Category: AIC/FAIC Announcements

That nutty old Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Preservation is sponsoring a moot court competition on national cultural heritage law at DePaul University. The web site reads:

Registration info is available on their site, or contact chmoot@depaul.edu

October is National Arts and Humanities Month (NAHM). Be one of the thousands of communities and millions of people throughout the United States who celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month every year.

NAHM is a coast-to-coast collective celebration of culture in America. Held every October and coordinated by Americans for the Arts, it is the largest annual celebration of the arts and humanities in the nation. From arts center open houses to mayoral proclamations to banners and media coverage, communities across the United States join together to recognize the importance of arts and culture in our daily lives.

Information about NAHM events can be found at www.americansforthearts.org.

AIC is pleased to announce the launch of a new collaborative wiki website, based on the specialty group Catalogs. The site, www.conservation-wiki.com, was made possible by a generous grant from the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT).

In 2008, FAIC was awarded $23,000 from the NCPTT to convert the Conservation Catalogs to wiki format. The Catalogs are reference manuals that include descriptions of materials and techniques used to preserve and treat works of art and historic artifacts.

The print Catalogs have now been converted into digital format on the wiki. The site is based on the MediaWiki platform, software that was designed for Wikipedia. The wiki version of the Catalogs will allow editors to work collaboratively and efficiently to update and augment the Catalogs, and will provide much broader access to these resources, ensuring that innovative methods and materials are documented and widely disseminated to practicing conservators and conservation scientists. While only the designated specialty group editors can directly edit the wiki entries, other visitors to the site can register and post relevant comments on selections.

If you would like to get involved with the wiki Catalogs, or if you would like to start a new catalog entry, contact your specialty group chair.

The Cons DistList has been reactivated, now operated by AIC. A new posting went out to subscribers on Friday, September 18. Following is the welcome from Eryl Wentworth included in the message:

“On behalf of the Board and staff of the American Institute for Conservation and its Foundation, I want to welcome you back to the Conservation DistList and Conservation OnLine (CoOL). I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and support over the last few months as we assumed responsibility for these vital resources and set them up on a new server. Our deep appreciation also goes to Walter Henry and John Burke for the time and energy they have invested in ensuring the continuation of the

DistList and CoOL.

While much of the initial setup is now complete and the DistList has been reactivated, we ask that you continue to bear with us as we complete the task of configuring the additional email lists, archives, and websites associated with CoOL. We are committed to maintaining and improving these invaluable resources into the future.

You will now find the CoOL website located at http://cool.conservation-us.org

Please visit the site for updates on the DistList and other CoOL-related materials.

I also encourage you to visit AIC’s recently re-designed main

website at http://www.conservation-us.org to learn more about our activities.

Eryl P. Wentworth

Executive Director

American Institute for Conservation of Historic and

Artistic Works (AIC)

Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation (FAIC)

Dear AIC Members / CoOL & DistList Communitiy,

Following is an update regarding the status of the Conservation DistList and Conservation Online (CoOL).

Walter Henry and John Burke, who have been working tirelessly on this project, have made significant strides towards the goal of returning all the above materials to active status at a new server location. Successes include the physical transfer of the server machines which have contained these resources from Stanford Libraries to TDL, a California-based web hosting company. Now that the new location of CoOL is settled, Walter and John are engaged in reconfiguring each of the complex pieces that comprise it. Much of the CoOL site is now active online, including the DistList archive (other listserv archives are not yet available). We are currently still in the process of setting up other materials including AIC specialty group websites, the JAIC online archive, and other associated web sites.

In the meantime, please be aware that the email listservs for AIC and other groups associated with CoOL are still active – feel free to continue using them. The DistList is not yet back to regular postings – when it is, messages will be posted to announce its return and to inform you how to resume submitting material for inclusion in future postings. The new URL location of CoOL will also be announced when the site is complete.

We hope to have all the above materials back to normal, active status as quickly as possible. Due to the number of resources included with CoOL, which have grown in size and complexity over the course of 20 years, additional time is needed to complete the process of protecting them for the future. If you have any questions, please let us know by emailing coolinfo@conservation-us.org.

