Training & Classes:    List of Classes by Instructor



Helen Alten, is the Director of Northern States Conservation Center and its chief Objects Conservator. For nearly 30 years she has been involved in objects conservation, starting as a pre-program intern at the Oriental Institute in Chicago and the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. She completed a degree in Archaeological Conservation and Materials Science from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of London in England. She has built and run conservation laboratories in Bulgaria, Montana, Greece, Alaska and Minnesota. She has a broad understanding of three-dimensional materials and their deterioration, wrote and edited the quarterly Collections Caretaker, maintains the popular www.collectioncare.org web site, lectures throughout the United States on collection care topics, was instrumental in developing a state-wide protocol for disaster response in small Minnesota museums, has written, received and reviewed grants for NEH and IMLS, worked with local foundations funding one of her pilot programs, and is always in search of the perfect museum mannequin. She has published chapters on conservation and deterioration of archeological glass with the Materials Research Society and the York Archaeological Trust, four chapters on different mannequin construction techniques in Museum Mannequins: A Guide for Creating the Perfect Fit (2002), preservation planning, policies, forms and procedures needed for a small museum in The Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums' Collection Initiative Manual, and is co-editor of the penultimate book on numbering museum collections (still in process) by the Gilcrease Museum in Oklahoma. Helen Alten has been a Field Education Director, Conservator, and staff trainer. She began working with people from small, rural, and tribal museums while as the state conservator for Montana and Alaska. Helen currently conducts conservation treatments and operates a conservation center in Charleston, WV and St. Paul, MN. (Not teaching in 2023)

Elizabeth Burton has worked in paintings conservation since 2013 and has conducted environmental analysis and has designed and implemented climate control measures for museums since 2017. Elizabeth studied Art History as an undergraduate at UCLA and received her Master of Arts in Preventive Conservation from Northumbria University. Elizabeth’s graduate dissertation focused on budget-friendly collections care for small museums.

Elizabeth is also the co-founder of Los Angeles-based mental health and arts non-profit 501(c)(3) organization The Perception Project. Elizabeth currently serves on the organization’s board while working for a conservation firm in Los Angeles and for her own business as a paintings and preventive conservator and consultant for private clients, as well as for museums such as the Julian Pioneer Museum, the Pleasant Valley Historical Society Museum, and the La Jolla Map and Atlas Museum. More information about her work can be found at www.eburtoncollectionscare.com.

Christina Cain has a 17 year career working with museum collections preservation and registration. Currently the Anthropology Collections Manager at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, she has previous experience at the Denver Art Museum, Astor House Museum, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indiana State Museum, and the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Christina specializes in Integrated Pest Management and emergency preparedness. In 2013, she was selected to participate in the IMLS-funded Colorado Connecting to Collections peer assessor training program. The program developed a network of museum professionals to assess collections conditions and emergency preparedness in institutions throughout the state of Colorado. Christina graduated with a Master’s of Science in Museum and Field Studies, focusing on anthropological collections management and Integrated Pest Management from the University of Colorado Boulder.  (Not Teaching in 2023)

Ernest A. Conrad's greatest contribution to the preservation field was the development of environmental guidelines for engineers who work on museums, libraries and archives. For over 20 years, Mr. Conrad has focused on environmental issues. He is president of Conrad Engineers and Past Founder of Landmark Facilities Group, Inc., an engineering firm specializing in environmental systems for museums, libraries, archives and historic facilities. A licensed mechanical engineer in several states, Mr. Conrad holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a master's in environmental engineering from Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more information visit his web site Landmark Facilities Group, Inc.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) publishes standards in the areas of HVAC and refrigeration. Mr. Conrad recently co-authored the ASHRAE Applications Handbook "Chapter 20: Museums, Libraries and Archives." For the first time, there are guidelines specific to our needs in the engineering literature. Mr. Conrad has studied environments and designed special climate control systems throughout the United States for clients as well-known as the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, The Frick Collection, Getty Conservation Institute, The Pierpont Morgan Library, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and National Park Service. He has a special interest in house museums and how climate affects structures and collections housed within those structures.

Ann Coppinger runs the conservation department and teaches conservation at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She has a master's in museum studies specializing in costume and textile conservation from FIT. She is a former NEA master apprentice at the Textile Conservation Workshop. Ms. Coppinger previously worked for 22 years in fashion in New York City. She has degrees in both fashion design and pattern making from FIT.

