Sunday, August 14, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-25-10-002
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