The best laid (collections emergency) plans aren’t complete without a list of people and organizations that can be called on to help in the event of a disaster, especially as the potential for natural disasters increase with climate change. The Conservation Center is one of those resources, but what about other emergency planning and recovery vendors? If your organization is in need of services like large scale dehumidification, vacuum freeze drying, or serious mold remediation, do you know who you would call? What you should expect?
Join CCAHA Preventive Conservator, Maddie Cooper, and Polygon Director of Client Development, Matt DeCirce in a conversation about working with emergency service vendors. This webinar will start with a short presentation from Matt followed by a Q&A session where participants can ask all of their emergency recovery questions.
This webinar addresses Focus Area #2 of the Climate Crisis and Environmental Action section of the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation’s 2023 Held In Trust report.
About the Speakers:
In her position as Preventive Conservator, Maddie Cooper works with both the Preservation Services and Conservation Departments to carry out preservation surveys and assessments for museums, libraries, archives, and community collections, and to work on treatment projects requiring preventive care.
Maddie has worked with a wide range of institutional and community collections. She held roles in conservation and collections at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and the Wolfsonian-FIU prior to specializing in preventive conservation in graduate school. Through her graduate career, she interned with the Disaster Research Center, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Midwest Art Conservation Center. Maddie holds an MS in Art Conservation from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, a BA in Chemistry from the University of Delaware, and a BA in Art Conservation with a minor in Art History from the University of Delaware.
Matt DeCirce has 12 years of employment with Polygon US Corporation, and 20 years of experience in the disaster recover industry. He has held managerial sales and operations supervisor roles. At Polygon, Matt is currently the Director of Client Development for the East region. He has supervised and managed numerous mitigation and remediation contracts, including contracts and master service agreements for the State of Connecticut, State of Vermont, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Board of Libraries, New York Public Library, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Library, County and Local government agencies, as well as individual cultural institutions. In addition to contract management, Matt has supervised and managed hundreds of individual mitigation and remediation projects; and has responded to major disaster events across the country. He is experienced working with multiple types of archives and records, including various paper and film media. He has presented educational webinars at several national events and is active in multiple industry associations.
Recorded October 5th, 2023