 

Laura Elliff Cruz. With eighteen years of collections care experience, Laura Elliff Cruz re-joined the School for Advanced Research (SAR), Indian Arts Research Center (IARC) staff in December 2020, and was the previous collections manager at IARC from 2008-2014. SAR/IARC is a small research institution in Santa Fe, NM that houses approximately 12,000 objects of Native American Southwest pieces including baskets, pottery, paintings, jewelry, and textiles. She oversees the daily care, housing, environment, IPM, access, research, and inventory of the IARC collections, and she has a passion for collaboration with communities and indigenous collections care practices. Prior to returning, Laura was head of the collections management department at the Denver Art Museum for nearly six years overseeing the daily care, including a major collection move project and numerous grant housing upgrades during her time there. Previous experience includes working at Fort Lewis College, Center of Southwest Studies, and she was an Americorps VISTA volunteer. Laura, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is currently an active member with the Indigenous Collections Care working group drafting considerations/guide for cultural appropriate care. Laura has a BA in Anthropology from Illinois State University, a graduate certificate in Museum Collections Management and Care from George Washington University, and an MA in American Studies from the University of New Mexico.

Jenna Edwards is the Archivist/Records Manager for the USDA National Wildlife Research Center. After completing an MA in Public History at Wright State University located in Dayton, Ohio, she began working for the National Park Service at cultural and environmental heritage sites including the National Archives for Black Women’s History and the South Florida Collections Management Center (SFCMC) located in Everglades National Park. She then transitioned to the USDA National Wildlife Research Center, which combined her love of archives and environmental history. Her current projects include digitizing archival materials, the preservation and conservation of data and creation of an electronic records management filing scheme.

Erin Gates has been working in the field of interpretation for the last 15 years. Over the last 5 years she has worked on blending interpretive principles and practices into modern suite of digital tools aimed to reach the changing demographic of visitors, and better engage with the K12 education community. Working as a Program Coordinator for an award winning Distance Learning Program and running a social media campaign for that program, Erin routinely consults with interpreters from within her organization and from around the world wishing to expand their interpretive reach using innovative interpretive media tools.

Samantha Hunt-Durán is a museum professional, researcher, and consultant in the cultural heritage sector. Hunt-Durán’s nine years in the field have encompassed training in conservation, collections management, archives processing, collections packing and moving, disaster mitigation, polarized light microscopy pigment identification, technical writing, historic preservation, and federal contracting. She has an MA in Art History (Concentration in Museum Studies) and a BFA in Pre-Art Conservation from the University of Denver. Most recently, she has served as lead consultant and Project Manager for several strategic planning and collection management projects for federal museums. 

Hunt-Durán is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), which designates the highest level of professionalism in the field of conservation. She is also a Certified Assessor for the Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) program, which audits a museum’s conditions, policies, and procedures related to collections care.

Karin Hostetter has over thirty years experience with museum education. With a career that includes natural history museums, cultural history museums (including first person interpretation), nature centers, and zoos, Ms. Hostetter is experienced in interpretive writing, program and curriculum development, and staff and volunteer training. As a museum educator, she was Curator of Education for the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary (McKinney, TX). Among her award-winning education curricula are several programs she developed for the education departments during her five years at the Heard Museum and her twelve years on staff at the Denver Zoo. As an interpretive writer, Ms. Hostetter has written text for exhibits, wayside exhibits, visitor brochures, and professional magazines. Her skill is in making technical information understandable and meaningful to visitors.

Karin has worked with volunteers throughout her career, becoming the first paid volunteer coordinator at the Denver Zoo. Ms. Hostetter taught the National Association for Interpretation's two-day volunteer management course for volunteer coordinators and served on their panel about volunteer programs. She authored a series of articles for the National Association for Interpretation's Legacy magazine, providing guidelines for developing and maintaining a volunteer organization. Ms. Hostetter now consults with organizations on structuring and improving volunteer programs.

Over the years, Ms. Hostetter has been responsible for small animal exhibits and animal care at both the Heard Museum and the Denver Zoo. She worked with wild animal rehabilitation and public education animals, work that included training volunteer animal handlers. Karin co-founded the Zoos, Wildlife Parks, and Aquaria special interest section of the National Association for Interpretation.

Karin Hostetter is owner of Interpret This, a consulting company specializing in interpretive writing, program and curriculum development, and volunteer program management. When she is not consulting with other museums, she likes to volunteer and contract teach at them with a special love for preschool and family programs.

