Regional Preservation Field Services Program

FAIN: PE-268722-20

Midwest Art Conservation Center, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN 55404-3506)
Colin D. Turner (Project Director: May 2019 to October 2022)

A regional preservation field service program that strengthens preservation practices and the care of humanities collections at hundreds of museums, historical organizations, libraries, and archives in five states of the Upper Midwest. Activities include training workshops, disaster response services, preservation needs assessments and surveys, the loan of environmental monitoring equipment, and information and outreach services. In all, the project would support more than twenty workshops reaching hundreds of staff members at over 400 cultural heritage institutions in the Midwest. The award would additionally support training for two Native American conservation fellows as part of its Native American Collections Care Fellowship Program, which began in 2018.

The Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC) requests continued funding for its Regional Preservation Field Service Program (Preventive Conservation). This program strengthens the preservation practices and collections care at cultural repositories in the Upper Midwest resulting in increased public access. During the proposed NEH grant period (3/2020-2/2022), the Preventive Conservation program will improve the preservation practices at hundreds of institutions by providing: collections care and preservation related workshops; disaster planning, training and response services; preservation surveys and plans; collections care information; grant preparation assistance; and other related collection care improvement services. The program has demonstrated successful outcomes and measurable results, keeps its programming accessible to even the smallest institutions in the region, is staffed by knowledgeable conservators and preservation experts, and is devoted to this region’s collections.