Gleaming galleries Manitoba Museum gets its annual deep clean By: Eva Wasney Posted: 2:40 PM CDT Wednesday, Sep. 20, 2023

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This article was published 20/09/2023 (1049 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Soda cans, paper airplanes, a handwritten note to the future and a Lego Stormtrooper are just a few of the “gallery treasures” Carolyn Sirett has unearthed while deep cleaning exhibits at the Manitoba Museum.

“We find really interesting things all over the place,” says the museum’s senior conservator.

Visitors to the Rupert Avenue institution might notice an extra sheen to the galleries following “cleaning week,” an annual September event that sees the museum close to the public for five days while staff from every department assist with special cleaning projects. It’s a seasonal reset between the busy days of summer and the frequent school field trips of fall.

For Sirett, it’s also a chance to delegate some of the dirty work.

“People were pumped about it,” she says of staffers recruited to polish all the glass surfaces in the museum’s 52,000 square feet of gallery space.

“It’s exciting because I’m not allowed to touch anything in here because I’m not a conservator,” says Brandi Hayberg, manager of marketing and communications, who had signed up to help swab the deck of the Nonsuch. “This is my opportunity to do my part in the museum that’s not just typing on a computer.”

While cleaning week is a novel experience for some, keeping the exhibits spick and span is a large part of Sirett’s highly specialized job. She’s one of a handful of conservators in Manitoba and is in charge of the long-term preservation and maintenance of the 2.9 million items in the museum’s collection.

Sirett has been a conservator at the Manitoba Museum since 2013. After obtaining a degree in archaeology and anthropology, she decided to specialize in collections conservation — a career she describes as a “blend of art and science and history.”

Her workdays involve everything from dusting public-facing displays to repairing hundred-year-old artifacts in the museum’s vault. While cleaning isn’t the most glamorous part of the job, it’s a key part of preservation.

“It’s all super important because it really embodies the stewardship that the museum is trying to do. What is it to collect all this stuff and not care for it?” Sirett says.

During the Free Press’s visit, she was working in the Earth History gallery wiping down the giant sloth replica — which has a tendency to collect cobwebs — and vacuuming the pterosaurs hanging from the ceiling. Fun fact: most of the dust in museums comes from the exhaust of idling school buses and particles released from denim worn by visitors, Sirett says.

Sirett and her assistant have material-specific techniques for cleaning different displays. Screens and brushes are used when vacuuming textiles and fur to avoid damage. Most wet cleaning is done with distilled water brewed on site.

“It’s a fountain of youth upstairs,” Sirett says with a laugh.

“It’s all super important because it really embodies the stewardship that the museum is trying to do. What is it to collect all this stuff and not care for it?”–Carolyn Sirett

Bugs are a going concern in displays containing organic material.

Randy Mooi, curator of zoology, was taking the cleaning week closure as an opportunity to replace several longhorn beetle specimens in the decomposer diorama of the museum’s boreal forest exhibit. The preserved insects had fallen prey to the appetite of living dermestid beetles that managed to infiltrate the gallery.

“This is all great food for dermestids,” Mooi says, while leaning inside the diorama depicting the native scavengers, bugs and mushrooms that aid in decomposition. “We actually use those same beetles to de-flesh specimens, so they actually help museums, but we hate them in the galleries.”

While exhibit damage is addressed year-round, cleaning week offers a chance for closer inspections.

“I just noticed this one is missing his head too, so I’m about to run upstairs,” Mooi says, pointing to a bug on a log. “We have about 75,000 insects in our collections and so for species that are fairly common, we can use some to replace (displays).”

On the other end of the spectrum is the Nonsuch — one of the most challenging exhibits to maintain.

“It’s the biggest artifact we have. It’s a giant ship and you’ve gotta climb all over it to clean it,” Sirett says.

As the only staff member trained to ascend the rigging of the 17th century merchant ship replica, Sirett finds the job equal parts exhausting and exhilarating.

“The ship has been passed down from conservator to conservator,” she says. “It’s always (nostalgic) because you’re carrying the torch to make sure that ship is cared for and that the maintenance is there because everyone loves it.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @evawasney