All Aboard: Engineering Collections Care Training for Small Museums (C2CC Webinar)

A Connecting to Collections Care Webinar

In small museums, the staff wears many hats and have many jobs including the responsibility of caring for collections. It is a fundamental responsibility of museum management to support professional development and to make sure that all of their staff has  knowledge of current standards and collection care practices. The staff should be offered training opportunities and encouraged to take advantage of internal training programs and mentoring support for all full-time staff, part-time staff, and volunteers. Security, facility and events staff, even though they do not handle objects, should also be trained in collections care techniques since they work in close proximity to collections, educate the public, and need to understand their role in the overall preventive conservation measures and requirements of the museum.

How do you make sure your staff gets the training they need to do their jobs? The focus of this webinar is building professional development opportunities for the small museums staff and volunteers. Internal training programs might include developing a policy and procedure manual, physical training programs, topic specific topic lectures, and weekly and monthly meeting structures where training focus is emphasized and presented. External opportunities include developing multi-museum training programs, exchanges of staff with other regional museum of similar size and collection base, as well as attending specific training schools, workshops, webinars and other professional events as tight budget restraints of the museum allow. Training is not only for newly hired staff and volunteers, but also for senior staff who help with mentoring new staff and volunteers and to keep senior staff current with to existing and new policies and procedures for collections care.

This webinar will provide you with proven, working scenarios that you can take on board and develop to fit the training specifics for your staff and collections.

Brent Powell has worked in the collections care profession since 1984. Since 1990, he has also been active in the professional development aspects of the industry as a former chairman of PACCIN [Preparation Art Handling Collection Care Information Network] 1991–1999 and 2008–2013. He has co-organized three preparator conferences, numerous workshops, presented sessions at national and regional museum conferences and webinars on various collections care subjects in both the United States and Australia. Brent has co-authored three publications and contributed to numerous professional collection care publications and newsletters. His recent book, Collection Care / An Illustrated Handbook for the Care and Handling of Cultural Objects was published in November 2105 by Rowman and Littlefield in New York.

He has co-authored two working staff manuals, designed and structured training programs for new and full-time staff in both museum and commercial settings. Mr. Powell has conducted private collection care courses in the United States, Australia, Malaysia, and China. Currently, he works for Crozier Fine Arts, New York as CFA Training Manager and is also the Principal of Museum Collection Care, Consultancy and Management. He holds an M.F.A. in Painting from the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

Register Here