Building Towards Collections Safe and Zero-waste Exhibitions

Hannah Beck-Mannagetta is a freelance curator and speaker from Berlin focussed on interdisciplinary exhibition projects and communication formats at the interface between art and science. In 2020 she curated the international group exhibition ZERO WASTE at the Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig, Germany, which was shortlisted for the Culture4Climate Prize 2024.

Drawing on his background in theater and film design, Douglas Flandro is especially interested in sustainable exhibit design, new technologies, immersive experiences, experiential graphic design and hands-on interactive exhibits. He has designed exhibits and graphics for numerous science museums, children’s museums, nature and visitor centers, aquariums, and zoos. Douglas leads CambridgeSeven’s Sustainable Working Group. He has worked with the non-profit group, mindfulMATERIALS to write and distribute the “Museum Exhibit Materials Pledge,” and the “Sustainable Exhibition Design and Construction Toolkit.” He has written articles on sustainable and equitable exhibit design for AAM’s Museum and Exhibition magazines. Douglas has taught and lectured at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Rhode Island School of Design.

Laura Lupton is the founder of LHL Consulting, an incubator for ideas that center culture, climate, and our collective future. Her work focuses on engagement, worker-led action, and imagining resilience as core to climate strategy, with innovative climate impact projects developed for clients like Getty, MOCA, and the Art Dealers Association of America.

T. Ashley McGrew is PACCIN’s longest continually serving volunteer, starting in 2003 when he was invited to join the steering committee. As the first subcommittee chair for the Preparation, Art Handling and Collections Care Network, he was educated by professional peers while managing Publications which meant moderating the Website, Forum and Listserv from 2008 to 2017. He is currently a member of two PACCIN subcommittees and is the organization liaison to the American Institute for Conservation.

Sarah Nunberg is an objects conservator in Brooklyn, NY, treating a range of cultural heritage materials while focusing on preventive care and sustainable environmental management. As a Principal Investigator for a National Endowment of Humanities Grant to create STiCH, Sustainability Tools in Cultural Heritage, Sarah leads studies in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for sustainable practices in cultural heritage, continues this work as the 2021-22 Adele Chatfield-Taylor Rome Prize recipient in Historic Preservation and Conservation, and as a PhD candidate at the National PhD in Heritage Science, Sapienza di Roma. Sarah is an adjunct professor at Pratt Institute, Math and Science department, and at The Cooper Union School of Art . She received her advanced certificate in conservation and her MA in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center at New York University in 1994 and her MA in Archaeology from Yale University in 1990.

Megan O’Connor is a Preventive Conservation Specialist at Parks Canada. Trained in object conservation at Fleming College, she holds a Master of Museum Studies from the University of Toronto. Recently completing a Master of Art Conservation at Queen’s University, her research on sustainable packing materials included a life cycle analysis.

Alessandro Scola is Senior Book Conservator at the Department of Conservation & Preservation of the Sheridan Libraries and Museums, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He trained in Italy at the Centro di Formazione Professionale in Cremona, and then worked in Italy, Spain, and Northern Ireland in private practices and public institutions before migrating to the US in 2012. After short experiences as a contractor in New York City and as an intern in Washington DC at the Folger Shakespeare Library, he joined the Johns Hopkins University Libraries in late 2013.

Emily Sloat Shaw is a Senior Exhibit Designer at the National Museum of the American Indian. She has been a leader in exhibition-focused communities of practice at the Smithsonian since 2012. In 2019 she cofounded SPEED, Smithsonian Professionals in Exhibit and Enterprise Design, which promotes sustainable exhibits and retail designs at the Smithsonian.