Preventive Conservation Assessments

Includes a Live In-Person Event on 02/04/2026 at 9:00 AM (EST)

February 4-6, 2026, Puerto Rico
Instructors: Michael Henry and Wendy Jessup
Coordinator: Héctor Berdecía-Hernández

In a general preventive conservation assessment, two preservation professionals provide an overview of an institution’s collections, buildings, and building systems, as well as policies and procedures related to collections care. The assessment can help the institution prioritize their collections care needs, facilitate the development of a long-range preservation plan, and serve as an advocacy and fundraising tool for future collections stewardship improvement projects. FAIC recently partnered with the Getty Conservation Institute to develop a Preventive Conservation Assessment Model as a much-needed update to the 1999 Getty publication The Conservation Assessment: A Proposed Model for Evaluating Museum Environmental Management Needs. The resource introduces new topics to consider in an assessment, such as balancing environmental sustainability with collections environmental needs and considerations for culturally sensitive collections.

General preventive conservation assessments provide an incredible service to collecting institutions, particularly small and mid-sized institutions that do not have access to conservation and preservation professionals on a regular basis. While some conservation graduate programs teach the conservation assessment process, there are no known opportunities to learn or refine the skillset post-graduation.

This workshop will train individuals how to perform preventive conservation assessments in collaboration with another assessor. The workshop will be structured as an actual assessment site visit, with the instructors guiding participants through staff interviews, site tours, and other elements of an assessment. After the site visit, the group will debrief together, and each participant will be given a section of the report to write. The instructors will review and edit the sections, and the final report will be given to the museum.

Interested individuals must apply to participate and will be selected based on the usefulness of the training to their work and on their geographic location, with preference given to individuals located in areas where few professionals offer general preventive conservation assessments (e.g. Puerto Rico, the Midwest, and Mountain Plains, and other areas as determined by staff overseeing FAIC’s Collections Assessment for Preservation program). Efforts will be made to include both collections and building professionals.

Online webinars will take place in January prior to the in-person workshop. Participants will be required to view the webinars before attending the workshop. Additionally, participants will commit to writing a section of a preventive conservation assessment report for the institution where the workshop takes place. This work will take place following the in-person workshop and will be supported by the workshop instructors.

Five participants will be selected. Each will receive a $1,000 travel stipend and complimentary accommodations to participate on-site in Puerto Rico. Participants are also required to participate in the preceding online webinars that will take place in January 2026. The workshop will be instructed in English. Applications are due December 7, 2025. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance status by December 15, 2025.

Funding for this program comes from a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC) Endowment for Professional Development, which was created by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is supported by donations from members of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and its friends. Workshops are made possible with the assistance of many AIC members, but no AIC membership dues were used to create or present this course.

FAIC relies on your contributions to support these and its many other programs. Learn more about donating to the foundation.

Interested individuals must complete an application by December 7, 2025. Each potential participant will be asked to describe their experience with assessments and how they would use and share the knowledge gained from this workshop with others. Priority will go to collections and building professionals who will be working performing conservation assessments shortly following this workshop. Geographic diversity will also be considered, with preference given to individuals located in areas where few professionals offer general preventive conservation assessments (e.g. Puerto Rico, the Midwest, and Mountain Plains, and other areas as determined by staff overseeing FAIC’s Collections Assessment for Preservation program).

Submit an application by clicking the "Apply" button below. Applications are submitted through our online application portal. When you enter the portal, you will be prompted to login to the system using a login ID and password. Please note that this system is not connected to your FAIC/AIC profile on our general website.

Criteria for Review

Interest in performing preventive conservation assessments
Need for the content
Plan for use and dissemination of information gained
The program seeks to support a diverse set of participants and will consider geographic location, place of employment type, and profession.

APPLY

Michael Henry

Michael Henry is Principal Engineer/Architect and founding partner of Watson & Henry Associates where he has practiced for the past forty years, consulting to institutions, cultural heritage stewards and architects/engineers throughout the United States and in India, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil and Tunisia. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania and guest lecturer in the WUDPAC program. Michael Henry's work includes: sustainable environmental management and monitoring for museum collections and archives; investigation, monitoring, analysis and assessment of historic buildings; preservation of significant historic structures, especially unconventional or technically challenging buildings; and engineered stabilization of large museum objects.

Wendy Jessup

Wendy Claire Jessup is a conservator with a specialization in Preventive Conservation. She established Wendy Jessup and Associates, Inc. in 1987 after having worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Smithsonian Institution. Past projects have included the development of preventive conservation policies, collections management programs, environmental monitoring and improvement programs, collections relocations, collections storage improvements, and long-range conservation plans for a variety of museums, historical societies and other stewards of cultural property. Much of her work is with museums engaged in new construction or renovation projects. Many of her clients are housed in historic structures and have mixed collections, and require careful consideration of all aspects of the organization's operation in order to develop recommendations that are sensitive to the special requirements of both collection and historic structure.

Héctor J. Berdecía-Hernández

Director-General

Centro de Conservación y Restauración de Puerto Rico (CENCOR)

Héctor J. Berdecía-Hernández is a heritage conservator and currently serves as the founding Director-General of the Centro de Conservación y Restauración de Puerto Rico (CENCOR), where he is responsible for the institutional development of the Center, strategic planning, as well as the execution of special preservation and conservation projects, services, research, and initiatives. He also serves as an advisor to cultural institutions on technical matters related to the conservation of cultural heritage and is an Adjunct Professor in preservation technology and materials conservation at the Graduate Program in Architectural Conservation and Rehabilitation at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.

Before being appointed as the first Director-General of the CENCOR, Héctor worked on several heritage conservation and research projects in both the public and private sectors in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Puerto Rico. He is currently an active member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), where he serves as Program Chair of the Architecture Speciality Group (ASG) and is a member of the Code of Ethics Task Force. He is also a member of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and the Association for Preservation Technology International (APT).

Héctor holds an M.S. in Historic Preservation with a concentration in Architectural Materials Conservation from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.EnvD. in Environmental Design-Architecture with a double major in History of the Americas from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. He also studied Conservation Science courses within Georgetown University and the Universitá degli Studi de Firenze.