Hibernation – Not Just for Bears: Putting your house museum “to bed” for the season

seasonal_slider

What do you need to know to ready your buildings for seasonal closures? In a discussion of how, when, why, and what to do to prepare your historic house museum for the winter season, we will explore the variety of building and collections tasks that go into seasonal closings. Starting on the exterior, we will look at typical tasks required for the landscape and the building envelope including whether to bring your ornamental pots and statuary in for the off-season, shutting down exterior water sources, and preparations for winter storms. On the interior we will explore seasonal maintenance, whether or not to shut down your mechanical systems, off season environmental system set points, inspections, tips on preventing mold growth and pest infestations, and other collections tasks.

Presenters

 

Benjamin Haavik, Team Leader of Property Care for Historic New England, is responsible for the maintenance and preservation of 36 historic house museums and landscapes open to the public. Previous to joining Historic New England in 2004, Ben was Deputy Director of the Historic House Trust of New York City where he cared for 24 historic sites throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Ben started his career at the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust in Philadelphia, PA after receiving his MS in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2004, Ben was a participant in the Attingham Summer School Program in England.

 

Nicole Chalfant has been the Collection Manager for Historic New England’s 36 historic house museums and extensive research collection for nearly five years. Prior to that, Nicole was the sole museum professional responsible for the 11 Connecticut State Parks that include historic sites or museums. Nicole began her career at the Prudence Crandall Museum, site of the first private school for black women in Connecticut, after graduating with a Masters in Museum Studies from New York University.

 

We are pleased to be co-hosting this webinar with NEMA, the New England Museum Association as part of their Lunch with NEMA program.

NEMA_logo copy

Recorded: Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Duration: 57 minutes

Listen

 

Not Just for Bears PowerPoint Slides

 

Not Just for Bears Handout

 

Not Just for Bears Trailing Questions

 

For closed captions, please access this via this link.