(dal sito dell'editore)
Cinque giovani professionisti e laureati in ambito museale sviluppano e pubblicano i loro studi, coordinati da Clarenza Catullo, già Registrar di importanti istituzioni culturali italiane, proprio sulla figura del Registrar, per offrire alla vasta platea di studenti del settore beni culturali e all’intero settore museale e delle esposizioni d’arte la prima guida teorico-pratica dedicata a questa mansione professionale, ormai sempre più presente negli organigrammi dei nostri musei.

La pubblicazione presenta la storia della professione, il suo sviluppo e l’applicazione in Italia e all’estero tramite confronti e analisi di ruolo. Di fondamentale importanza al fine dell’aggiornamento è la parte bibliografica e normativa che viene qui riunita, per la prima volta.

Il confronto con alcune realtà internazionali può far nascere spunti di riflessione per una concreta analisi della situazione italiana sull’applicazione di questa professionalità specifica.

Una particolare attenzione viene data al sempre più stringente ‘going green’, perché sia efficace la trasformazione delle abitudini per l’ecosostenibilità dei processi produttivi, fondamentale anche nei nuovi ambiti professionali.

Gli autori auspicano che questo volume possa contribuire al necessario e ormai imprescindibile definitivo riconoscimento ufficiale della professione del Registrar in Italia, mentre è già chiara la scelta di alcuni atenei di creare corsi per Registrar che questo volume accompagnerà nella loro evoluzione.

Two Collections Registrars Experiences How different collections from the same institution deal with today's sustainability challenges. Will the challenge be the same for a contemporary art museum as for an ancient art museum?
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, based in Portugal (1957), with delegations in Paris and London, includes Museum, a Modern Art Centre, an Orchestra and Choir, an Art Library, and a Scientific Research Institute. The Foundation promotes the development of individuals and organizations, through art, science, education, and charity, for a more equitable and sustainable society.
Collection Registrar in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum: managing movements and loans of 6000 objects collected in life by Mr. Calouste Gulbenkian, covering 5000 years of history and being one of the most important private collections of international art, ranging from Ancient Egypt to the beginning of the 20th century.
Collection Registrar in CAM-Gulbenkian Modern Art Centre: managing movements and loans of more than 11000 works of art acquired by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation since 1958. Often described as the most important collection of Portuguese modern art from the 20th century, it includes one of the most significant collections of post-World War II British art held outside the UK.
How two different collections from the same institution deal with today's sustainability challenges?
Will the challenge be the same for a contemporary art museum as for an ancient art museum?
With more than 250 loans and almost 800 movements per year, what is the impact of sustainability criteria and what is best for the works of art? (reuse of packaging; online couriers...).
New challenges for Registrars and collections in an institution that has embraced Sustainability as one of its goals.

For more than 30 years the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (Bozar) has presented temporary exhibitions throughout standing scenographies. Conceived by its founders in 1928 as a ‘House for the Living Arts’, it does not house an art collection to date. Yet, as the institution strives for a more sustainable future, the emphasis on cutting-edge exhibition design faces new hurdles, especially since the scenographies are not developed for permanent collections but for quickly changing temporary exhibitions. Bozar is trying to reconcile artistic, practical and conservation questions with more sustainable objectives.
For the exhibition Histoire de ne pas rire, Surrealism in Belgium, a scenographic labyrinth presenting almost 400 items(paintings, objects, photography, collage, documents…) was developed in collaboration with URA architects. The concept of presenting all artworks exclusively on temporary walls proved difficult to marry within budget, time and material constraints. In consultation with the architects, a concept of deconstruction was realized that could reconcile the ambitious artistic vision and an unorthodox way of presentation with a strategy of recycling and an ecology of resources. The case presents the challenges, the invaluable lessons learned, and the promising strategies forged for the future.

Over the decades, cultural actors have gradually raised the level of expectations for the protection and conservation of artworks. Packaging has become more complex, made of more sophisticated and less “green” materials.
The "Sustainable Cardboard Solution" consortium, which brings together art logistics companies (Chenue, LP Art),research laboratories (C2RMF, CRC, etc.), museums (Musée du Quai Branly), the GAECO eco-conservation action group and a school specialised in art logistics (EILOA), has just been awarded the France 2030 prize as part of the Green Alternatives 2 call for projects for the ecological transformation of cultural practices.
This project aims to offer eco-designed alternative packaging, made of cardboard, for the storage and transport of artworks.
Thanks to its light weight, cardboard has a much smaller environmental footprint than wood or epoxy plywood. In addition, cardboard protects the health of handlers, who are highly exposed to musculoskeletal disorders caused by carrying heavy loads.
Our group studies the properties of cardboard packaging (compatibility, physical and chemical stability, durability), in a laboratory environment and in real conditions, in order to ensure optimal protection for the transport and conservation of artworks.
The support received from the French Ministry of Culture thanks to France 2030 allows to bring together all the stakeholders involved to find suitable and sustainable solutions, shareable with all, and to ensure their promotion through training and communication, in France and internationally.

In 2024 the Brooks International Fellowship for Collections Management, hosted by Tate and Delfina Foundation, invited a registrar working in exhibitions and collections management to spend six months researching sustainability in collections and touring exhibitions. Looking at how institutions transport, store, and display their collections, we built a research plan considering these factors in the context of sustainability goals. Methods of transit, innovations in packing and crating, opportunities for recycling and reuse, use of couriers, insurance and liability considerations, institutional policies, gallery and storage conditions, and what we can learn from other sectors are all explored through a sustainability lens.
As collections managers we are deeply engaged with facilitating relationships between audiences and objects. We are responsible for enabling access to collections while also safeguarding objects for future viewers. In planning exhibitions we want collections care to be closely aligned with the needs of our communities and planet, but in practice there is often a difficulty balancing our environmental sustainability goals and the material impact of the fine art transit, storage and display process.
We will discuss the process and challenges of developing practical frameworks and methodologies for investigating sustainability goals from a collections perspective, both within the scope of the fellowship and as a wider professional practice. We will explore the role of practice-led research as a tool for encouraging innovation and engagement among collections practitioners, and consider what we learned through the process. Finally, we will highlight outcomes of the research and share findings and next steps.

Are professional practices in the field of material conservation of collections – preventive conservation, remedial conservation, restoration, collection management, conservation sciences – consistent with ecological concerns? Do professionals in this field have the means to reconcile sustainable development and sustainable conservation?
In France, three professional associations, AFROA (French Association of Registrars), AprévU (Association of PreventiveConservation specialists), and FFCR (French Federation of Conservators), have launched a joint survey to understand how the professional practices and the official standards are linked :
- Are practices in line with available literature?
- Does the training available address the scientific and technical questions that professionals face in their dailyactions?
- Are field practices aligned with official standards such as manuals, norms, and more generally, the procedures ofheritage institutions?
- Which standards are being used ? Why ? How ?
This online questionnaire, conducted from November 7, 2023, to January 31, 2024, gathered over 200 responses and allowed us to assess professional practices regarding topics such as artwork packaging and transportation, loans, climate management and waste management. The survey results are available in the form of an analytical report.
Considering the importance environmental challenges must have today and the civic role of cultural institutions, we aim to represent French professionals in conservation and collection management at the ERC 2024 in Rome. We intend to present the results of the survey and of the exchanges that followed, to initiate discussions with professionals from various countries and, moreover, to work on concrete ways to better align professional practices and ecological responsibility.