Please join Charles Biddle of Concept Art Gallery at Preservation Fair 2009: Saving Your Family Treasures, at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on Saturday, 28 February 2009.

Sponsored by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the University of Pittsburgh, the Preservation Fair is an opportunity for you to learn ways of caring for your family treasures through demonstrations, lectures and displays of conservation work in progress and examples of completed conservation efforts. Approximately 30 exhibitors will take part in this event including conservators specializing in books, documents, paintings and works of art on paper, photographs and films. The Fair will also feature a large collection of free handouts dealing with many aspects of restoration, preservation and conservation.

Visitors are encouraged to bring a (small) family treasure – specifically books, papers, photos, works of art on paper, and films — with them to discuss with the exhibitors. Visitors will learn simple things they can do to extend the life of their treasures – such as providing the appropriate storage conditions, archival framing, and what to do in the case of water damage.

Our gallery plans to show various techniques and framing strategies for archival framing, and a few works that have been damaged by non-archival framing. The Fair opens to the public at 10am and will run through 4pm. It is free with Museum admission.