The third number of Intervencion, Revista lnternacional de Conservacion, Restauracion y Museologia, an academic, international, and peer-reviewed magazine dedicated to the research and dissemination on the fields of conservation, restoration, museum studies and related disciplines in the study of cultural heritage, is now available. Published biannually by the Escuela Nacional de Conservacion, Restauracion y Museografia, one of the key educational cornerstones of the lnstituto Nacional de Antropologfa e Historia (INAH), Mexico, this publication aims at generating informed criticism by promoting interdisciplinary, intra-institutional and cross-cultural dialogue within the national and international academic community. The Escuela Nacional de Conservacion, Restauracion y Museografia encourages people to submit contributions to the forthcoming numbers. For more information, visit www.encrym.edu.mx.
Author: Ryan Winfield
WUDPAC Portfolio Day – September 9, 2011
The deadline for RSVPs has been extended to Sep. 9, 2011 and the program has been expanded. Please pass the word about the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) Portfolio Day and open house on September 14 2011 at the Winterthur Museum. Current Fellows in the program will share their portfolios and experiences with prospective applicants for WUDPAC. Faculty will be in attendance to answer questions and there will be tours of the labs.
4:00-5:00 pm in the Copeland Lecture Hall, Winterthur Museum, Elena Torok will present her 2011 summer work project at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and our NEH Public Engagement Institute in Material Culture Studies at UD.
5:00-7:00 pm The WUDPAC Class of 2014 will share their pre-program portfolios outside the Gallery Reception Area at Winterthur Museum.
5:00-7:00 pm Visitors can tour the conservation laboratories in the Research Building.
Pizza and salad will be available after the tour from 7- 8PM.
Please RSVP for this event by Friday, September 9, 2011 by emailing Susan Behrens at behrens [at] udel__edu.
Emerging Conservators and Outreach
The ECPN is collecting case studies about conservation outreach and we hope those emerging conservators who read this blog would contribute their stories or case studies.
Please include information in the comments section of this post, case studies could include:
- Public conservation treatments
- Speaking about conservation to collectors, museum visitors, students, etc.
- Involving the community in a conservation project
- Using social media to reach out about conservation including blogging, facebook, twitter, flickr, and how these sites are helpful to stay connected to conservators and non-conservators alike
- Advocating for conservation by contacting Congressional representatives
- Reaching out to related museum or arts associations to build networking groups and connect with professionals in related fields
The topics could also include basic ‘How to’ information like:
- How to write a blog post
- How to run a Facebook group as an admin
- How to write a press release for a conservation project
- How to organize a happy hour (Northern Californian Conservators – I am looking at you)
- How to explain conservation to a four-year-old, a teenager, a professional in a similar field, a museum visitor
I am looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts and stories/case studies about conservation outreach!
~Rose Cull
NEH Announces Grants for Sustainable Preservation Strategies
Just want to alert potential U.S. nonprofit museums, libraries, and archives about new guidelines and some changes for the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections grant program, offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Grants will be available to plan and implement preventive conservation projects in ways that are cost effective, energy efficient, and environmentally sensitive and that aim to mitigate greatest risks rather than to meet prescriptive targets. Preventive conservation measures may encompass managing relative humidity, temperature, light and pollutants in collection spaces; providing protective storage enclosures and systems for collections; and safeguarding collections from theft and from natural and man-made disasters.
Planning grants of up to $40,000 and implementation grants of up to
$350,000 will be available.
New This Year: To enhance the outcomes of planning grants and to encourage incremental improvements in the care of collections, applicants for planning projects may request up to an additional
$10,000 to carry out one or more recommendations made by the interdisciplinary planning team during the course of the project.
Such work could help demonstrate the benefits of sustainable preservation strategies or lead to new information or changes in conditions that would influence “next steps.” For such planning projects, the maximum award would be $50,000.
The deadline will be December 1, 2011. The new guidelines should be posted by mid-September, 2011 and will contain a more detailed description of planning projects and the range of activities that are eligible for support. We will send out a second announcement when the guidelines are posted. Please feel free to contact the division for more information by emailing preservation [at] neh__gov or calling 202-606-8570.
Make Sure IMLS Includes Conservation Priorities in their Five-Year Strategic Plan
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is working to create a five-year strategic plan, and would like ideas from museum and library professionals on how best to carry out its responsibility to support these institutions. Please take the time to share your ideas and help IMLS realize how important conservation is to the museum and library fields. Go to imls.ideascale.com.
AIC PhotoDocumentation Targets (AIC PhD Targets) on Sale!
AIC is pleased to announce the sale of AIC PhotoDocumentation Targets (AIC PhD Targets), designed by Dan Kushel, Jiuan-Jiuan Chen, and Luisa Casella, and produced by Robin Myers Imaging. The AIC PhD Targets provide an easy and efficient way to include photographic reference standards as well as image and artifact identification information. Lightweight and of robust construction, each target is fully assembled and ready for use. Targets are provided with instructional information and with online resources, which include a printing template for slip-in labels for the medium and small targets. For more information, visit www.conservation-us.org/PhDtargets.
