Archaeological Museum in Zagreb

Earthquake Damage Mitigation for Collections – three-day training workshop

Date: November 29, 2021 – December 1, 2021

Venue: online (via Zoom)

Organized by: Conservation and Restoration Department of the Arts Academy in Split and Museum Documentation Center, Zagreb

Across the world, earthquakes have caused enormous loss and damage to heritage collections in museums, historic houses, and places of worship. Much of that unfortunate damage and loss can be avoided through proactive mitigation measures, many of which are low in cost and straightforward.

This series of web-based workshops will explore earthquake damage mitigation for collections on display and those in storage. Beginning with a discussion of the nature of earthquakes and progressing through the process of determining a collection’s seismic vulnerability, methodologies for evaluating the potential responses of objects to earthquake ground shaking, and guidelines to establish the level of risk management desired.

The workshops will be completed with illustrations of practical earthquake mounts, restraints, and supports, from simple and low-cost to more technologically advanced base isolation systems.

>>>PROGRAM

About instructors:

Jerry Podany joined the Department of Antiquities Conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum (California) in 1978, serving as Department Head/Senior Conservator from 1984 until his retirement in 2016. He was elected for two terms as President of the American Institute for Conservation (1999–2003) and for two terms as President of the International Institute for Conservation (2006-2012). Mr. Podany continues to consult, lecture, and publish internationally on earthquake damage mitigation for collections and on emerging social and technological issues that affect the future sustainability of heritage preservation. He developed a series of conferences in Turkey, Greece, Japan, Italy, and China addressing the protection of collections from earthquake damage in each of those countries. Mr. Podany is the author of When Galleries Shake: Earthquake Damage Mitigation for Museum Collections (Getty, 2017).

McKenzie Lowry specializes in seismic mount making. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Art Studio at the University of California Davis in 1985, and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from Washington State University in 1987. In 1997 he joined the Antiquities Conservation staff at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and at his retirement in 2021, he held the title of Senior Mountmaker for the department. In 2007, McKenzie and his colleagues developed the Mountmaker’s Forum to address the modern concerns of mount-making for art objects. The Forum has continued to hold meetings since then every two years. He has presented numerous papers internationally outlining the Getty’s broad approach to mount-making for art and artifacts.

>>>Workshop Report

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