Archival Enclosures Workshop

Instructor: Lisa Isley

Lisa is a bookbinder, conservator and artist that has served the Calgary area since 2004. She has trained across North America and Europe, and is experienced with many bookbinding traditions.

Lisa has a Finance degree from the University of Alberta. Her foundational art studies were taken through the Alberta College of Art and Design. She has a diploma in Book Conservation from the American Academy of Bookbinding, supplemented with ongoing professional development including internships, private study, conferences and workshops. She’s studied with bookbinders, book/ paper/ photograph conservators, and finishers in Europe and North America. Lisa has an MA in Preventive Conservation from Northumbria University. She has experience with a variety of collections and materials and is currently working with the Canmore Museum as the Executive Director.

Description

In this workshop we will make custom archival enclosures for materials in your collection. Please bring at least 2 items that might be found in your collection (ie. flat document, photograph, pamphlet, book) and we will make custom archival enclosures for them. In this workshop we will discuss various challenges with housing and protecting items in your collection and the different ways these can be addressed. This is an opportunity to ask specific preservation and conservation questions from an accredited conservator and discuss different solutions that might be used within different constraints (ie. tight budgets) and how to know what is appropriate. You will learn about material choices, best practices for measuring and cutting materials and what works for your collection and circumstances. We’ll cover encapsulation and various phase boxes. Lisa will bring samples from her collection and speak about her experiences working with books, paper and archival materials over the last 20 years.

Learning Objectives

• Understand how to customize preservation solutions for your collection within your constraints (space, resources, budget etc.).

• Learn how to select appropriate enclosure types, source appropriate materials and construct a custom archival enclosure for something in your collection.

• Ask any conservation or preservation questions specific to your needs and interests, have the opportunity to learn a variety of solutions and feel confident in executing them.