Self-Evaluation of my Practicum Experience

I wanted to do a practicum at the Portland Art Museum for two reasons. First, I

wanted to gain experience working at a different cultural heritage institution such as the

art museum and secondly for my interest in preservation and conservation. Working with

Elizabeth Chambers, Paper Conservator and Noelle McClure, Registrar for the Print and

Drawing collection, allowed me to accomplish both of these goals in being able to work

with a very specific, specialized collection and with performing and addressing

conservation issues.

My practicum experience really built upon two theory courses 804 and 805 along

with my archives courses, specifically 862 Archives in the Park, 827 Preservation and

Archives Management. In conjunction with these courses the practicum also built upon

the preservation and conservation work I do for Watzek Library’s Special Collections &

Archives at Lewis & Clark College. Some of what I have done at the library such as

making enclosures came into play and was beneficial to the museum collection. Along

with my practical experience working with the print and drawing collection I became

very enlightened with readings about theory and practice within the conservation,

museum and art fields. These readings significantly enhanced my experience and built

upon my knowledge around the history and process of printing, preservation,

conservation ethics, practice and theory.

During my time at the museum I was able to identify deficiencies within my

knowledge and skills and address these through the aid of hands on experience and

through thought provoking discussions with Elizabeth and Erin. I found that I have

significantly expanded my knowledge around issues such as collection development,

ethics, professionalism and preservation issues in information and cultural institutions

from very general, large-scale preservation problems such as the building environment to

very specific conservation issues as foxing or tears. Under the guidance of Elizabeth and

collaboration with Erin, I was able to learn significantly more about object description

and conservation.

With the guidance of Elizabeth and Erin we identified two problems that would be

addressed during my time at the museum. One problem was to assess what was in the

subset collection of the print and drawing collection, consisting of monographs, artist

portfolios and artist books. Included within this assessment was cataloging, describing

and making conservation recommendations of each item within the collection. The

second problem was to address specific conservation problems that arose during this

analysis. This would entail stabilizing, repairing, re-housing and making custom

enclosures for those items identified as needing immediate attention.

By the end of my time at the museum, Erin and I were able to finish assessing the

entire collection. We came up with a report of recommendations for others to expand

upon and for the registrar and curator to address. Most of the items are now in the

Mimsy database and can be searched and are appropriately described. Items that were

identified as needing further attention can be searched and found within the database.

I feel that the projects went very well. I would not do anything differently. I liked

that fact that I was working along with another conservation intern. I feel that our

different perspectives and experiences really enhanced each other’s work and time at the

museum. Erin’s background and knowledge in conservation, art and specifically printing

really helped me quite a bit. I don’t think that my experience would have been as
enjoyable or enriched as being able to work along with someone else. Elizabeth really

took the time to address conservation issues with us not only with the specific problems

that we came across during our work, but also with things she was working on as well.

During these times we were able to discuss issues such as politics, time, money, cost and

cultural history that come into play with collection development. We talked about ethics

and professionalism as well. I learned from both Elizabeth and Erin to be thorough, to

think through things, and try as best as one can to make informed decisions with the

knowledge and tools one has at the time to do what is best for the item. Sometimes this

may turn out wrong, but one must accept the fact of change and that standards and

practices do change. It is important to be engaged and involved and flexible.