The international course on Preventive Conservation: Reducing Risks to Collections concluded at the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI), Ottawa, on 27 October with the presentation of certificates to participants.

This course, co-organized with CCI, focused on applying a risk management approach to the conservation of collections. Risk management implies understanding risk as the possibility of loss due not only to rare and catastrophic events, but also to sporadic or slow and continuous hazards.

The project team was composed of ICCROM and CCI senior staff and consultant, as well as senior staff from the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN), the Canadian Museum of Nature, and guest lecturers from other institutions.

The twenty course participants came from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Finland, France, Mexico, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom, USA and Viet Nam.

Key features of the Course

• The course reviewed the risk concept and its current interpretations and applications in the field of cultural heritage and beyond. Professionals from other fields were invited. These included a senior expert from the field of public health risk management and communication, and an educator and author from the field of architectural and urban conservation.
• The course provided a complete ramework within which risks were compared on a single common scale, combining the science and probabilities of risk, and the fraction of the collections at risk, with the estimated loss of value.
• The Bytown Museum in Ottawa was used as a case-study throughout the course to assist participants in practicing risk management.
• A mini-conference at the Library and Archives Canada was organized where participants and teachers shared their strategies to deal with preventive conservation priorities. The rest of the course was a balance of lectures, reading time, group work, role-playing, hands-on workshops and seminars.
• A follow-up of participants' home projects is formally included in the course project.

The Course Information Document describes the background, objective, course content and pedagogy.

Member States represented: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Finland, France, Mexico, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom, United States and Viet Nam

updated on: 24 November, 2007