Conservation and Heft

[Dennis Piechota]

The sense of heft: When we hold an artifact we experience an independent channel to the past that validates what we see. If the weight feels somehow wrong we may question the artifact's truth.

As conservators we restrict, for good reason, most users from experiencing the validating sense of heft. We cannot allow all visitors to handle collections!  But it is no wonder then that some of the public feel less than welcomed and even see the museum as a non-essential part of life.

How else could they make unrestricted contact with the past and its objects? Sadly they may not even make that attempt. Or they may feel more welcomed by this alternative:

I walk the old floors

of the antique store

imagining labels

on walls and doors.

But it's not a museum

(where touch is abhorred!)

so I heft the displays

and feel the reward.*

*Inspired by the poem Museum by Keith Leonard

​Dennis​

Dennis Piechota

Archaeological Conservator

Fiske Center for Archaeological Research
UMass Boston
Office: 617-287-6829

ALTCONS Group Admin

an Alternative Conservation Discussion