– The Board and Staff of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works, coolinfo@conservation-us.org

NEW IDEAS FOR CONTROLLING COLLECTIONS ENVIRONMENTS

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: STEWARDSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY presented by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, Philadelphia, PA

November 12, 2009

This one-day workshop will explore new approaches to controlling environmental conditions in cultural institutions. Leading experts in the field James Reilly, Director, Image Permanence Institute; Michael C. Henry, PE, AIA, Principal Engineer/Architect, Watson & Henry Associates; and Richard L. Kerschner, Director of Preservation and Conservation, Shelburne Museum, will present strategies that are feasible, physically and financially, to preserve collections materials for the long-term.

Topics to be covered will include:

The Collections Environment

Understanding the Building/Climate Relationship

New Approaches and Best Practices for Environmental Control

Environmental Monitoring and Data Analysis

This program is intended for staff of cultural heritage organizations responsible for monitoring and managing environmental conditions for collections, including registrars, facilities managers, archivists, librarians, curators, collections managers, and stewards of historic house museums.

Program Fee: $85 for CCAHA members/$100 for non-members.

Major funding for this program is generously provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Philadelphia Foundation, and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

Hosted and cosponsored by The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA

For more information and to register online, go to

http://guest.cvent.com/i.aspx?…4ac9-8b82-6518165f4b74

Still have questions? Visit our Education Program Calendar at www.ccaha.org, call 215-545-0613 or email pso@ccaha.org.

Please mark your calendars for the 2nd International Mountmakers Forum to be held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC on May 5-6, 2010.

The Forum will follow and expand on the groundwork laid by the first Forum, held at the Getty in 2008, by offering one day of talks relating to the principles, application and research of mountmaking for museum objects followed by a second full day of tours of exhibit fabrication workshops and related exhibits at various Smithsonian museums and support sites.

The Forum will once again be free of charge, but registration will be required. All presenters and attendees will be responsible for their own transportation, meals and hotel accommodations. More detailed information will be sent in a few months.

Please direct any inquiries to:

Shelly Uhlir

Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian

Cultural Resources Center

Suitland, MD 20746

301.238.1417 phone

301.238.3201 fax

uhlirs@si.edu

AIC is working to help the newly formed National Institute for the Preservation of Iraqi Cultural Heritage in Erbil as a critical component for rebuilding Iraq’s cultural heritage professional capability. The Institute will carry out training in conservation, museum management, historic preservation and archaeology. With the help of AIC and its membership, we are hoping to put together a library for the Institute in Erbil, Iraq.

AIC members Jessica Johnson, Ruth Norton, and other partners have put together an initial list of books for the library and we are soliciting donations. The University of Delaware, one of the partners with the Institute, is collecting the books for shipment. Each book will have a book plate added indicating who donated the book in English, Arabic, and Kurdish. Please check your personal libraries for any of these books you are willing to part with and if you have others that were not on the list but you think would be useful to the Institute, we will gratefully accept these as well.

Read more about this story and view a list of the books needed>>

AIC, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Heritage Preservation, and the Art Conservation Department of Buffalo State College, State University of New York, recently organized the fourth in the series of IMLS forums in the Connecting to Collections National Tour. The forum took place on June 16 and 17 in Buffalo, New York, at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. A webcast of the forum is now available online>>

Of particular note: listen to the excellent keynote address (5:20) presented by Maxwell L. Anderson, FAIC Board Member and the Melvin and Bren Simon Director and CEO of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  The title is “Prioritizing Conservation in our Disposable Culture” and is an important message to us all.

Having reviewed a proposal from AIC and following several discussions, Stanford University Libraries has agreed that AIC will be given responsibility for CoOL and the Conservation DistList. The transfer of content from the Stanford servers will take place immediately with expert guidance from Walter Henry, John Burke, and technicians at Stanford.

Our first goal is to have the DistList operational as soon as possible. Watch for one or more announcements on the DistList for periodic updates regarding the resumption of activity. Other CoOL resources will come online under new URLs as expeditiously as possible. Discussions with allied and affiliate organizations will continue.

AIC is pleased to be entrusted with these invaluable resources and for the opportunity to sustain and develop them into the future. Our goal is to keep CoOL and the DistList safe, viable, objective, and accessible for the conservation community worldwide.

Please note that the DistList is not yet accepting submissions or new registrations. Comments or questions can be sent to coolinfo@conservation-us.org.

Thank you for your support of this major initiative.

– AIC Executive Director Eryl Wentworth and the AIC Board of Directors