Sarah Kapellusch is the Registrar at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, Wisconsin. She has an MA in Public History and Museum Studies and a BA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She serves as the Vice President of the Wisconsin Federation of Museums and is a task force member for the American Association for State and Local History’s Nomenclature Committee. Sarah’s experiences include museum collection administration and management, metadata, PastPerfect and database management, Nomenclature 3.0, collection moves and museum start-up projects.

Diana Komejan graduated from Sir Sandford Fleming Colleges Art Conservation Techniques program in 1980. She has worked for Parks Canada; Kelsey Museum, University of Michigan; Heritage Branch Yukon Territorial Government; National Gallery of Canada; Canadian Museum of Nature; Yukon Archives and the Antarctic Heritage Trust and is currently teaching Conservation Techniques in the Applied Museum Studies Program at Algonquin College in Ottawa. In 1995 she was accredited in Mixes Collection with The Canadian Association of Professional Conservators. Her work as a conservator has been quite broad in scope, having worked with historic sites, archaeological excavations and museums. In addition to lab treatments, Diana has broad archaeological experience, including the excavation of mammoths and dinosaur tracks.

 

Stevan P. Layne is the principal consultant and chief executive of Layne Consultants International, a leading provider of cultural property protection advice. Steve is a former police chief, public safety director and museum security director. He is the author of The Cultural Property Protection Manual, and the Business Survival Guide. Steve regularly presents to professional associations and has consulted with more than 400 museums and other institutions. Steve is the founding director of the International Foundation for Cultural Property Protection and responsible for the professional training and certification of more than 1,000 museum professionals. For more information visit his web site Layne Consultants International

 

Stefani Pendergast joined the Denver Art Museum in 2014, bringing a background from the fine art shipping and storage industry, as well as in art conservation and museum move projects. She became the Assistant Collections Manager in 2015, and she assists the Associate Collections Manager and Collections Manager with providing the best possible care for our on- and off-site collections. She also oversees the Denver Art Museum’s Gallery Maintenance and integrated pest management programs.

Stefani is active in service to the museum field and holds positions as a board member with the Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums and the Mountain-Plains Museum Association. In addition to collections care, she is passionate about museums advocacy, engagement, and environmental sustainability. She has a B.F.A. in Pre-Art Conservation from the University of Denver, and an M.A. in Art History and a Professional Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Colorado – Boulder.

  MS210: Integrated Pest Management for Museums, Libraries and Archives
              Course Description & Info    Instructor: Stefani Pendergast
              July 3 - Aug 11, 2023    [Add to Cart]  

Peggy Schaller, founded Collections Research for Museums in 1991 to provide cataloging, collection-management training and services. She has worked with a large variety of museums and collections for more than 20 years. Peggy, who lives in Denver, Colorado, has a bachelor's degree in anthropology with minors in art history and geology from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She has a master's degree in anthropology with a minor in museum studies from the University of Colorado in Boulder and is a Certified Institutional Protection Manager II. She provides workshops and project services to museums and historical societies all across the country. The mission of Collections Research for Museums is to inspire museums to improve their professional standards, collections stewardship and service to their constituency through training in, and assistance with, documenting, preserving, protecting and managing their collections. For more information visit her web site Collections Research for Museums

John Veverka received his B.S. and M.S. degrees majoring in Interpretive Services from The Ohio State University, where he developed and taught an advanced course on Interpretive Master Planning, and spent five summers as an Interpretive Naturalist with Ohio State Parks. After graduating with his M.S. degree, John was recruited by Alberta Provincial Parks in Canada where he helped develop interpretive plans for two World Heritage Sites. In 1981 John returned to Michigan to teach introductory and advanced interpretation courses at Michigan State University, where he was enrolled in the Ph.D. program. John’s current work as a consultant in interpretive planning, training, and heritage tourism, spans 40 years and takes him all over the world to teach interpretation and consult on interpretive projects. He is the author of several interpretive textbooks and is the publisher of InterpNEWS, the International Heritage Interpretation e-Magazine.  You can contact John at jvainterp@aol.com.

If you are interested in these courses, please contact Helen Alten at helen@collectioncare.org or Peggy Schaller at peggy@collectioncare.org and sign up at MuseumClasses.org. Signing up as a prospective student now for any future courses is encouraged and does not require payment. Students will not be enrolled in paid courses until payment has been received. Students are manually enrolled into courses as they open, enrollment keys are no longer necessary.