ALF ENGEN SKI MUSEUM GETS A LIFT FROM FIELD SERVICES, AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR CONSERVATION
Our Museum Field Services team works closely with Utah Humanities and the Utah Historical Society, regularly joining forces to work as partners. Together, we share staff to support statewide efforts to preserve and improve access to collections by lending technical assistance to Utah’s museums and collecting institutions, offering grant funding, training, onsite assessments, and mentored project assistance. The Museum Field Services team worked with the service-focused American Institute for Conservation (AIC) Emerging Conservation Professionals Network and Textile Specialty group and staff at the Alf Engen Ski Museum for months before the execution of this project. We collaborated to outline reasonable project goals and outcomes, to order supplies (and lunch!), and to make sure everything was ready for a very busy (and very productive) day together.
AIC, which maintains the industry standard for museum collections conservation, brought conservators from the Textile Specialty Group to an on-site workshop focused on improving the care and documentation of a significant and well-known collection at the Alf Engen Ski Museum: the Barbara Alley Simon collection. This collection showcases the evolution of ski fashion, as well as developments in ski apparel technology from 1968-1998, and it is a cornerstone of the Alf Engen Ski Museum’s collections.
This past May, 16 textile conservation professionals came to the museum to photograph, assess, label, and fabricate custom protective covers for this collection, side by side with staff from the Museum Field Services team and the Alf Engen Ski Museum. Working together, the day included vacuuming furs; rehousing gloves, hats (fancy ones with feathers!), and boots; creating quality hanging costume covers for ski suits and coats; and documenting the condition of the collection.
This project helped provide Alf Engen Ski Museum staff the confidence and education to continue to care for this collection for the future. One of the visiting conservators remarked that, “This site and project scope allowed conservators to connect, learn, and teach, all while making lasting connections outside of our day-to-day jobs.” The Barbara Alley Simon collection got some much-needed love and attention from experts from across the country, and the Museum Field Services team got to close the books on another awesome day working to serve the incredible museums in the state of Utah.
