Lab Opens to Teach Preservation of Museum Artifacts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September. 04, 2003
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Lab Opens to Teach Preservation of Museum Artifacts
California State University, Chico’s Department of Anthropology is opening a new lab to train students how to preserve objects for museum collections.
The ribbon cutting for the new Conservation Laboratory in Butte 305 is tomorrow, Sept. 5, at 3:30 p.m.
The lab was created to teach students about the conservation of objects for museum collections, as well as the importance of cultural resources and heritage projects.
A new course, Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Resources, is being taught for the first time this fall. While it is part of the anthropology and museum studies curriculum, it is also available to students from other departments.
The anthropology department has a certificate program in museum studies and an emphasis in museum studies as an option for master’s students.
The lab was funded by a $4,000 grant from CSU, Chico’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) and a like-sized grant from the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. Additional gifts to establish the lab were received from Amgen Pharmaceutical and Boeing Corporation.
Georgia Fox, assistant professor of anthropology and co-director of CSU, Chico’s Museum of Anthropology, said the lab will not only teach students how to care for valuable objects as part of their academic program, but help preserve collections in the area for study and posterity.
Fox said the conservation lab will be the only one of its kind among U.S. universities on the West Coast. Before coming to CSU, Chico, Fox helped set up a conservation lab at the University of Haifa in Israel.
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