Online course on conservation of plastics

Next week there is an opportunity to discuss modern materials in
your museum:

MS001: The Problem with Plastics (short course)
Dates: Jan 19-23, 2009 (one week only)
Price: $75
Instructor: Helen Alten
Location: online at <URL:http://www.museumclasses.org>

Description: As we march boldly toward the 22nd century, artifact
collecting includes that most fragile of materials--plastic. Not
only is it in our collections, but it's used to house our
collections, too. What problems have you seen? What problems have
others seen? What materials are best? What can we, as caretakers, do
to minimize long-term damage? Join Helen in this mini-course for
discussing care and deterioration of plastics. Bring any questions
you have about plastics in your museum.

Logistics: Participants in The Problem with Plastics will read
literature and participate in two one-hour chats to discuss plastics
deterioration and preservation. Each student should read course
materials and prepare questions or comments to share with the other
students in the chat. This is a mini-course and takes no more than
10 hours of a student's time.

To reserve a spot in the course, please pay at

    <URL:http://www.collectioncare.org/tas/tas.html>

If you have trouble, please contact
Helen Alten <helen<-at->collectioncare<.>org>

The Instructor:

    Helen Alten, is the Director of Northern States Conservation
    Center and its chief Objects Conservator. For nearly 30 years
    she has been involved in objects conservation, starting as a
    pre-program intern at the Oriental Institute in Chicago and the
    University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. She
    completed a degree in Archaeological Conservation and Materials
    Science from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of
    London in England. She has built and run conservation
    laboratories in Bulgaria, Montana, Greece, Alaska and Minnesota.
    She has a broad understanding of three-dimensional materials and
    their deterioration, wrote and edited the quarterly Collections
    Caretaker, maintains the popular
    <URL:http://www.collectioncare.org> web site, lectures
    throughout the United States on collection care topics, was
    instrumental in developing a state-wide protocol for disaster
    response in small Minnesota museums, has written, received and
    reviewed grants for NEH and IMLS, worked with local foundations
    funding one of her pilot programs, and is always in search of
    the perfect museum mannequin. She has published chapters on
    conservation and deterioration of archeological glass with the
    Materials Research Society and the York Archaeological Trust,
    four chapters on different mannequin construction techniques in
    Museum Mannequins: A Guide for Creating the Perfect Fit (2002),
    preservation planning, policies, forms and procedures needed for
    a small museum in The Minnesota Alliance of Local History
    Museums' Collection Initiative Manual, and is co-editor of the
    penultimate book on numbering museum collections (still in
    process) by the Gilcrease Museum in Oklahoma. Helen Alten has
    been a Field Education Director, Conservator, and staff trainer.
    She began working with people from small, rural, and tribal
    museums while as the state conservator for Montana and Alaska.
    Helen currently conducts conservation treatments and operates a
    conservation center in Charleston, WV and St. Paul, MN.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:39
                Distributed: Saturday, January 17, 2009
                       Message Id: cdl-22-39-009
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