Art galleries and climate control - a great facility management challenge. Galleries need to make things work for patrons while ensuring long-term safe preservation of artwork.
While people can easily adapt to climate conditions, extensive artwork is another story. Paper objects, for example, double the rate of deterioration for every 14ºF temperature rise. High levels of relative humidity (RH) will cause mold growth and corrosion of many metals. Variations in RH levels can also cause severe damage to organic materials such as wood, leather, and ivory. These materials shrink or expand depending on the ambient RH. This movement can cause objects to split, deform or crack.
As part of an effective climate control strategy, more and more art galleries and museums use temperature and humidity logger U12-011/UX100-003, UX100-011 to continuously monitor air temperature and RH. The data loggers are compact, self-contained devices equipped with a built-in microprocessor, memory data storage, precision RH and temperature sensors, and user-replaceable batteries. Most data loggers interface with a computer and utilize software to activate the logger and view/analyze the collected data. Due to its small size, the data logger is often unobtrusive and can be easily placed in the center of the area where temperature and RH need to be measured.
An art gallery incorporating data loggers in a climate-control strategy is the University of Toronto's Arts Centre. The Center owns three permanent art collections: the University College (Canadian Art) Collection, the Lillian Malcove Collection (mostly medieval), and the University of Greater Toronto Art Collection.
In 1998, the facility underwent a major expansion, increasing its size from 8,000 square feet to 16,000 square feet. While this gives more room for changes to the exhibition center project, it also means that climate monitoring needs to be carried out in a wider area. "We used hygrometers to record temperature and low RH levels in the facility, but upstairs in the gallery itself we wanted to go to something smaller and more aesthetically pleasing," explains gallery director Liz Wiley.
Willie consults with Sue Maltby, a local administrator specializing in preventive conservation. Maltby, experience with HOBO® temperature and humidity logger U12-011/UX100-003, UX100-011 from Onset, advises Willie, she implements two HOBO temperature and humidity logger U12-011/UX100-003, UX100-011, 2500 sq. ft. of gallery space at one end. "The great thing about data loggers is that they are very small and immune to vibration, negative effects," she explained. "Thermo-hygrometers are very sensitive, and if you have twenty students coming through, the arm on the thermo-hygrometer can move up and down."
Maltby also pointed out that in order to truly understand your agency's environment, you need to be able to monitor your conditions throughout the day. "What does a field measurement tell you about the current temperature and humidity, but does that happen in the middle of the night, or when the seasons change? I usually recommend that data loggers for this purpose, especially in a small arts center, have wall-mounted devices that are necessary."
Facility, HOBO Temperature and Humidity Loggers U12-011/UX100-003, UX100-011 installed at both ends of the 2,500-square-foot portion of the facility, which Wiley describes as a set of six-person galleries through open doorways. The temperature and humidity loggers U12-011/UX100-003, UX100-011 are being mounted at different heights - one at chest level and the other at knee level, to detect any significant fluctuating airflow. Each logger will take temperature and RH measurements every 30 minutes. “We follow international standards for temperature and relative humidity, so we need to maintain the 50% RH setpoint with no variation of more than +/- 5% in a 24-hour period,” she said. Temperature "Our goal is to keep the gallery at a steady 21 degrees Celsius, +/- 3 degrees."
After a month of data collection, Wiley retrieved the collected data using the U-DT-1 data provided by Onset. This pocket-sized device can unload and store data from each logger, which Wiley then retrieves to a computer for data graphing and analysis using the Start software. The software instantly converts the data into temperature and RH readings that are clearly displayed on an easy-to-read graph.
"The charts give us instant assurance of our climatic conditions, and make it easy to document our conditions. This is important in the case of another gallery that can prove our conditions before lending us artwork."
