Category: AIC/FAIC Announcements

Recent developments in the field and inform the membership of Board decisions and policies, organizational matters and AIC activities, information on activities of the foundation, and membership issues in general.

Special! Two Online Meetings Added to FAIC Online Education Schedule

http://www.conservation-us.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=490&parentID=471

www.researchandwriting.netFAIC

is pleased to announce

a collaboration with Research and Writing

to present two special online meetings in November 2011

 

On Tuesday, November 1, 12:00-1:30 pm ET (UCT -4:00)

What a Good Contract Includes

download more information here

In this meeting, we will discuss:

  • The five basic components of a well-written contract
  • The role each component plays in an enforceable contract
  • Two optional components of a contract, and why you might want to include them
  • The differences and similarities between a contract and a Letter of Agreement or Memorandum of Understanding

 

On  Tuesday, November 8, 12:00-1:30 pm ET (UCT -5:00)

What Is It About Insurance?

download more information here

This meeting will guide you through such basics as:

  • Three insurance policies you should use to protect your business from disaster
  • Common terms and descriptions used by the insurance industry
  • Three other insurance lines you should consider purchasing

 The meetings are open to all.

Registration Details:

The registration fee is $65.00, or $35 for a single meeting. Contact Sarah at Research and Writing (sarah[@]researchandwriting.net) about group discounts.

Register from the Research and Writing website:  http://bit.ly/MTGS_1111.

•

Want more information about the AIC Online meeting series? Go to http://bit.ly/5-FAIC
Want to know why conservators should know about business? Go to http://bit.ly/qX4wyF

 

Meetings presented by Research and Writing in collaboration with FAIC provide an introduction and discussion forum for business topics of interest to the conservation and preservation community. They do not replace individual consultation with an appropriately qualified professional.

Proposal for the creation of an AIC Collections Care Network

Proposal for the creation of an AIC Collections Care Network

This proposal recommends the creation of the Collections Care Network (CCN), a group of collections care, conservation, and allied professionals united in promoting a preventive approach to collections care.

Objective:

The CCN will respond to the directive in the AIC’s Guidelines for Practice to “recognize the critical importance of preventive conservation as the most effective means of promoting the long-term preservation of cultural property”. It will do so by: providing resources to support collections care and conservation staff; creating awareness of preventive care; identifying and developing standards and best practices, training, and other projects to advance preventive care in institutions of all types and sizes, locally, nationally and globally; and working with related groups to reach and support key collections care constituents.

Goals:

  • Create a network of collections and conservation professionals committed to the preventive care of collections by providing a focused forum for current AIC members and encouraging non-member collections care professionals to become AIC members.
  • Advance the understanding that preventive care preserves our cultural heritage in a way that post-damage interventive treatment cannot restore.
  • Advocate for professional recognition of all collections care professionals and support the development of the role they play in institutional preservation planning.
  • Create a forum for collections and conservation staff to exchange preservation information, ideas and research.
  • Provide preventive care programs and resources that will be of interest to the broad spectrum of constituents the CCN intends to serve.
  • Network with related collections and conservation organizations to better support shared goals.

 Rationale:

The creation of the CCN offers AIC the opportunity to more efficiently support the growing number of conservators with strong preventive responsibilities and interests. This change in role and focus affects conservators from all AIC Specialty Groups. Thus, the creation of this network would build a bridge between groups, allowing conservators to discuss needs in a topical, rather than media specific way.

Today, many collections care staff have difficulty selecting a professional organization that fully represents their interests. Creation of the CCN would offer AIC the opportunity to significantly expand its membership by welcoming collections care staff and positioning AIC as a professional organization relevant to their needs.

Ultimately, strengthening the connection between conservators and collections staff as professional peers will enable AIC to further the preservation of collections by facilitating exchange and dialogue, support the development of training and resources that interest collections care groups, and ultimately, lead to the application of sound standards for collections care practice in cultural institutions.

Anticipated groups to be served:

The audience for this network will include those with stewardship responsibilities in museums, libraries, archives, historic sites and other institutions working to preserve tangible and intangible heritage, including but not limited to:

  • Collections managers
  • Conservators
  • Art handlers
  • Collections care staff
  • Registrars
  • Packing and crating staff
  • Libraries and archives staff
  • Preservation architects and engineers
  • Historic house museum staff
  • Exhibition mountmakers
  • Preparators
  • Preventive conservation supply vendors
  • Exhibit designers
  • Archaeologists
  • Heritage preservation students
  • Conservation students

Ideas for future projects:

