Conference: Museum Climatology is the Basis of Objects of Cultural Heritage Preservation

From 30 January to 2 February 2013, the Hermitage hosted a scientific / practical conference entitled Museum Climatology is the Basis of Objects of Cultural Heritage Preservation. Participants included employees of Russia’s museums, foreign specialists, representatives of companies participating in the development of modern monitoring and measurement equipment. The themes of the conference covered a wide range of questions of preventative conservation in museums and libraries; storage conditions, the practice of using monitoring system, microclimate stabilization and the evaluation of new directions in the study of museum climate.

The conference included a discussion of approaches to solving the problem of optimizing the storage conditions for objects of cultural heritage. Over the course of the conference, a draft resolution was developed as an appeal to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, proposing the creation of a committee to organize regular conferences, dedicated to museum climatology and a regulatory document to define the requirements for the parameters of the microclimate for storing and exhibiting works of art of various categories with due consideration for the current agreements of the International Group of Organizers of Large Scale Exhibits (the Bizot group).

Journey into the Microscopic World exhibit was timed to coincide with the conference; the exhibit presented the first results of the work by Climate Control Laboratory and the Department of the Electrical Superintendent of the State Hermitage Museum to study and optimize the atmospheric conditions of the museum using molecular filtration technology. At this exhibit, one could see photographs of micro-particles in the air. These photographs were made with the help of a scanning electron microscope with 90,000 times magnification by the famous photographic artist Lennart Nilsson (city of Trosa, Sweden).

Plans are in place to publish materials from the conference.