AIC's 53rd Annual Meeting

Trello is a kanban style project management tool that allows teams to visualize their work. Kanban was first developed in the manufacturing industry and later adapted by the software development industry, where the emergence of kanban boards led to wide applications for project management. Kanban boards generally consist of columns, which delineate steps in a workflow, and are populated by cards that represent work items and advance through the workflow. Four case studies, spanning three specialties and three institutions, will demonstrate how Trello and similar kanban products have great potential for adaptation and use in conservation.

Windsor Conservation was contracted to treat Olga de Amaral’s El Gran Muro (1976), a multi-panel large-scale textile wall hanging composed of a woven ground and thousands of free-hanging “shingles” attached to the surface. The treatment process included four stages of mechanical cleaning with suction, chemical sponge, and damp Evolon. An asynchronous and accessible communication and project management system was needed to coordinate the process across a staggered technician team. Trello, accessible through a phone application or web browser, allowed technicians to track the progress of predefined sections through the treatment workflow, note and photograph condition issues, and track time spent per section.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) has a unique mandate that “nothing in the galleries should be changed.” To maintain the thirty-three galleries and thousands of objects carefully arranged by Isabella, a team of five Collections Maintenance Technicians cleans artworks one day a week in a rotation that takes 4-6 months. Previously, paper records were kept in a binder and were later entered into a spreadsheet. The introduction of Trello revolutionized how cleaning progress was tracked, assisted technicians in remembering their place week-to-week, stored useful information for returning to galleries in subsequent rotations, and served as a communication method between the technicians.

The 16th-century Italian coffered ceiling painting in the Dutch Room of the ISGM will be cleaned in spring 2025 for the first time in over 120 years. The painting spans 50 m2 with 15 recessed bays. Each bay contains 29 separate painted elements depicting biblical and mythological scenes with decorative floral and fauna motifs, currently obscured by a yellowed surface coating and heavy layers of soot and grime. Trello will be used as the management framework for the treatment and will consolidate archival notes employing multiple numbering systems for the painted components. The multi-step treatment will take place on public view with a cross-disciplinary team of paintings and objects conservators, and requires a high level of coordination, timing and method of evaluation to ensure a unified result.

Lab and exhibit project management have been improved at the Colonial Williamsburg Textile Conservation Lab through the adoption of Planner, a Microsoft kanban tool. Exhibit boards are populated by object cards that progress through workflow steps (such as treatment, mounting, and photography), visually representing the exhibit components and states of progress. An overarching board tracks progress on loan, exhibit, and other projects that provides a holistic view of the current lab workload.