 Collections Care Resource Development

  • Create an online resource that would help to codify resources and offer a platform for the sharing of projects, curricula, and material sources.
  • Advocate for and identify people to write needed text books in the field
  • Identify or develop best practices for the care of challenging collections.
  • Develop formal standards of commitment and practice for collections care that can guide institutions and staff
  • Develop educational materials to promote preventive conservation approaches and conservation planning to institutions at conception, building, renovation and operational stages
  • Support AIC projects and Committees
    • AIC wiki Exhibition Standards & Guidelines
    • Web module on collections storage  (STASH –  Storage Techniques for Art, Science and Humanities collections)
    • RATS sponsored wiki on materials and materials testing
    • Environmental Guidelines Working Group
    • Emergency Committee effort to develop risk assessment and preparedness resources and AIC-CERT
    • AIC Health and Safety Committee

Staff Development

  • Identify and encourage development of continuing education programs for collections care professionals
  • Advocate for job creation and permanence for collections care and preventive care staff
  • Provide training activities that will address
    • collections care activities
    • project management
    • planning
    • obtaining institutional support
    • professional development

Outreach and Networking

  • Connect with related professional groups world wide to explore joint programming and resource development, including but not limited to
    • AAM and related sub-groups, RC-AAM and PACCIN
    • Allied professionals in universities
    • American Institute of Architects
    • ICOM-CC
    • International Institute for Conservation
    • Mountmakers Forum
    • RegionalMuseumorganizations, such as New England Museum Assoc (NEMA), Virginia Association of Museums, (VAM), and the Small Museum Association.
    • SPNHC
      • Support the preventive conservation session at 2012 SPNHC meeting – Yale, June 2012
    • The Association for Preservation Technology (APTI)
  • Work with other AIC committees and specialty groups to develop joint programming
  • Support the CAP program

To be submitted to the AIC board by the CCN organizing committee, October 15, 2011:

  • Rachael Perkins Arenstein, A.M. Art Conservation, LLC
  • Julia Brennan, Textile Conservation Services
  • Rebecca Fifield, Collections Manager for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, MetropolitanMuseum of Art
  • Gretchen Guidess, Mellon Fellow, HistoricNew England
  • Catharine Hawks, Conservator, NMNH Smithsonian Institution
  • Wendy Jessup, Conservator, Wendy Jessup and Associates, Inc.
  • Karen Pavelka, Lecturer,School ofInformation, TheUniversity ofTexas atAustin
  • Patricia Silence, Conservator, Conservator of Museum Exhibitions and Historic Interiors, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
  • Joelle Wickens, Assistant Conservator, Head of Preventive Conservation Team and Winterthur Assistant Professor, Winterthur Museum

 

Update Your Directory Listing

Work on your 2012 Directory is well underway. Help us keep the directory current by updating your contact information. You can update your listing several ways:

Online

  •     Go to our website at www.conservation-us.org.
  •     To login, enter your email address as your username. (Forgot your password? You can have a temporary one automatically emailed to you. Please note: once you have received the temporary password, you must refresh your browser before entering it.)
  •     Click “Manage Your Profile.” Update your information. Then, click “Submit.”

By Email, Fax or Phone

  •     Check your listing in the 2011 Directory. (If you joined after Nov. 2010, you may not be in the 2011 Directory.)
  •     Verify your contact information and specializations (remember: belonging to a specialty group does not mean that specialization will be listed under your name). You may list a maximum of three specializations.
  •     Send changes to info@conservation-us.org, 202-452-9328 (fax), or 202-452-9545 (phone)

Only revisions received by September 23, 2011 will be included. Questions? Contact Steven Charles, Membership Assistant, at scharles@conservation-us.org or 202.661.8066.

MEMBER NEWS FROM CLUB QUARTERS

MEMBER NEWS FROM CLUB QUARTERS
New Club Quarters to
Open in London Early 2012Club
Quarters will open a fourth London hotel – Club
Quarters, Lincoln’s Inn Fields at the beginning of 2012. It is located
at Kingsway near Holborn in the heart of London (“Midtown”) and
close to Covent Garden and the theatre district.

The
Hotel will have unique features including an

LIF Exterior Draft Photooutdoor terrace
facing Lincoln’s Inn Fields offering dining and bar services throughout the
day. Adjacent to the terrace will be the Club Living Room with social
networking and business center areas.

Guestrooms will have a new look for London, a progression from the very
popular Club Quarters, World Trade Center in New York. Standard rooms will
have an “activity center” designed for working, dining, or
relaxation and incorporating the latest in-room technology.

Like all Club Quarters, most services are complimentary: Internet access,
business center, printing, bottled water, coffee and tea, newspapers,
launderette, and even exercise equipment in the room. Guests at all Club
Quarters earn “Night on the House” certificates each stay after
the first one and now can earn a $100 savings bond.

