Membership Program
Conservator on Retainer™™
Every museum in your organisation is currently solving the same problems independently. Conservator on Retainer solves them once and shares the solution across every collection.
The Challenge
Every organisation responsible for cultural collections, faces the same challenge.
- Limited budgets.
- Increasing governance obligations.
- Growing workplace health and safety responsibilities.
- Climate change.
- Disaster preparedness.
- Volunteer workforces.
- Ageing infrastructure.
- Limited access to specialist conservation expertise.
Yet every museum, gallery and collection attempts to solve these challenges independently.
Conservator on Retainer changes that.
One Investment
Organisation-Wide Collection Capability.
Rather than purchasing individual consultancy projects, organisations gain ongoing access to an experienced multidisciplinary conservation team, practical resources, technical guidance and internationally recognised experts through a single organisation-wide program.
The result is stronger governance, lower long-term costs and consistent collection standards across every site.
Economies of Scale
Designed for organisations managing multiple collections
Whether you oversee five museums or fifty, Conservator on Retainer creates economies of scale that individual site-by-site engagement cannot match.
- One program.
- One advisory team.
- One set of standards.
- One disaster response framework.
- One source of trusted advice.
Instead of every site commissioning separate consultants, developing separate policies and learning the same lessons independently, your organisation builds capability collectively.
More Than Conservation
A single coordinated program.
Conservator on Retainer integrates every dimension of collection care into one membership — eliminating the gaps and duplications that fragment most organisation-wide approaches.
- Collection governance
- Workplace Health and Safety
- Disaster preparedness
- Collection risk management
- Preventive conservation
- Environmental monitoring
- Emergency response
- Collection planning
- Volunteer capability
- Executive and Board advice
International Network
Connected to the World's Best Thinking
Collections do not deteriorate because organisations lack commitment. They deteriorate because access to specialist knowledge is often limited.
Conservator on Retainer connects members with internationally recognised practitioners, researchers and policy leaders through exclusive seminars, technical updates and practical workshops.
Members benefit from current international research, emerging technologies, disaster recovery experience and evolving best practice — ensuring decisions are informed by the latest science rather than outdated assumptions.
A Smarter Procurement Model
Waiting until something goes wrong is the most expensive option of all.
Employ a conservator at every site
Rarely practical.
Cost prohibitive at scale. Each site builds capability in isolation.
Engage consultants for every project
Expensive.
No institutional memory. Each engagement starts from zero.
Conservator on Retainer™
Continuous access.
Shared across your entire organisation. Expertise that accumulates with your collection.
Recommended
Membership Programs
Select the program that fits your organisation.
Ready to transform your organisation's collection capability?
Speak with us about which Conservator on Retainer program is right for your organisation. We work with a limited number of member organisations each year.