To guide and spearhead our conservation efforts, MOCA Collections staff have been fortunate to be able to benefit from the expertise of six conservators at A.M. Art Conservation—each specializing in different media, including photographs, books, paper, textiles, and 3-D artifacts. MOCA has been video and photo documenting our first-hand experience with post-disaster conservation for our own internal history, including workshops of A.M. Art conservators training MOCA staff to assist in various rehousing and conservation measures, the extensiveness of which has required all hands-on deck.

Over the past two years, MOCA has also partnered with the FIT Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice graduate program on a series of costume and textile rehousing workshops and case study to improve various areas of collections management, including disaster preparedness. Moving forward, MOCA Workshop will continue to work with university preservation and conservation programs to provide students with hands-on practical experience in caring for cultural heritage objects in different mediums such as photographs, books, archives, textiles, and 3-D artifacts.

It is rare for any museum to have actual experience with fire or disaster recovery and we know that we have many supporters interested in updates on what and how we are doing. Members of our community who are holding onto and passing down personal collections and family heirlooms might also be interested in viewing tutorials on how a professional would care for and archivally preserve a range of materials long term. We are therefore proud to share some of our conservation learning with you. Click the image icons below to view photos and video footage of our work!