As is our practice, memberships are first offered to existing
members.  As memberships will be filled quickly in London, please let
your Membership Managers know before October of your interest in membership
at Club Quarters, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Alternatively, you may contact
Kathleen Curran, Director of Memberships, United Kingdom at +44
207-451-5901 or via email kcurran@clubquarters.com.

The room rates will be exactly the same for this brand new facility as our
London City hotels.

Accepting reservations
in September 2011 for arrivals in 2012

9/11
Memorial Site Opening Opposite Club Quarters, World Trade Center

 

Club Quarters

WCH View, World Trade Center
will host employees and guests of member organizations who wish to visit
New York to participate in the 9/11 Memorial Events in September.  The
hotel overlooks the Memorial Site which will be dedicated on Sept. 11, 2011
in a special ceremony for victims’ families. The Memorial opens to the
public on Sept. 12, 2011.

Call Member Services for advanced reservations at 203-905-2100.
Visitor passes to the Memorial site must be reserved in advance at http://www.911memorial.org/visitor-passes.

Photography: one of two
reflecting pools at the 9/11 memorial site.

 

New
York Fall Season: Reserve Early at all (4) New York Locations

Fall is
peak season in New York.

Club Quarters, World Trade Center: Located
opposite the Freedom Tower and newly opened 9/11 Memorial, as well as
the World Financial Center, Club Quarters, World Trade Center is within
walking distance of major financial institutions.

Club Quarters, Wall Street: Located near the
New York Stock Exchange and all major financial institutions, Club
Quarters, Wall Street books quickly during the Fall season when many
companies are announcing third quarter earnings.

Club
Quarters, opposite Rockefeller Center: Located on West 51st Street
just off Fifth Avenue, employees and guests of member organizations are
within walking distance of major corporations on Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue
and Avenue of the Americas.  The 7th Floor Terrace Club has
unfettered views of Rockefeller Center.

Club Quarters, Midtown: Located in a
landmarked building on West 45th Street between Fifth and Sixth
Avenues and within walking distance of Grand Central Station and Times
Square – as well as the Theatre District, Fashion Avenue, major office
buildings and “Restaurant Row” – on West 46th Street.  Home
to the Midtown Executive Club,
the hotel is suited for small and business meetings.

Low  member rates
are always honored as long as rooms remain available – even over peak city
wide event dates including the following:

9/11 Ten Year Memorial
Events: September 4-11, 2011

Wall Street Room

New York City Fashion
Week: September 8-15, 2011

World Business Forum
2011: October 4-7, 2011

Web 2.0 Expo New York:
October 10-13, 2011

International Fine Art
& Antique Dealers Show: October 21-27, 2011

New York City Marathon:
November 5-7, 2011

Rockefeller Center Tree
Lighting: November 30, 2011
Complimentary Meeting
Room Available to Member Organizations Through September 30,2011
Members
who plan their next offsite meeting at Club Quarters will be offered a
complimentary meeting room* for a full or half day with no required
purchase of food and beverage. Your low member room rates are always
available for meeting attendees.

Table inside Terrace Club - Meetings

To
check availability, please call Member Services at

203-905-2120 or click here. If there is someone else
in your organization who arranges meetings, please click here to Forward
this message to a friend.

*Valid for
US locations. Available for new meeting reservations only.  Limit one
per member. Offer expires September 30, 2011.

 
Always
Complimentary for Members Included in your low fixed member rates, our complimentary services provide
significant overall savings.

–
– –

– Free broadband/WiFi  Internet
access                                   –
Fitness Room access

– Unlimited
chilled purified bottled
water
– Launderette onsite

– Computer access and
printing                                                   –
Guest Request Closet with extra amenities

– Member guests earn a “Night
on the House” –
Coffee and tea available

each stay after the first stay and can now earn

a $100 savings bond

Click here for more details

CLUB QUARTERS

The Smart Hotel for the Sensible Traveler

Rockefeller Center,
Wall Street,
World Trade Center,
Fifth Avenue/Times
Square, NYC

Trafalgar
Square, St.
Paul’s Cathedral, Bank
of England/Gracechurch, London

White House,
Washington DC  Downtown
near Faneuil Hall, Boston Liberty Place,
Philadelphia

Central Loop,
Chicago  Wacker at
Michigan, Chicago

Downtown
Houston Embarcadero
Center, San Francisco

Lincoln’s Inn Fields
near theatres and Covent Garden, Central London (opening
2012)

www.clubquarters.com
For
reservations, contact Member Services at +1.203.905.2100 (US) or +44.020.7451.5800 (UK)email: memberservices@clubquarters.com or online at www.clubquarters.com

NEW AIC Blog to launch with AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting

We hope you have found the posts filed here on this platform interesting and a good way to keep abreast of AIC news and conservation in the media. In an effort to spur more dialogue and participation we will be moving the AIC blog to a new platform. We hope that you will check out www.Conservators-Converse.org , sign up for the RSS feed there and comment on a post. It is easy to do. We will have bloggers covering the talks at the upcoming AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Look for their posts soon.

