Workshop: Indoor climate management

In October 2013, a group of 35 Indonesian mid-career museum professionals (including one representative from the Philippines and two from Brunei) were guided through a process of discovery, discussion and practicing the concepts underlying the decision making process to manage the indoor climate of museums.

The workshop was organized by the Directorate of Heritage Conservation and Museums of Indonesia and the The Gadjah Mada University in collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) and the Tropenmuseum Amsterdam.

The training focused on the practice and discussion of risk-based decision making to optimize the management of indoor climate conditions for collections and buildings. Contents and structure were based on the newly developed Dutch museum indoor climate guidelines, which fit in this risk-based approach.

The guidelines were designed especially to respect the significance of both the building and the collections housed inside, matching the possibilities that the building provides with the requirements of the collections in a practical and realistic way. The aim was to achieve optimal climate conditions while finding good solutions within the available budget that can be sustained in the future.

Short presentations were given to introduce a specific concept, which was then discussed in working groups and used within the practical case study storage rooms of Fort Vredeburg. At the end of each day the participants were given time to apply the new information to their own case study