Category: AIC/FAIC Announcements

Image linked from UCBS site, www.uscbs.org/haiti.htm

FAIC has been working closely with the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield (USCBS) to send members of the AIC Collections Emergency Response Team (AIC-CERT) to assist with relief efforts in Haiti. NEH, NEA, IMLS, and PCAH have committed funds for assistance. These will help cover travel expenses and some supplies. AIC-CERT members volunteer their time.

The first team will deploy to Haiti from May 4-8. AIC and the USCBS are working in conjunction with the Smithsonian. An MOU between the Smithsonian and the Haitian Ministry of Culture has been completed, and a liaison has been assigned to us.

Two representatives of AIC-CERT will join the first trip to assess the situation: Sue Blakney, paintings conservator at West Lake Conservators in Skaneateles, NY, and Vicki Lee, senior conservator at the Maryland State Archives. Vicki and Sue will accompany Hugh Shockey, a conservator from the Smithsonian American Art Museum; Cori Wegener, President of the USCBS; and a team of construction/engineering personnel from the Smithsonian Institution. They will be looking at a proposed building to house the Cultural Heritage Recovery Center, and recommending equipment and layout for a conservation/stabilization lab there. They will also tour some sites in order to determine future needs for personnel, equipment, and schedules.

We expect to deploy a second team for about a week starting May 15th. While we know that there is work to be done to stabilize paintings (some are paintings on cardboard), we don’t know what other types of collections will be included once permissions are obtained (potentially murals, sculpture, and paper items). Once this initial team returns, we’ll know more about conditions on the ground and what our plans should be moving forward.

Attention AIC members: the 2009 Business meeting minutes are available on the “About AIC” page of the website, www.conservation-us.org/aboutaic.

There will be a vote to approve these minutes at this year’s AIC Members Business Meeting in Milwaukee, May 13, 12:00 P.M. – 2:00 P.M.

For more information on getting to Milwaukee and registering for the Annual Meeting, visit www.conservation-us.org/meetings

Attention AIC Members:

An AIC Bylaws vote will be held at the AIC Members Business Meeting, set for Thursday, May 13, from noon to 2:30 p.m.

Please take a moment to download the announcement and review the proposed change in advance of the vote.

This document can also be found on http://www.conservation-us.org/aboutaic

MayDay 2010 is coming up on May 1. Each year, archives, libraries, museums, and arts and historic preservation organizations participate in the initiative to protect cultural heritage from disasters.

Our buddies at Heritage Preservation and Gaylord Brothers are doing a prize drawing this year. Submit a brief description of what your organization does for MayDay by May 21, 2010, and you will be entered in a random drawing to win one of four prizes donated by Gaylord Brothers. The prizes include a React Paktm, a Collections Protection Kit, Rescubes®, and Leak Alert Water Detectors.

Learn more and enter the drawing>>

Sanchita Balachandran recently posted to the Conservation DistList about her new blog, Critical Issues In Art Conservation. The blog is part of an undergraduate course she’s teaching at Johns Hopkins. Check out what her students are posting/saying. And we agree with Sanchita – it would be great if the seasoned professionals that the students are learning about interact with them. Check it out>>

We need your help. FAIC seeks to improve CoOL and the DistList, and increase their value to the conservation field and beyond. In an effort to do so, we have put together a short, voluntary survey of DistList subscribers and other users of the CoOL website and its various resources. Please help us develop these invaluable resources by taking a few minutes to complete the survey.

Click here to take the survey

The DistList and Conservation Online (CoOL) were hosted by Stanford University Libraries for over twenty years. In the summer of 2009, Stanford announced that it could no longer support them, but agreed to transfer responsibility to the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation (FAIC) effective June 19, 2009. CoOL and the DistList have been moved and reconfigured on a private server supported by FAIC.

Note that the survey will not display properly with the Safari browser. Please use Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, or Internet Explorer for this survey.

Just a quick post to let you know about some important AIC documents that have just been posted on the AIC site:

-2010 AIC and FAIC financial information is available on www.conservation-us.org/aboutaic

-You’ll also find a link to the 2009 Internal Advisory Group Meeting notes at www.conservation-us.org/aboutaic

-In the future meetings section of www.conservation-us.org/meetings, we’ve posted the results of a recent survey on potential future Annual Meeting topics

Enjoy – and let us know what you think!

Are there any Tips you would like to share with you colleagues at the AIC-PMG meeting in Milwaukee next year? The Tips session will be during a luncheon on Friday, May 14th, 2010.

If you are interested in presenting a Tip please submit your idea to Monique Fischer, PMG Program Chair, before December 31st, 2009.

With improvements to our expanding website, the time has come to try to advocate for our common goals. The AIC should take a stand on timely issues and let its viewpoint be known. Position papers provide a means for asking for support of conservation issues or expressing an opinion about a controversial topic. The audience for the position papers is intended to be the general public, collectors, museum personnel and browsers to our website – not conservation professionals. Position paper topics should be generally agreed upon by the conservation community. The blog or specialty group list serves are a better place for discussion of material that is not agreed upon within the conservation community.

The AIC has one excellent position paper addressing Conservation and Preservation in Collecting Institutions that has been online since 2002. This paper is located in About AIC (scroll down to Position Papers) or can be found by searching for “position paper” on the website. A practice of producing additional position papers has not been established, however, several new position papers are currently being developed and a draft procedure for preparing these papers is being tested. Ideally the papers will be persuasive, roughly 2-3 pages in length and have a brief bibliography that is accessible online. If appropriate, sidebars with short stories, images or supporting facts may be added. Volunteer authors are at work on papers on the following topics:

. Addressing the recent loss of training positions

. Encouraging emergency planning and support of AIC-CERT

. Stolen or looted archaeological artifacts

. Potentially changing museum standards in response to environmental sustainability

It is envisioned that the position papers will be professionally edited and adopted by an AIC Board vote prior to being posted on the website. The position papers would remain posted until outdated or no longer relevant.

If you have ideas for topics, would like to participate or have suggestions or questions regarding position papers, contact Meg Craft at mcraft@thewalters.org.

Still wondering how to use social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for work purposes? Take a look at the NCPTT website entry on their use of these platforms and others. Find out how their efforts might benefit you as well.