For Immediate Release
Contact:
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Leigh Kish (412) 622-3361
KishL@CarnegieMuseums.org

February 4, 2009

Carnegie Museum of Natural History and
University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences Present
the Preservation Fair 2009: “Saving Your Family’s Treasures”

Pittsburgh, PA…Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences are pleased to present Preservation Fair 2009: Saving Your Family’s Treasures in Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History’s Hall of Architecture on Saturday, February 28, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The fair is free with museum admission and no registration is required.

This public information event is a unique and exciting opportunity for visitors to learn about how to conserve or repair their precious treasures from preservation experts. Visitors are encouraged to bring a small item with them that they are interested in discussing with the exhibitors–—specifically books, papers, photographs, works of art on paper and films. No appraisals or valuations will be given. In addition to onsite experts, informational handouts will be available to the public to take home.

Special events include two featured speakers in the Earth Theater from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Rick Prelinger of the Prelinger Archives in San Francisco (www.prelinger.com) will speak on the value of preserving home movies, and Tom Clareson from PALINET (www.palinet.org) will give a talk entitled “Preserving Your Treasure in Times of Disasters.” In addition to the speakers, graduate students from the University of Pittsburgh Library and Information Science program will present a hands-on activity throughout the day demonstrating the problems of handling water-damaged books, papers and photographs and the results of various recovery methods.

Over 30 individual conservators and vendors of conservation supplies and services will be on hand to address conservation issues. Museum exhibitors will include: Ellen Baxter, chief conservator, and Michael Belman, objects conservator, from Carnegie Museum of Art; Greg Pierce, curator of film at the Andy Warhol Museum; and, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Section of Botany, which will demonstrate plant-mounting and conservation. Commercial vendors and individual exhibitors will provide information on conservation framing, painting restoration, book and paper restoration, furniture restoration, digitization of audio and video recordings, and textile conservation.

A partial list of non-museum experts is below:
Christine Maurhoff- specialist in textile conservation
Concept Art Gallery
Robyn Barber of Creative Memories- specialist in scrapbooks and photographs
Csilla Crisanti- specialist in book and paper restoration
Emilie Cohen Studios- specialist in fine art framing, gold leaf and conservation services Heritage Preservation
Mike McSorley of McSorley Fine Art Service- specialist in packing and crating artworks
Neshannock Woods- specialist in furniture restoration
Preservation Technologies- specialist in the preservation of paper-based collections and digitization of audio and video tape
Rhonda Wozniak- Objects Conservator, LLC
Rikke Foulke- Fine Art Conservation
Nancy Boomhower of Textile Conservation and Restoration- specialist in textile conservation
Wert Bookbinding, Inc.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will have displays of the collections and services provided by the Pennsylvania Department, specifically the Pittsburgh Photographic Library and the Library’s Reference Department which will also display books dealing with the care of family treasures. Informational displays will also be provided by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, and the Point/IGG Italian Genealogy Group.

For current information, see the Preservation Fair’s Web site at http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~presfair/.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sundays from noon to 5 p.m., and Mondays between July 4 and the Monday before Labor Day, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and President’s Day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission for both Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History is $15 for adults, $12 for senior citizens, $11 for children ages 3–18 and full-time students with ID, and free to children under 3 and Carnegie Museums members. Convenient visitor parking is available in the museum’s six-level garage at Forbes Avenue and S. Craig Street. For more information, please visit www.carnegiemnh.org or call (412) 622-3131.

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