nontoxicprint

Click here to edit subtitle

Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety ("ACTS")


Monona Rossol

Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety ("ACTS") is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing health, safety, industrial hygiene, technical services, and safety publications for the arts, crafts, museums, and theater communities.  

Founded in 1987 by its current President, Monona Rossol, a chemist, industrial hygienist and author, ACTS focuses on assisting the arts, crafts, museum and theatrical communities in creating and maintaining safe environments and using safe materials to protect artists and patrons.  

ACTS purpose is to educate the both general public and safety professionals about the prevalence of toxic chemicals in common consumer products and art materials that can create risks to health and safety in the home, workplace and studio.

ACTS publishes a monthly newsletter, ACTS FACTS, on health and safety regulations and research that affect the arts and theater.  It is now in its 37th year of publication.

ACTS, in conjunction with the Art Conservation Department of the University of Delaware, provides a 40-hour course on industrial hygiene to art and theater technicians and professional safety people. The course is held for one week every August and this coming year will be the 8th year it has been offered.  Monona has set aside a $600,000 endowment for the University of Delaware to ensure this course will be taught in perpetuity and some of the students will begin teaching parts of the course over the next few years.  

Monona has written nine books.  One of these books, the Artist’s Complete Health and Safety Guide, won a 1996 Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award from the Association of College and Research Libraries.  During the Pandemic, she negotiated for the right to self-publish this book and now has a 4th Edition in electronic form which is updated every year and provided as a text for her course.  She also provides relevant material from this book and others without cost to the many people who email inquiries to ACTS at actsnyc@cs.com

A.C.T.S          Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety

AddThis Social Bookmark Button




CONTACT:
181 Thompson Street, #23
New York, NY 10012-2586
Telephone: (212) 777-0062
E-Mail: ACTSNYC@cs.com

Providing Safety & Hazard Information for the Arts - Worldwide

ACTS is a not-for-profit corporation that provides health, safety, industrial hygiene, technical services, and safety publications to the arts, crafts, museums, and theater communities. A part of the fees from our consulting services goes to support our free and low-cost services for artists. We gratefully accept donations, but do not solicit them from the artists who call here for help and advice. We recognize that artists and performers are among the least affluent groups in society.

ACTS also will not accept money or take advertising in our publications from manufacturers of artists materials or businesses whose interests could conflict with ours. We want artists to know that we have no financial incentive to make our product and safety recommendations.


Monona Rossol is a chemist, artist, and industrial hygienist. She was born into a theatrical family and worked as a professional entertainer from age 3 to 17. She enrolled in the University of Wisconsin where she earned: a BS in Chemistry with a minor in Math, an MS majoring in Ceramics and Sculpture, and an MFA with majors in Ceramics and Glassblowing and a minor in Music. While in school she worked as a chemist, taught and exhibited art work, performed with University music and theater groups, and worked yearly in summer stock. After leaving school, she performed in musical and straight acting roles in Off and Off Off Broadway theaters and cabaret.

Currently, Monona is President/founder of Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing health and safety services to the arts. She also is the Health and Safety Director for Local 829 of the United Scenic Artists, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). She has lectured and consulted in the US, Canada, Australia, England, Mexico and Portugal. 


Data Sheets and Books

ACTS publishes short data sheets (from 1 to 10 pages) on over 60 different technical subjects related to health and safety in art and theater. The following are some of our most requested data sheets. We will mail single copies of data sheets free to those providing a postal address. People requesting more than one data sheet are asked to send $ .25 per page to help ACTS pay for copy and mailing costs.

  • All About Wax (5 pages)
  • Art Painting (5 pages)
  • Carbon Monoxide Detectors (5 pages)**
  • Ceramic Ware Hazards (7 pages)
  • D-Limonene: the Citrus Solvent (7 pages)
  • Dyes and Pigments (5 pages)
  • Labels: Reading Between the Lies (6 pages)
  • OSHA Regulations and the Scenic Arts (6 pages)
  • Oven-Cured Polymer Clays (9 pages)
  • Respiratory Protection: New Rules (7 pages)**
  • Selecting Children's Art Materials (6 pages)
  • Teaching Art & Theater Safely (8 pages)
  • Threshold Limit Values (2 pages)**
  • Understanding the MSDS (4 pages)
  • Urethane Resin Systems (6 pages)**
  • Ventilation for Art Buildings (6 pages)

** Provided Courtesy of United Scenic Artists, Local 829 (IATSE)

Provide a postal (snail mail) address by email to ACTSNYC@cs.com or mail ACTS a self-addressed-stamped envelop and we will send the full publications list and a complementary copy of our newsletter.

Ordering

  • The Artist's Complete Health & Safety Guide, 3rd Edition
  • The Health & Safety Guide for Film, TV & Theater
  • OvereXposure: Health Hazards in Photography

Are available from:

Allworth Press
10 East 23rd Street
New York, NY 10010
Telephone 212/777-8395
Credit card ordering number is 800/491-2808

Contact ACTS directly for information about the other books.