"Save the Date" Details
- What: 1-day workshop “Microfading Tester: Gaining Practical Experience”
- Where: Heritage Conservation Centre in Singapore
- When: 2027 April 14 and 15 (participants will only attend 1 day)
- Capacity: Maximum of 18 participants each day
- Cost: 100 SGD (Singaporean Dollars), includes coffees and lunch
- Registration: Link to be announced soon
Description
This 1-day workshop will provide participants with practical experience on three iterations of the microfading tester (MFT) instrument commonly in use today: the original Whitmore MFT design, the Retroreflective MFT, and the Fotonowy MFT. The audience for this workshop includes museum, gallery, and conservation professionals who are prospective or emerging MFT users, as well as those interested in alternatives to their current MFT setups.
Introduced in the mid-1990’s by conservation scientist Paul Whitmore (Whitmore, Pan, and Bailie, JAIC 1999), the MFT has become an important preventive conservation tool for assessing the light sensitivity of an object. By exposing an object to an intense and tiny spot of light—greater than 1 million lux and less than 0.5 mm in diameter—and simultaneously monitoring color change with a spectrometer, the MFT provides information on an object’s vulnerability to light, as well as supporting object selection for exhibitions and the development of object-specific lighting guidelines for display.
Though the MFT is employed at heritage institutions around the world, there have been obstacles to its more widespread use. Because it is a unique technique that emerged from within the conservation field rather than from a commercial manufacturer, the formal training and technical support typically offered by companies have not been available. Over the years, MFT users also began exploring alternatives to the original Whitmore MFT setup, including changes to the light source, measurement geometry, and means of automation. Thus, it is incumbent on the conservation field itself to support MFT practice, and this training workshop represents a contribution to this effort.
Following the model for workshops at the Field Museum (2026 March), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2026 April), and the National Galleries of Scotland (2026 September), the bulk of the workshop will be dedicated to gaining hands-on experience with the Whitmore MFT, Retroreflective MFT, and Fotonowy MFT. During three ~90-minute sessions on each instrument, participants will work in small groups with expert instructors to learn how to operate the instrument (choosing test locations, assessing the light source, establishing test parameters, focusing the light spot, conducting the tests) and communicate the results (analyzing and interpreting the data, preparing reports, impacting lighting guidelines). Information will be shared on the acquisition, assembly, portability, and maintenance of each instrument. The workshop will also include group discussion and a Q&A.
The workshop is organized by the Getty Conservation Institute, Heritage Conservation Centre, Field Museum, and Microfading Tester International Discussion Group (MFT-IDG). Instructors include:
- Ian Langston (Tāmaki Paenga Hira - Auckland War Memorial Museum, New Zealand)
- Noni Zachri (Grimwade Conservation Services, Australia)
- Esther Ng (Heritage Conservation Centre, Singapore)
- Michelle Oh (Heritage Conservation Centre, Singapore)
- JP Brown (Field Museum, US)
- Jenny Youkyoung Kim (Getty Conservation Institute, US)
- Vincent Laudato Beltran (Getty Conservation Institute, US)