AIC’s K-12 Educational Outreach page and membership survey

AIC now has an active K-12 Education Working Group engaged in compiling information and resources on conservation, for use by educators as well as by conservation professionals who work with K-12 students. The information is hosted on the AIC website’s K-12 Education page at www.conservation-us.org/k12.

Many of you are already involved in outreach or education efforts or have expressed your interest in becoming involved. We are now asking for the help of all AIC members to develop this page into a meaningful, rich resource that accurately reflects the diversity of our field and our membership. To this end, we’ve developed a short (really!) survey through which you can:

– agree to work with educators or other interested individuals in your area

– share links or websites you find particularly interesting or useful for educating students

– share materials you have developed – lectures, workshops, activities, powerpoints etc. – for use with students

– contribute any other ideas you may have for AIC’s K-12 Education Outreach efforts

Click here to go to the survey.

Note that your contact information will never be made publicly available on the website; interested educators will email the Working Group with their queries, and we will then match them with conservators in their area who have agreed to be contacted.

Please feel free to email the Working Group with any questions or problems with the survey at k-12@conservation-us.org. Thank you for your time and participation! We look forward to expanding AIC’s Educational Outreach offerings with your help.

Update: AIC-CERT in Haiti

FAIC is joining the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield (USCBS) to help recover cultural and historic artifacts damaged by the January 12 earthquakes in Haiti.

In early May, two AIC-CERT members joined Corine Wegener, President of USCBS, and engineers from the Smithsonian Institution to assess collections and to evaluate a building in Port-au-Prince for use as a conservation center. Paintings conservator Susan Blakney of West Lake Conservators in Skaneateles, New York, and paper conservator Vicki Lee of the Maryland State Archives were able to view and assess conservation needs at a number of museums, galleries, and historic sites.Based on their findings, the Smithsonian entered into a lease on the building to create the Haiti Cultural Recovery Center. The Center will be operated by the Smithsonian Institution in cooperation with the Government of Haiti. FAIC will help supply volunteer conservators to provide assessments, advice, stabilization, and storage solutions for works currently in peril.

(Pictured: AIC-CERT volunteer Hitoshi Kimura working on the FIRST painting at the

Haiti Cultural Recovery Center)

Read the full story on the AIC-CERT page of the AIC site, www.conservation-us.org/cert

OSG and the AIC Wiki

Why has the OSG never published a catalog? Many conservators love the diversity and range that the objects specialty offers: one could literally go years before seeing the same problem twice. But when it comes to setting knowledge into print, the endless variety can become a liability. As long-time Postprints editor Ginny Greene put it, “I remember several discussions on an OSG catalog, but the idea foundered each time because of the incredible complexity.” With so many subjects, materials, and techniques considered ‘objects’, it is impossible to know where to start.

AIC’s new wiki at www.conservation-wiki.com, funded by a 2006 NCPTT grant, has nudged the OSG into action at last. A wiki’s horizontally-linked, decentralized model can serve very well for an overlapping discipline such as objects conservation. It is also well-suited for short entries, which could allow members to share the burden of such a massive undertaking. Many conservators find themselves with specialized knowledge of unusual materials or unique situations, but in amounts too small for a research paper. Or are you short on time, but willing to do a bit of editing? Small contributions are very welcome.

Coming to the wiki without a published catalog may give the OSG an advantage. A wiki represents a new way of sharing information, and approaching it with an open mind can maximize the benefits. Each page is a stand-alone work that can link to any number of other pages without hierarchy or order. It can be a struggle to let go of long-held habits such as outlining and editorial oversight. Having never committed to the traditional catalog format, OSG members may find themselves free to experiment now.

For these reasons, the AIC wiki has generated a lot of interest within the Objects Specialty Group. Many members are excited about using the collaborative approach to create a flexible, user-friendly conservation research tool. Currently about 15-20 members have joined the OSG Wiki committee, and content is growing quickly. Interested OSG members are welcome to join: a wiki works best with many participants. It takes only a brief training session with AIC Director of Communications Brett Rodgers to begin contributing. Further learning comes through hands-on participation and the on-line discussions linked to each page.

But be aware: the wiki is a fundamentally a public, shared forum. If you choose to join, be ready to accept continuous editing of your work! The original Wikipedia emphasizes two fundamental strategies: be bold, and assume good faith on the part of your colleagues. OSG members interested in joining should contact Katie Holbrow, Committee Chair, at kholbrow@asianart.org.

– Katie Holbrow