In a typical year, one or two sessions at the annual meeting of the College Art Association focus on conservation or the material aspects of works of art. The 2013 meeting which took place in New York City on February 13-16 included seven sessions on these subjects– “The Proof is in the Print: Avant-Garde Approaches to the Historical Materials of Photography’s Avant Garde”, “Destruction of Cultural Heritage in European Countries in Transition, 1990- 2011”, “Collaborative Understanding through Technical Investigations: Art Scholar, Conservators and Scientists Research in Tandem”, “Between Maker, Agent, Collector, Curator and Conservator: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Islamic Tilework”, “Technical Art History and the University Curriculum”, “The New Connoisseurship: A Conversation among Scholars, Curators and Conservators”, “Artists and the Manufacturing of Art Materials”– with a number of them stressing collaboration. Some day in the future will we look back to this meeting and see it as the beginning of a golden age of conservator-art historian collaboration?
An abundance of College Art Association meeting sessions on conservation, technical art history, and the material aspects of works of art
Thank you for sharing! I am optimistic that this increase in sessions IS indicative of more collaborations. I intern at the Balboa Art Conservation Center, where they just completed a “Care of Paintings” workshop at the California Association of Museums annual meeting. In addition, the Rare Book and Manuscript Section hosted a panel discussion during a pre-conference for the ALA in 2012 that discussed preservation issues and how librarians develop curator and conservator relationships.