Introduction
Keynote Remarks:Diane Frankel
Fine Arts & Science
Art & Conservation
American History &
Preservation
Library Sciences &
Preservation
Archaeology,
American History &
Conservation
Practice
Museum Practices &
Conservation
| Museum Practices and Conservation | |
|---|---|
| Organizational participants | Museum of Fine Art, Boston, and Areaschool |
| Audience | Middle school students and teachers |
| Subject areas | Conservation and museum practices |
| Staff and faculty | Interdisciplinary teachers, museum professionals |
| Length of program | One-day teacher workshop, supplemented by museum visits and classroom instruction |
| Funding | Foundation grant |
| Program dates | One year, with continuing development |
| For more information | Judith Murray,
Dept. of Education Pam Hatchfield, Dept. of Conservation Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Tel: (617) 267-9300 Fax: (617) 267-9328 |
Understanding Museum Conservation
With a strong history of successful collaboration with area schools already in place, the Department of Education at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston found itself in a prime position to create an interdisciplinary learning program about conservation. Aimed at middle school teachers and students, as of fall 1996, the three-hour workshop entitled "Understanding Museum Conservation" had been held twice, as one of the 16 teacher workshops that the MFA offers during the 1996-97 school year. Both times the workshop was held, it met with great popular response from teachers with a variety of backgrounds (art, science, history, and English) and a range of experience with different grade levels, from elementary to high school students.
One vital element to the success of this workshop and school program is the collaboration between the museum's Department of Objects Conservation and Scientific Research and the Department of Education. Judith Murray, an educator on the MFA's staff, feels this collaboration to be a natural one. "We are both on the front line of conservation. We have direct contact with those who will be the future generations of museum goers. Our volunteer Gallery Instructors play an extremely important role in modeling and guiding students in ways to understand and enjoy works of art, while helping them to understand that by not touching they are, in fact, partners in museum conservation."
Interest in integrating the topic of conservation into the MFA's museum/school program came from several sources, including teachers who attended previous workshops. Another source was earlier collaborations between curators, conservators and educators, which resulted in "Unlocking the Hidden Museum: Riches from the Storeroom," an interdisciplinary exhibition held in 1989, and the development of teaching materials on ancient Egyptians. Continuous questions from students touring the museum's galleries and exhibitions"Why can't we touch?" "Why do you keep those Buddhas in a dark room?" "Why do you bother to keep a statue with a missing head?"­underscored the real need for young visitors to comprehend the important role of conservation.
The process of developing a school program that included teacher workshops and resource materials began in the fall of 1995, when members of the Conservation and Education Departments met to discuss themes and content. They decided to address the materials to middle school students as part of a science curriculum, which would allow them to focus on topics such as the effects of acid rain on works of art. Teachers were then asked to review the materials, offer suggestions, and point out ways to make this information relevant to the realities of classroom instruction. The resulting booklet became the teacher resource "Understanding Museum Conservation." Filled with topics for discussion, suggested classroom activities, and information of selected objects in the MFA's collection, the booklet is designed to help teachers use the museum as a resource for interdisciplinary teaching.
As conservator Pam Hatchfield emphasizes, the purpose of the program is to introduce teachers to an aspect of museums they do not often experience. The challenge is to present museums not as static environments in which few things seem to change but as ever-evolving institutions filled with objects that have a real life and history of their own. Visitors, young and old alike, need "to understand why things are in museums, what they are made of, how they deteriorate, and how we preserve them."
With this in mind, Hatchfield focused the teacher resource materials on contemporary art as a way to explore the artist materials of wood, stone, and metal through case studies and the conservator's role in treating and preserving them. Basing her description on the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works definitions of conservation terminology, Hatchfield wanted teachers to understand not only the physical character of objects (what they are made of and how) but also how and why they deteriorate. The teacher guide follows the logical progression of examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care.
In the actual teacher workshop, Hatchfield greeted teachers with a display of unfamiliar articles­a hygrothermograph, a canister of silica gel, a hygrometer and a relative humidity indicator­and a wooden carousel greyhound that she had just treated. In addition to explaining these tools of her trade and walking teachers through the conservation process that the carousel animal required, she showed slides that took them "behind the scenes" of the conservation lab. She then led the teachers through the galleries as she pointed out specific works in the collection and answered questions.
Since the workshop is intended to be more than a "one shot" program, the next challenge is help teachers meld what they learned with their classroom instruction. For assistance with this, Murray turned to Nancy Crasco, an artist and educator who develops educational programs for Ottoson Middle School in Arlington, Massachusetts. As a curriculum specialist, Crasco is extremely interested in professional development opportunities for teachers of all disciplines. She was particularly impressed by the scientific aspects that are integral to conservation. Crasco likes to present students with classroom activities that relate to "real life," and the chance to incorporate the idea of conserving art and artifacts proved especially appealing to her school's science and social studies teachers. Also important is the opportunity to learn about a profession directly from conservators and curators. Crasco and other teachers plan to use their cooperative educational model to expose small groups of students to different out-of-school experiences. These groups will later share what they learned with a cluster of 100 students using a similar process-oriented, hands-on approach. Through their study of culture and its artifacts, a skilled conservator, an accomplished scientist, a respected archaeologist, or a wealthy businessman willing to fund research and preservation projects might one day emerge.
To obtain Copies of the teacher resource booklet "Understanding Museum Conservation," by Pamela Hatchfield as well as other titles in the series, are available from the museum.
