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 Collections Care Co (CCco.) is a private company based in Thessaloniki, Greece, and is committed to the preservation of cultural material via the application of collections risk management. The interview was conducted by the team of e-conservation magazine by email in June 2010.
e-conservationline: What are the benefits of the risk management approach?
Asterios Apostolidis: In a few words, risk management gives a clear insight of the existing risks to a collection. Further, it evaluates optimum and cost-effective ways of blocking the agents of deterioration that cause damage to collections, and greatly reduces future costs allocated to conservation. The risk management approach is very important for the reason that it prevents the agents of deterioration from occurring, rather than responding to material damage after their occurrence. Finally, risk management draws the attention of the staff to the necessary alterations into museum policies and practices and leads to strategic thinking. These are some of the benefits, among others. e-cons: What is the level of risk management in the area of the Balkans? AA: In the Balkans there is a good quality effort from certain professionals, in the preventive care field, to advance the level of risk management. I think that it will take time to establish a decent level of risk management approach for the preservation of collections, for the reason that the generation that would promote this idea is not yet employed in major positions as that of a museum director. It is a hard task to alter people’s approach to preservation management. Museum staff feels that their institution’s status quo is questioned. We, all the professionals involved, have to show them clearly the long-term benefits of this approach; and most importantly how to motivate them to take part in the risk management exercise. e-cons: Is there any action from private institutions, or companies, to train museum staff on risk management? AA: As I said, during the last few years there has been a good quality effort taking place from certain professionals in the Balkan area (Serbia) in order to advance and promote this method. At this period we are preparing the ground in order to make workshops in Greece on risk management with the help and advice of various professionals from Greece and abroad. We hope that we will eventually succeed in doing so. We were honored to participate and present our experience at the ICOM-SEE workshop on risk management in Sofia, Bulgaria, in June 2010. I have to say that the organizers did a really good job and we were very pleased to see that the level of the workshop was very advanced. e-cons: How do you see the preventive care approach to collections management in Greece? AA: In my opinion, the preventive care approach in Greece is not where it should be. This is not because there are not professionals around, but it has to do with the whole approach to preventive care at all levels in Greece. People think that preventive care requires state-of-the-art equipment in order to create the ‘proper’ environment for a collection. This is not true. An economical approach, in-line with the structure of the building and its surroundings, can result equally in a safe environment for a collection. This is exactly what CCco is trying to promote and it does that by adopting the risk management approach to collections management in Greece. e-cons: How came ‘Collections Care Co.’ first into existence? AA: Our company was established in January 2009 aiming at preserving cultural material housed in institutions or privately owned by collectors. The initial thought started years ago when still as students at Cardiff university, we had this idea with Alexios Papapelekanos (now head scientist of the company) to establish a private company in Greece in an effort to offer preventive care services. e-cons: What are your services? AA: In general, CCco. promotes the proper care and preservation of museums’ and private collections. We achieve that via three main services, which are: care of collections, risk management and conservation management. Apart from analyzing the environmental conditions for the display and storage of collections, we also undertake the installation of appropriate equipment to create the required conditions. Our policy is to solve a problem with the minimum cost. e-cons: Finally, how do you see ‘CCco.’ in the future? AA: What is important for us is to advance preventive conservation in Greece and abroad. If we succeed to bring in more professionals in the conservation field to promote the idea of preventive care, that would be a great step. On a personal level, and I think this also applies to my business partners, I would like one day to look back and see that we contributed into the establishment of a good level of collections care in Greece and abroad.
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