On Sunday, along with Conservators from the American Institute for Conservation Collections Emergency Response Team, MoMA will be hosting a free presentation from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. for the public on how to conserve paintings, drawings, books, and other archival works damaged in Hurricane Sandy. The presentation is also intended for the many artists and galleries (like non-profit art publishers Printed Matter) who had works damaged as a result of flooding. It will be held in MoMA's Celeste Bartos Theater, in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building, at 4 West 54 Street. You can also download the guidelines for immediate response for collections here. It gives step by step measures for conserving water-damaged art in various mediums, including library and archive collections. The guide also provides a list of suppliers and emergency services that can provide some of the services listed. The guidelines are also available on MoMA.org.
If you can't make it tomorrow and would like to receive advice from the the American Institute for Conservation, call AIC's 24-hour assistance number at 202-661-8068. You can call the same number to arrange for a team to come to the site and assess damage and help with salvaging.
Meanwhile, MoMA PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach is organizing a relief mission to the Rockaways tomorrow at 10 a.m. Volunteers are asked to meet at the MoMA Education Wing, 4 West 54th Street and must be able to spend the whole day in Rockaway -- the bus back to Manhattan will be leaving Queens at 6 p.m. Biesenbach is currently taking head counts on Twitter for the trip, so if you'd like to help, please reach out via Twitter ASAP. Biesenbach is stressing on both his Twitter and Facebook accounts that volunteers be aware that tomorrow's trip is "not a holiday excursion." He is asking for volunteers to bring large garbage bags, thick work gloves, bottled water, battery-operated flashlights, batteries, generators, gas, candles, gas-powered pumps, lanterns and food. Those who can't make the trip are still encouraged to drop off supplies. Volunteers should wear rubber boots and bring cameras to "document the damage in Rockaway and create awareness."
RELATED: Ways You Can Help Hurricane Sandy Victims, From Volunteering to Donating
Above: Destruction in Breezy Point, Queens, on the Rockway penninsula. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images