‘Reanimation’ of the Disney animation cel

November 3, 2015

The Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH) and conservators and curators from the Yale University Gallery of Art (YUAG) are working together on a project aimed at developing an optimal preservation strategy for Disney animation cels, a very prominent example of 20th century American cultural heritage. The strategy will address the best environmental conditions in which to store the cels in order to slow down degradation processes and prolong their life. Recently, a multi-disciplinary team of experts recorded 3D images of one of the most beautiful animation cels from  Snow White and Seven Dwarfs (1937) from the YUAG collection in order to document the state of the object’s preservation, to gain insight into the mechanism leading to object’s deformation, as a first step for an suitable preservation strategy. This project is implemented within the framework of a partnership established recently between IPCH and the Getty Conservation Institute, which includes collaborative research on deterioration processes and their implications for the conservation practice of 20th century polymers.