CCI Services: Seminars, Lectures, Workshops, and Visits

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CCI Newsletter, No. 24, November 1999

CCI Services: Seminars, Lectures, Workshops, and Visits

In co-operation with provincial museum and art gallery associations, CCI responds to specific needs within the museum community by offering workshops, seminars, and lectures related to the conservation and care of museum and art gallery collections. CCI staff also participate in and present lectures to meetings of professional groups and associations.

May

Tom Strang co-presented a two-day seminar on integrated pest management at the Upper Midwestern Conservation Association in Minneapolis, MN.

At the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property in Winnipeg, MB: Tom Strang gave a talk at the workshop on thermal insect control; Michael Harrington presented a paper that described the scope and impact of CCI's recent activity in the built heritage sector; David Grattan presented the annual Per Guldbeck memorial lecture; Jane Sirois delivered a lecture "The Analysis of Museum Collections for Arsenic and Mercury" at the workshop "Green Conservation: Environmental and Human Safety in Conservation"; and Lyndsie Selwyn delivered a lecture "Active Corrosion on Archaeological Iron."

Stefan Michalski presented a two-day seminar on museum environment issues for staff at the Historic Royal Palaces, Hampton Court Palace in London, followed by one-day seminar on suction tables for the Textile Conservation Section.

Stefan Michalski delivered a lecture "Risks and Revenues, Treasures and Traffic" at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Professional Heritage Consultants at Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, ON.

Scott Williams presented a paper "Non-destructive, In-situ, On-site, Mid-infrared Spectroscopic Chemical Analysis of Objects in Museums using a Portable Spectrometer with Fiber Optic Probe" at ART'99, 6th International Conference on "Non-Destructive Testing and Microanalysis for Diagnostics and Conservation of the Cultural and Environmental Heritage" in Rome; the text of the presentation was published in the Proceedings of this conference (vol. 2, pp. 1619-1631).

Siegfried Rempel, Deborah Stewart, and David Tremain made a site visit to the Résidence du Gouveneur Général at the Citadelle in Quebec City.

Siegfried Rempel made a site visit to the Musée de la Civilisation in Quebec City as part of a Storage Planning Project.

June

Staff of the Textile Lab visited the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte, ON, to return two mummy shrouds that had been treated at CCI; the visit provided an opportunity to discuss the treatment as well as to demonstrate the workings of the mounting system that had been made to accommodate both the display and storage of these very large pieces of fragile linen, and also enabled CCI staff to become more familiar with the museum's facilities, collections, and exhibitions.

Siegfried Rempel coordinated a visit of staff from the Musée de la Civilisation in Quebec City (who were working on a Storage Planning Project) to local area storage facilities including the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian Museum of Nature, and the National Archives.

Tom Strang co-presented two half-day workshops on CO2 fumigation "Passing Gas" at the 1999 meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections hosted by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Siegfried Rempel provided on-site training to staff of the Directorate of History and Heritage, Department of National Defence.

CCI Workshops

"Conservation Considerations for Sculptors and Carvers"

Bob Barclay for Yukon Tourism/Heritage Branch; McBride Museum; Society for Yukon Artists of Native Ancestry; and Yukon Arts Branch, Whitehorse, YK.

July

At the Senate Commerce and Banking Committee Room, in the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Debra Daly Hartin (project leader), Helen McKay, Bob Arnold, Peter Vogel, CCI summer intern Holly Fiedler, and sub-contractor Wojciech Kulikowski started the treatment of ten paintings on canvas (by Atillio Pusterla, 1920) adhered directly to the walls; the work involved consolidating flaking paint, cleaning heavy dirt/grime layers from the surface of the paintings, and readhering one painting which was peeling from the wall.

In the Chamber of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario at Queen's Park, Toronto, Jim Bourdeau, sub-contractors Amanda Gray and Jennifer Cheney, Helen McKay, CCI summer intern Holly Fiedler, Bob Arnold, and Peter Vogel worked on a project to remove several solid paint layers from a representative portion of the walls where decorative and allegorical wall paintings had been applied directly to the plaster; inpainting was carried out on a portion of the wall where layers had already been removed in 1991 by another firm.

