from The Art Newspaper -
Disposing of cultural artefacts in university collections
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Treating all artefacts in a collection as "equally valuable" would seem like an enlightened approach - but in fact it is a mask to hide unthinking wasteful practices and a deep reluctance to make (and live with) subjective decisions.
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from Art21 Blog -
Concepts Around Interviewing Artists: a Discussion with Glenn Wharton
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A good and clear overview of the issues pertaining to the use of artist interviews as a strategy in the preservation of contemporary art. In the final analysis, such interview should be treated less as documentation (which is a 1-way process akin to trying to uncover the artist intent, whatever that might mean) and more as an exercise in building understanding (as a 2-way interactive and collaborative process).
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from -
Rice [University] students changing art of art storage
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Definitely a good idea that could be expanded and made useful for museums everywhere. However, the part about - 'next steps include filing for a patent and exploring "a startup or some sort of venture."' - does not sit well with the open spirit of sharing in the museum and heritage fields.
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from The New York Times -
Foundation Helps Archives to Go Online
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A timely reminder that preservation of heritage and historical materials do not just happen by themselves - no matter how much good intentions there are.
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from V&A Museum -
Conservation in Action videos

Short videos with information on the conservation process of various interesting artefacts in the museum collection.

Conserving Tippoo's Tiger
by Nigel Bamforth, Senior Conservator, Furniture and Wood Conservation

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Conservation of a Tunic from Egypt
by Elizabeth-Anne Haldane, Textile Conservator

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Gaekwad of Baroda Uniform
by Sarah Glenn, Textile Conservator

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A 'Thousand Nailed' Chhatra (Parasol)
by Jennifer Barsby, RCA/V&A Conservation course graduate

go to video
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from The Guardian -
Dance would die without the internet
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"One reason that dance struggles to establish itself as a discipline is the relative paucity of its archive: more than any other art form, it is constantly being lost to history. To build a body of knowledge, you need to gather bodies of evidence, reference material, records. There is an obvious way forward – record more dance on video and put more of it on the internet. It won't just be of academic use; the greater availability and increased profile of dance material will surely benefit audiences and promoters too. This is good not just for individual works or choreographers or companies or colleges, but ultimately for dance itself."

Another example of why an open approach to preservation is necessary.
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from IIC Conservation News -
AIC Conservation Catalogs Collaborative Knowledge Base
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A nice collection of various technical conservation information gathered over the years by members of the American Conservation Institute. This has now been opened as a collaborative project - potentially enlarging the pool of knowledge, if we can avoid the bitter bickering Wikipedia-style.

Link from IIC News.
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from Getty Conservation Institute -
Documenting Spiral Jetty
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A nice overview - literally - of the need for continual visual recording of the iconic artwork as part of its preservation. Additional information to be found in the captions of the slide images.

See earlier posts on the Spiral Jetty here.
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