The Preparator's Handbook: A Practical Guide for Preparing and Installing Collection Objects

by Andrew Saluti

Overview

The Preparator’s Handbook :A Practical Guide for Preparing and Installing Collection Objects is an invaluable resource for emerging museum professionals or anyone working in galleries and collections with little-to-no previous preparatory experience or training.

This handbook explores, explains, and illustrates the basics for the preparation and installation professionals.

- practical, step-by-step guides that outline museum-standard procedures for most types of collection objects, including works on paper, archival volumes, and historic artifacts.

- templates and guides for presentation, preservation, and collection storage

- illustrated inventories of standard and specialized tools, materials and hardware

- the basics of lighting, audio, and video in installations.

- unique case-studies from working professionals for a wide-range of objects and installations including examples from the Field Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Folger Shakespeare Library.

- Over 50 illustrations and photographs that accompany the written text.

This practical book is the first of its kind: a guide for novice or amateur collection and gallery professionals as well as an academic textbook for museum studies and fine art students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538139219
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/01/2022
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Andrew Saluti is assistant professor and program coordinator for museum studies at Syracuse University. Before stepping into this academic role, Saluti was the chief curator of exhibitions, programs and education for the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Libraries and the assistant director of the Syracuse University Art Galleries and Collections.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter 1: What is a Preparator?

Chapter 2: Object Handling: A Philosophical Approach

Chapter 3: Preparation in Action: Pack it, but don’t touch it: A case study of the trope

Meredith Weimer, Associate Collections Registrar, Portland Museum of Art

Chapter 4: Prep Management

Chapter 5: Preparation in Action: New Glass Now

Warren Bunn II, Collections and Exhibitions Manager, The Corning Museum of Glass

Chapter 6: Two-Dimensional Object Preparation

Chapter 7: Preparation in Action: Mounting Scrolls for Exhibition

Donia Conn, Assistant Professor of Practice, School of Library and Information Science, Simmons University

Chapter 8: Three-Dimensional Object Preparation

Chapter 9: Preparation in Action: Simple Fosshape Supports for Textiles

Kirsten Schoonmaker, Textile Conservator

CHAPTER 10: Preparation in Action: The Object Directs the Process: Creating Ethafoam Cradles for the Field Museum’s Vertebrate Paleontological Collection

Adrienne Stroup, Collections Assistant, The Field Museum

Chapter 11: Installation Of Objects

Chapter 12: Preparation in Action: The Preparator at the Stone Quarry Art Park

Emily Zaengle, Executive Director, Stone Quarry Art Park

Chapter 13: Practical Basics For Lighting, Audio, And Video

Chapter 14: Preparator’s Resources

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Based on his own extensive experience and that of museum colleagues, Saluti’s handbook should quickly take its place among best practice references for the museum field. Clear, concise, yet comprehensive, it offers both big picture contextuality and detailed instructions that preparators in any type of museum will find useful, if not essential.

Jill Hartz

This book provides detailed insight into the varied work of a museum preparator, work that everyone in the museum should be aware of. It is an excellent resource for both entry level and seasoned museum professionals, and it could certainly serve as a textbook in college- and graduate-level Museum Studies courses. Saluti draws on his vast experiences in the field, demonstrating a thorough and practical knowledge of materials, object preparation, and installation techniques throughout the text, all of which is heightened by the inclusion of actual case studies from colleagues at various institutions.

Jennifer L. Streb

Based on his own extensive experience and that of museum colleagues, Saluti's handbook should quickly take its place among best practice references for the museum field. Clear, concise, yet comprehensive, it offers both big picture contextuality and detailed instructions that preparators in any type of museum will find useful, if not essential.

This book provides detailed insight into the varied work of a museum preparator, work that everyone in the museum should be aware of. It is an excellent resource for both entry level and seasoned museum professionals, and it could certainly serve as a textbook in college- and graduate-level Museum Studies courses. Saluti draws on his vast experiences in the field, demonstrating a thorough and practical knowledge of materials, object preparation, and installation techniques throughout the text, all of which is heightened by the inclusion of actual case studies from colleagues at various institutions.

From the Publisher