September 2017 workshop announcement

Assessing and managing risks to your collections

A two-day workshop

with R. Robert Waller

Protect Heritage Corp.
in association with the National Museum of Denmark

September 1st and 2nd 2017

 Workshop announcement

Today, preventive conservation has become a leading theme in all fields of cultural property. Useful scientific and technical knowledge continues to grow but is often incorporated in current practice slowly, incorrectly, or not at all. Despite the best intentions, professionals and institutions dealing with the preservation of cultural property may apply unrealistic standards, guidelines or lists of best practices, with no clear sense of priority, or of realistic expected benefits. With limited resources, decision makers are usually confronted with difficult choices in planning conservation strategies.

Since 2005, leading professionals in the field such as Dr. Waller, have worked on developing and disseminating a risk management approach for cultural heritage. This risk management approach, which informs and guides decision makers in many other fields, offers a sound methodology to incorporate the most recent knowledge into current practice. It allows an integrated view of all expected damages and loss to cultural property, and of their mitigation, thus providing a useful tool for the design of more efficient conservation strategies. Preservation requirements and priorities will no longer be seen as overhead costs but as sound, strategic investments. Participants learn to determine their preventive conservation priorities and how best to invest their limited funds.

Planned to work conveniently into schedules for attending the 18th Triennial ICOM-CC meeting in Copenhagen, this workshop will be held Friday September 1 and Saturday September 2nd at The National Museum of Denmark Conservation Department, Copenhagen.

Audience and participant requirements

The 2-day workshop is designed for a maximum of 40 participants. The course is open to:

directors
managers
administrators
curators
collection managers
researchers
conservators
preparators
volunteers, and
any stakeholder in collection preservation

 

Objectives

 The objective of this methodical, but not highly technical, workshop is to familiarize participants with the approach to assessing and managing risks to collections based on the award winning Cultural Property Risk Analysis Model (CPRAM).

Participants will learn to:

  • identify all the risks to which collections are exposed, which agents of change are responsible and how risk event frequencies range from continual to rare;
  • assess the relative importance of risks;
  • identify means of controlling risks using different methods applied at different levels; and
  • develop risk mitigation strategies and evaluate their costs, risks and benefits in order to choose the most valuable option in a given context.

Course methodology

The workshop is a highly interactive training session. It includes both theory and tightly integrated practical components in which the participants play an important part. Information is gained through lectures, demonstrations, brainstorming in small groups, assembling of ideas, presentation and discussion. The teaching approach fosters team-building and mutual understanding.

Participants are provided with various learning tools including the workshop manual which contains the complete workshop content, exercises, references, and a glossary of terms.

Workshop content

Part One – Assessing Risks to Collections

  • Identify all risks to collections and the agents of deterioration
  • Identify the types of risk according to their frequency and severity
  • Recognise the parameters for estimating risks: fraction susceptible, loss in value, extent, probability
  • Calculate magnitudes of risk

Part Two – Managing Risks to Collections

  • Identify methods of controlling risks
  • Identify levels for applying the methods of controlling risks
  • Develop mitigation strategies
  • Evaluate the relative costs, risks and benefits of mitigation strategies

Dates

Friday September 1st and Saturday September 2nd, 2017

 Venue

The workshop, as well as the practical session will take place at The National Museum of Denmark Conservation Department, I.C. Modewegsvej, Brede, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby (Copenhagen). A pleasant 35-minute local train ride North from central Copenhagen.

 Facilitators and host

Robert Waller (Protect Heritage Corp.) with the assistance of Tanja Probst-Dedenroth, National Museum of Denmark. The event is hosted by The National Museum of Denmark courtesy of Poul Klenz Larsen.

Working language

The course language is English. Course materials will be available in English.

 Course fee: Cdn$500 (workshop manual, coffee, tea, and two lunches in an upscale restaurant are included)

For comparison on 2017 April 26: Cdn$500 is about US$370, DKK2500, €340, £290

Lunches will be at Brede Spisehus (http://www.bredespisehus.dk/home):

 Registration at: (https://www.eply.com/CPRAM-workshop-Copenhagen-2017).

Application deadline (maximum 40 participants):
until no vacancies left or before 21st of July 2017

For more information please contact:

Robert Waller
rw@protectheritage.com
Protect Heritage Corp.
622 Simoneau Way
Ottawa ON K4A 1P4
CANADA
http://www.protectheritage.com