Beyond “No Food or Drink in the Gallery”: Food Management Strategies for the Real World

Food in museums may seem at odds with collections care. How do you balance revenue-generating food service and events with protecting collections from increased risks of pest infestation and damage? How do staff meals and snacks affect collections care? What do you do if you have food items in your collection?

Join members of the Conservation Committee from the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections for a discussion of best practices for food management in museums and collections holding institutions. You can find a way to have cake and eat it (or catalog and store it), too!

Presenters

Bethany Palumbo is Conservator for Life Collections at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. She specialises in the conservation of natural history collections with emphasis in osteological and taxidermy collections. She holds a BA and MA in the Conservation of Historic Objects from the University of Lincoln and stands on the Conservation Committee of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections.

Rebecca Newberry is the Conservator at the Science Museum of Minnesota, where she specializes in preventive conservation. Filling various conservation and collection management roles since 1994, she was named Conservator in 2013. Rebecca is the co-chair of the Conservation Committee of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections.

Fran Ritchie is a Project Conservator for an IMLS grant-funded project researching materials used to conserve historic taxidermy at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and Yale University’s Institute for Preservation of Cultural Heritage. Her work expands upon previous experiences preserving taxidermy collections across the United States. She is a graduate of Art Conservation Program at the State University College at Buffalo.