2nd Edition of the AIC Guide to Digital Photography and Conservation Documentation Now Available!
AIC has published the long-awaited second edition of the AIC Guide to Digital Photography and Conservation Documentation. This book is a comprehensive guide to digital photographic equipment, software, and processing tailored to the needs of conservation professionals. Authors Franziska Frey, Dawn Heller, Dan Kushel, Timothy Vitale, Jeffrey Warda (editor), and Gawain Weaver have more than doubled the size of the first edition, which includes major extensions and updates to the text and is fully illustrated with over 120 color figures. This second edition also has a wraparound internal spiral binding, allowing the book to lay flat—a request made by many readers of the first edition. For more information, visit www.conservation-us.org/digitalguide.
AIC-Member Research Trip to Cuba: Only a Few Spaces Left
Also, there is still space available in AIC’s upcoming research trip to Cuba. For nine days explore conservation, preservation, cultural, and humanitarian activities in Cuba, focusing on the UNESCO World Heritage cities of Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad de Cuba, and the countryside between those cultural centers. The trip will be led by AIC member, Rosa Lowinger and Cuba Tours and Travel. The trip is open to Associate, PA, and Fellow members who are full-time conservators. Visit our website for more information, to view a draft itinerary, and to sign-up for the trip. The trip is limited to 30 Members, so register today to reserve your spot. For more information and to register, visit www.conservation-us.org/cuba.
AIC Releases Statement on the 10th Anniversary of the Adoption of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage
August 26, 2011
Mr. John L. Nua, III, Chairman
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
Old Post Office Building
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 809
Washington, DC 20004
Dear Mr. Nau,
The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage was adopted by the 31st general conference of UNESCO in November 2001. The Convention provides a guideline for managing activities related to underwater cultural heritage. Included in the Convention are the Annex Rules that outline best practices for responsible underwater archaeology and provide guides for research, documentation and responsible artifact care. The National Park Service and NOAA participated in the development of the Convention and Annex Rules. While there was not complete agreement about the Convention, all parties agreed that the Annex Rules provide an excellent international standard for the practice of underwater archaeology and stewardship of submerges sites.
The Board of the American Institute for Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works (AIC) urges you to endorse the Annex Rules as a requirement for the practice of underwater archaeology and submerged heritage management. Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2011, AIC supports historic preservation and the 3500 professional conservators practicing in the US. Preservation does not just mean saving the physical object for display in a museum but, in many cases more importantly, preservation means saving information about the object – where it came from, who owned and used it, when it was made or used, and how it came to be in an underwater site. This information tells the story of our past; the story brings history to life for the public. Preserving and making the stories accessible to the public provides an educational resource and heritage tourism venue. Conservators of archaeological artifacts can preserve the individual objects but need your assistance to encourage responsible and professional excavation, documentation, research and management of underwater cultural heritage sites. Please support and incorporate the Annex Rules, some of which are already practiced by Federal agency archaeologists, into the Council’s guidelines and strategies.
The Convention and Annex Rules are available on the UNESCO web site at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001260/126065e.pdf. Please let me know if you would like additional information or have questions about the Annex Rules or AIC conservators. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Meg Loew Craft
AIC, President
Senior Objects Conservator
Walters Art Museum
600 North Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
mcraft@thewalters.org
410-547-9000 x629
For Hurricanes Season, Remember AIC-CERT is Here to Help
WASHINGTON, D.C.— With the peak of hurricane season approaching, museums, historic sites, libraries, and archives in coastal regions will be at risk. The American Institute for Conservation (AIC), the national association of conservation professionals, is offering free emergency response assistance to cultural organizations. Please help make sure that staff members of collecting institutions know to contact AIC-CERT when a disaster—flooding, hurricane, earthquake, fire—has damaged collections.
• Call AIC’s 24-hour assistance number at 202.661.8068 for advice by phone.
• Call 202.661.8068 to arrange for a team to come to the site to complete damage assessments and help with salvage organization.
AIC-CERT volunteers have provided advice to dozens of museums, libraries, and archives, most recently to sites in Minot, North Dakota affected by flooding. AIC-CERT teams were on the ground following the Midwest floods in 2008 and in the Galveston area following Hurricane Ike later that year. AIC-CERT members and other AIC conservators are currently in Haiti assisting with recovery of cultural materials damaged in the 2010 earthquake.
AIC-CERT is supported and managed by the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation (FAIC). In 2007 and again in 2010, FAIC received funding from the Institute of Museum & Library Services to support an advanced training program for conservators and other museum professionals that resulted in a force of 107 “rapid responders” trained to assess damage and initiate salvage of cultural collections after a disaster has occurred. They are ready to assist.
Resources and information on disaster recovery and salvage can be found on AIC’s website at www.conservation-us.org/disaster . The public can also call AIC-CERT at 202.661.8068.