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About
Wendy Jessup and Associates, Inc. (WJ&A) is a woman-owned small business that provides preventive conservation and collections management consulting, training, and planning services to museums, libraries, archives, and other stewards of cultural heritage.
Additionally, WJ&A collaborates with the architectural community to facilitate the preservation of collections in planning and design of new or renovated museum facilities.
Since 1987, the practice has served this community through the completion of nearly 100 collections assessments through the Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) program and its predecessor Collections Assessment Program, numerous long-range conservation plans for small to medium sized museums, and more than 15 Collections Management Plans for United States National Park Service museums. Most of our clients have collections housed in historic structures and our recommendations must be tailored to meet the needs of both the collections and building. We maintain strategic partnerships with leaders in the cultural facilities design community, as well as with highly experienced preservation engineers and architects who are leaders in the historic preservation field to provide programming and planning for new or renovated buildings for long-term preservation of these important resources.
Commitments
Sustainability and Environmental Justice
WJ&A is committed to practicing safe and sustainable habits when working with and on collections projects and clients. We recognize the negative and often catastrophic impact climate change has on cultural heritage and stewardship practices. Here at WJ&A, we aim to ensure our practice incorporates sustainable and environmentally conscious decisions for both our operations and our clients’ projects.
Cultural Heritage Preservation and Social Justice
WJ&A recognizes the long-standing history of erasure and neglect the museum and cultural heritage field has upheld through oppressive systems and states of white supremacy and white saviorism. Our firm aims to ensure that, as we continue to work with all kinds of stewards of cultural heritage, we do so with the recognition and compassion required to also heal and restore just narratives and stewardship practices.
Projects by the Numbers
37
Collections Storage Planning
and Improvements
General Conservation Assessments
24
17
Collections Management Plans
(United States National Park Service)
Collection Relocations and Transfers
10
6
Facilities Planning and Preventive Conservation for New Museum and Library Construction Projects
Publications
4
4
Disaster and Emergency Planning
Meet Our Team
Wendy Jessup examining tapestry at Evergreen Museum & Library for 2022 Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP)
Wendy Jessup,
President and Conservator
A Fellow of the International Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation, Wendy established Wendy Jessup and Associates, Inc. in 1987 after having worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Smithsonian Institution.
Wendy has pioneered the discipline of preventive conservation with particular emphasis on collections environment and collection storage. Ms. Jessup is highly experienced in identifying vulnerabilities and risks to collections and in setting objectives for risk reduction and preventive conservation. She has served as a consultant to many museums and archives within the United States and internationally. Wendy Jessup has also provided training and instruction to conservators nationally and internationally through numerous conservation institutions, including The Getty Conservation Institute. Wendy was on the course development team and served as the Moderator for the international course, Preventive Conservation: Museum Collections and Their Environment, held at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) in California from 1990 to 1995 and on the planning, instruction and mentoring teams for the GCI’s course, Managing Collections Environments in the Age of Sustainability.