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The Conservation
Assessment Program

CAP provides a general conservation assessment of your museum's collection, environmental conditions, and site. Conservation priorities are identified by professionals who spend two days on-site and three days writing a report. The report can help your museum develop strategies for improved collections care and provide a tool for long-range planning and fund-raising.

Above are images of the flood-prone basement and attic of the carriage house where collections were stored at the General Lew Wallace Museum and Study (GLWMS) in Crawfordsville, IN, before and after their 2004 CAP assessment.
After CAP, the GLWMS was successful in obtaining funding to purchase new archival shelving. Success in obtaining other grants led to the Carriage House Rehabilitation Project, which converted the attic space for archival storage. An additional climate controlled collections storage vault was also added to the Carriage House Interpretive Center.

CAP offers a maximum of two assessors per institution. Most museums are provided a conservator to assess the museum's collections. If you have a historic structure (a building more than 50 years old), you may also qualify for a historic structure assessment. If your institution has living collections (zoos, aquariums, nature centers, botanical gardens, and arboreta), you can be provided a zoologist, botanist, or horticulturalist to assess your living collections.

The Conservation Assessment Program is supported through a cooperative agreement with the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

CAP publishes a semi-annual newsletter, CAPabilities, which focuses on CAPped museums and general collections care issues. To receive a copy, contact Heritage Preservation, 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 1200, Washington, DC 20005, phone 202-233-0800, or e-mail cap(a)heritagepreservation.org.