August

Jean Tétreault gave two talks "Standards for Levels of Indoor Pollutants" and "Summary of Control Procedures to Prevent Damages Caused by Contaminants" during the second meeting of the working group on air quality in museums at the Instituut Collectie Nederland in Amsterdam.

Siegfried Rempel made a site visit to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery in Thunder Bay, ON, to monitor the Facilities Upgrading Project.

Brian Laurie-Beaumont and Siegfried Rempel met with staff of the RCMP in Ottawa to develop, with the aid of private-sector consultants Sandra Lorimar and Chris Borgal, a conceptual plan for a heritage interpretation centre (at the Rockcliffe Musical Ride barracks) on the role of horses in the history of the RCMP.

At the 12th triennial meeting of the International Council of Museums - Committee for Conservation (ICOM-CC) in Lyon, France: Marie-Claude Corbeil delivered a lecture "The Use of a White Pigment Patented by Freeman by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven" (co-authored with Elizabeth Moffatt and Jane Sirois) and was elected coordinator of the working group "Scientific Methods of Examination of Works of Art" for a second term; David Grattan was re-elected as Chairperson of the ICOM-CC; and Debra Daly Hartin presented a paper "A Collaborative Treatment; Reducing Water Stains on a Silkscreen on Linen" to the Paintings Working Group. Siegfried Rempel made two presentations "The Lighting Decision" and "Digital Photography" at the annual conference of the Organization of Military Museums of Canada at CFB Gagetown in Oromocto, NB.

September

David Grattan and Jane Down attended meetings of the Historical Plastics Research Scientists' Group held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and gave a report on the current polymer and adhesive work being done at CCI.

At the conference "Reversibility: Does It Exist?" organized by the British Museum in London: Bob Barclay presented a paper "Reversibility: The Thinking Behind The Word" and Jane Down gave a talk "Swelling as an Indicator of Removability."

Jane Sirois visited the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto to analyse (non-destructively) artifacts from the anthropology collection using X-ray spectrometry to detect the presence of arsenic- and mercury-containing compounds; the project was undertaken in conjunction with the Royal Ontario Museum's health and safety officer, Pamela Costanzo.

Brian Laurie-Beaumont and Siegfried Rempel made a series of site visits in British Columbia and Alberta (Head-Smashed-in-Buffalo Jump, Secwepemc Museum and Native Heritage Park, U'mista Cultural Centre, Kwagiulth Museum and Cultural Centre, Campbell River Museum, and Xa'ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre/Hatzic Rock) culminating in the presentation of a three-day workshop "Facility Planning and Design" in Vancouver to approximately 20 First Nations groups.

Siegfried Rempel made site visits to the Kamloops Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of the South Okanagan, and the Kelowna Art Gallery to conduct Movable Cultural Property Program facility reviews.

October

Jane Sirois and Marie-Claude Corbeil made a site visit to the Musée du Séminaire de Sherbrooke to analyse (non-destructively) a selection of ornithology specimens from their collection using X-ray spectrometry to detect the presence of arsenic- and mercury-containing compounds.

Marie-Claude Corbeil gave a talk on the scientific examination of works of art during the 11th Chemistry Symposium of the Université de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, QC.

Stefan Michalski presented a three-day seminar on "Lighting in Museums" in Caracas, Venezuela (hosted by the Museo de Bellas Artes - contact Melanie Monteverde); he also visited museums and galleries in the area to discuss lighting and other preventive conservation issues.

Ian Wainwright presented a paper "Natural Weathering and Visitor Impact at Rock Painting and Petroglyph Sites" at the Cultural Heritage Tourism in Ontario conference in Pembroke, ON.

David Tremain gave a presentation at the one-day workshop "Be Prepared...Conducting a Vulnerability Assessment" for the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, PA.

Brian Laurie-Beaumont made a series of site visits in southern Ontario (the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and Trent University and Sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough) to discuss First Nations cultural development issues; these discussions will help prepare CCI to assist First Nations cultural facility development projects.

Jane Down delivered a lecture on CCI's adhesive research to students in the Master of Art Conservation program at Queen's University.

Lyndsie Selwyn delivered a lecture "Corrosion on Archaeological Iron Before and After Excavation" at the conference of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers in Ottawa.