Developing your project’s risk management and quality control plan. Part 1 of 2

I train my staff to ask themselves “what could possibly go wrong” at every stage of their project planning.  Identifying what will go as planned is easy and the average industry person could manage a project when everything goes right. Planning for what could go wrong is what separates a good project manager or team from the average industry person or team.

“What could possibly go wrong” is another way of phrasing risk management. Risk management has specific definitions depending on the industry. It is a term used in multiple industries and it is a specific course of study for business, finance and medicine. The core definition of risk management is similar throughout all industries and it can easily be adapted to the art-industry’s needs. Risk management is the recognition and assessment of risk while simultaneously establishing procedures and making the necessary adjustments to avoid or reduce its affect.

Where should you begin to identify your projects risks? You should start by identifying the states or actions that are hazardous to art objects. Let me state that I am not a conservator. I don’t have the background education or the degree. Let me also state that conservators are usually not art-movers, packers or craters. The increased risk that impacts a collection during a project happens somewhere between these two disciplines and requires input from both areas which requires dialogue, mutual respect and an understanding of each other’s roles on the project.

I’ve worked with conservators for decades and the ten items below are guidelines for standard risk management practices and quality control or they are red flags that would require you to call in a conservator for their opinion.

These ten primary events can cause immediate or deferred damage to your collection. You need to constantly monitor these items and include risk management measures to control them in your planning for budget and time.

1. Deviations in temperature and humidity.
2. Vibration.
3. Moisture.
4. Light.
5. Violent or sudden movement.
6. Hits or strikes.
7. Dirt and vermin.
8. Improper packing materials.
9. Improper storage and moving equipment.
10. Improper handling.

I will discuss each of these events in detail in future blogs.

Much of what I discuss as risk management is also known as preventative conservation but there are differences between the two.

Preventative conservation is defined by the ICOM-CC (International Council of Museums-Committee for Conservations) as “all measures and actions aimed at avoiding and minimizing future deterioration or loss. They are carried out within the context or on the surroundings of an item, but more often a group of items, whatever their age and condition. These measures and actions are indirect – they do not interfere with the materials and structures of the items. They do not modify their appearance.
Examples of preventive conservation are appropriate measures and actions for registration, storage, handling, packing and transportation, security, environmental management (light, humidity, pollution and pest control), emergency planning, education of staff, public awareness, legal compliance.”

Conservators are responsible for remedial conservation and restoration but everyone that works with a collection is responsible for its safety and you, the project manager, are responsible for insuring the objects in the collection are not at risk during the project. It is also your responsibility to have considered and taken every measure possible to limit the potential for future or deferred damage as the result of the actions taken during the art-handling, movement and storage of the collection.

By the definition of preventative conservation, you are responsible for always taking actions that have the absolute least amount of risk possible to the artwork.

In practice this is not always true. In practice you are taking calculated risks and choosing actions that have the least risk involved. This is risk management, and this is the area where you will have conflict between stakeholders.

The conflict is between choosing the action that has no risk but is costly or the action that has managed risk and fits the approved budget. The simplest example of weighing risks as opposed to eliminating all risks is in the daily use of non-archival packing materials for short-term or local transportation of art objects. Non-archival materials like standard cardboard or Esther-foam are known to have long-term detrimental effects on artwork. They off-gas, crumble and deteriorate over a very short period of time. They are used for short-term packs because archival materials could be cost prohibitive for a single artwork but would be a budgeting disaster for a long-term project. The risk is acknowledged and managed by isolating the objects from the non-archival materials and quickly unpacking at the receiving end. The risk is that the isolation leaks or as in a previous example the object is not unpacked as quickly as expected. As the project manager it would be your responsibility to ensure that neither of these things happens and you do this during your daily quality control walk through of your project.

Adhering to consistent quality control inspections of your project is one form of practicing risk management for the collection.