Developing a Master Preservation Plan for Collections at the Museum of History and Art

FAIN: PF-50021-10

City of Ontario (Ontario, CA 91762-3812)
Theresa E. Hanley (Project Director: December 2009 to April 2014)

A planning project leading to sustainable strategies for preserving a collection housed in a historic building, consisting of artifacts on the material and social history of Southern California.

The museum's staff requests a planning grant to engage representative city officials and a team of three consultants--a conservator, environmental management specialist, and historic preservation architect--to develop a Master Preservation Plan for Collections. The museum's collections are currently housed in a designated historic building constructed in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration. The preservation plan would focus on collaboratively developed strategies to balance collections needs and vulnerabilities with the performance capacity of the historic building envelope. Project staff would employ appropriate passive and active measures to mitigate risks to stored collections by determining reasonably achievable targets for collections environments. The plan would also propose solutions that would be energy and cost efficient; respect the historic fabric of the museum and a possible second 1950s-era building designated for future museum use; and make efficient use of available storage spaces.