from Wired News
Bunker Holds a Mountain of Movies
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Using a de-commissioned government underground facility as a converted storage facility for audio and visual materials in the collection of the US Library of Congress sounds like a really useful idea. Besides ensuring that highly flammable cellulose nitrate film materials are properly contained behind strong rooms, being underground will also make it easier to cool internal temperatures for the long-term storage and preservation - as is done at Corbis' Film Preservation Facility (also see previous Wired News article).

from The Art Newspaper
The days of single ownership are over
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Joint acquisitions of artworks, although not the norm yet, may catch on as museum institutions have to deal with an ever-shrinking acquisitions budget. Besides the legal details and display agreement, what could potentially be a point of contention is the "best" way to preserve or conserve an artwork - especially one which is made from problematic or ephemeral materials. This will surely add a new dimension of complexity to any art conservator's job.

from New York Times
Is Sculpture Too Free for Its Own Good?
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Although a highly selective and brief overview (using examples of sculptures currently on show in New York City), the article manages to bring across the highly diverse range of materials and artistic concepts that shape sculptures in the twentieth and, without doubt, in the twentieth-first century. (There is also an audio visual presentation accessible via the article's side-bar.) However, what is left very much unsaid is the increasingly complexity of materials and artistic concepts that present-day sculpture conservators have to contend and engage with effectively in order to see to the preservation of these artworks.

from Wired News
CDs, DVDs: Human After All
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Digital preservation has some urgent work cut in determining the reliability of CDs and DVDs as storage media. Lost of digital information can result the physical deterioration of materials used in the making of these discs.

Some tips for safekeeping these optical storage media :

- use write-once-only discs (CD-Rs or DVD-Rs) rather than rewriteable ones (CD-RWs or DVD-RWs);
- do not use adhesive labels on discs;
- write on discs with water-based or alcohol-based pens;
- do not bend discs;
- handle discs by the edges only;
- do not stack, scratch the label side or cause discs to rub against each other;
- store discs vertically in good-fitting cases which do not have a gripping stud in the centre;
- store discs in a cool and dry place;
- and where possible, store in an oxygen-free environment to reduce risk of oxidation of the metallic (aluminum) layer

This is one clear example that digital preservation must also address the issue of preserving actual and tangible materials, in addition to virtual data or information.

from The Artful Manager
The high cost of being 'free'
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and
from BBC News
Museums count cost of going free
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It is highly perplexing when a progressive cultural policy, such as universal free admission to national museums in England, becomes a victim of its own success. By doing away with admission fees, museums experienced a higher number of visitors never seen before - a 72% increase at the last count since December 2001, when it all started. This unexpected "success" has stretched resources for the maintenance of the museums' displays and premises. Together with the cut in revenue previously generated from admission fees, museums are also hard pressed for fresh funding avenues.

from Wired News
Warm Toes Are Happy Toes
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This new invention, which uses a blend of conductive and non-conductive fibers, could easily be modified to become a larger heating pad. Drawing electrical power from dry-cell batteries, this unique blend of inter-connected fibers can be heated in a uniform manner while being safe (due to the low voltage needed) and highly versatile. It could spell the end of the search for an affordable "hot table" for use in the conservation lining of paintings.

from The Journal Gazette
History in the making as homes court tourists
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It goes without saying that a world of difference exists between being relevant and being populist. It will indeed be a sad day when museums and heritage institutions jump onto the touristic bandwagon at the expense of their core responsibilities of "preservation and education". Giving the visitors what they want does not in any sense constitute being relevant. And it might also turn out to be unsustainable after all when the initial rush of pop-culture-excess is over.

from The Guardian
The dilettante tendency
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This serves to confirm what most people who work in a museum probably already know - you cannot get rich on a museum job (or in the UK, at least - but might also hold true elsewhere)! However, a more disconcerting trend is that the decrease in financial compensation is driving away the more disadvantaged sector of the population from working in heritage institutions, when it is now that a more diverse voice is needed in this field.

from The Art Newspaper
Building on the grandest scale: an Albertopolis for the Gulf
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Meet Sheikh Saud Al Thani of Qatar
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It is a rare occasion to encounter museums building on a grand scale in this day and age. But Qatar is indeed unique in simultaneously planning for 5 museums and amassing a collection of the finest artefacts from around the world - all led by a single man's efforts and, of course, copious amount of financial resources.

from sp!ked
Art for inclusion's sake
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In this rather long but hard-hitting polemic, Josie Appleton argues that the cultural policy of social inclusion, currently the rage and mantra of cultural institutions in the UK, assumes a certain condescension (or even contempt) towards the museum visitor. It presupposes that the minority population are somehow unfulfilled until a visit to a museum is completed. Instead, Appleton proffers that:

"This is not a question of whether ethnic minorities should go to museums, or whether museums should show exhibitions about immigrant history or Islamic art. Of course they should - on both counts. But minorities should go to a museum exhibition because they are drawn by its subject matter, not because the museum is counting their heads. And museums should show exhibitions about Islamic art because this is of general relevance and interest, not as a way of attracting the 'right' kinds of visitors."

Probing the underlying premises of the present cultural policy in the United Kingdom and comparing it with that of an earlier age, Appleton concludes:

"Whatever the shortfalls of nineteenth-century cultural policy, at least people got decent paintings out of it. At least there was an aim to broaden everybody's horizons and refine their appreciation. Today's elite, by contrast, seeks to showcase mundane artefacts, and propagate the most trivial and divisive instincts."

One might be tempted to dismiss all of these arguments as being relevant only in the British context. But might not these opinions also ring true if we substitute "non-museum-goers" for "ethnic minorities"?