AIC's 44th Annual Meeting

After the water recedes or fire is extinguished important choices begin that can dramatically impact the nature of intervention, costs involved, and treatment options available to stabilize and restore collections in subsequent weeks or months. Many times these decisions are made by staff and consulting conservators under extra-ordinary stress and limited time for consideration. Though the hard decisions are made by collection management in discussions with conservators and insurance adjusters in due course and with time for deliberation many treatment choices are set in motion during the process of triage. This presentation will examine a range of decorative arts materials as they were found during or immediately following triage for water damage followed by a discussion that considers treatment options informed by hind sight from past disasters. The audience will respond to examples given with their preference for triage recommendations and potential treatment outcomes by using class room clicker technology. The resulting survey will be discussed and be published in the post prints as a reference tool for future disaster responders faced with similar choices. Better informed future triage will hopefully lead to improved outcomes.