Pilgrim Trust Collections Care Audit – Frenchay Village Museum

Collections care audit
AIM Grant: £1,100

The audit has confirmed our need for closer attention to the conservative needs of certain objects, particularly paper. We also learnt a bit more about the importance of an emergency plan and how certain priority items need to be considered. We were aware of certain issues with our storage, but this visit benefitted us greatly as the conservator pointed our specific problems, like certain objects not being stored in the correct way for conservation reasons.

In terms of next steps, we have taken on board all recommendations for building maintenance and intend on upgrading our system for calculating temperature and humidity by purchasing dataloggers.

We also need to reconsider how objects in storage are organised so it makes more sense from an archive perspective. We will investigate having a paper conservator look at some key items and will revise our Emergency Plan.

In addition, the curator will attend relevant recommended training to help expand her knowledge and ability to contribute to the management of the museum.

The audit has achieved everything we have expected. We have received a wealth of important advice and recommendations, which will benefit us enormously.

We really enjoyed working with Fiona and appreciated her genuine interest in the museum. She was very attentive and professional in the run up to the site visit, and clearly explained what her role was and how the process would work; this was excellent, considering the challenges of working during a pandemic. She also asked many questions and I feel as a result provided us with an extremely detailed and well-structured report.

Charlotte Appleyard, Curator, Frenchay Village Museum

Pictured: Frenchay Village Museum