Fiona Tennant

Fiona has more than 25 years’ experience in the management of cultural collections in Australia. Her background in textiles and preventive conservation, combined with her experience in collections management enable her to provide specialist advice in all aspects of collection care.

Fiona joined ICS as a textile conservator in 1993, after completing a Bachelor of Applied Science at the University of Canberra. Since then, she has gained experience in a range of roles including Senior Textiles Conservator and Preventive Conservator, and currently our Principal Collections Manager. In 2007, Fiona completed a Masters in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester (UK), researching ways to create educational and inspirational experiences with geographically remote cultural collections. 

She now specialises in both Collections Management and Preventive Conservation for private and public clients and advises on a wide variety of collection management issues.  Fiona writes Collection Management Policies, devises collection management strategies, surveys collections for conservation issues and requirements, and undertakes environmental assessments. She has extensive experience in carrying out Preservation Needs Assessments, risk assessments and condition assessments. She also advises on appropriate storage and environmental requirements of collections and has written numerous planning briefs for architects and museum planners.

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Publications:

• A Practical Guide for Sustainable Climate Control and Lighting in Museums and Galleries. Museums and Galleries Queensland, Museums and Galleries NSW, Public Galleries Association NSW and Regional Galleries Association Queensland. 2015
• J.Bickersteth, S. Clayton and F.Tennant. Conserving and Interpreting the Historic Huts of Antarctica. Conservation and Access. IIC Congress London. 2008. IIC.
• F. Tennant and J. Bickersteth. Conserving in the Deep Freeze: Saving and interpreting the Heroic Era Huts of the Ross Dependency in Antarctica. Extreme Heritage Conference, 2007. Australia ICOMOS.