I’m am extremely excited that I signed up to write a blog post for this Paintings Group Session at the 41st Annual Meeting for AIC: The Contemporary in Conservation this week in Indianapolis. As an emerging conservator specializing in the conservation of paintings, I found this discussion very important for our field and I was so pleased that Matthew Cushman gathered this renowned group of conservators together for the discussion. The discussion (Current Challenges and Opportunities in Paintings Conservation) was well attended and the four presentations provoked important questions and topics for group discussion. This post isn’t intended for solely paintings conservators, but for all fine art conservators, restorers, and any people looking to find out more about the preservation and future of fine art.
Fair warning: this post is going to be a long one. I found so much relevant and notable topics were mentioned and I think they all deserve to brought up. This post is a little less personal opinion and a little more regurgitation of the facts – which is great for anyone who was not able to attend the discussion. The discussion panel consisted of mediator Tiarna Doherty from the Lunder Conservation Center at the Smithsonian Art Museum, and panelists: Rustin Levenson private conservator and owner of Rustin Levenson Art Conservation Associates; Alan Phenix conservation scientist from the Getty Conservation Institute; Joyce Hill Stoner educator in paintings conservation at the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation; and Rob Proctor Co-Director and private conservator at Whitten & Proctor Fine Art Conservation.
Tiarna started the discussion with an introduction to each panelist, which was followed by a 10 minute slide-show presentation by each panelist discussing key points and topics each thought related to current trends and upcoming challenges in paintings conservation. This format acted as a starting point for the group discussion which followed. All the panelists came from different backgrounds which consisted of private, educational, institutional, and scientific positions, so different perspectives for the field of paintings conservation could be properly represented.
Continue reading “41st Annual Meeting – Paintings Session, Friday May 31, "Panel Discussion: Current Challenges and Opportunities in Paintings Conservation" by Levenson, Phenix, Hill Stoner, Proctor”
Category: Emerging Conservation Professionals
The Art Conserver: How conservation professionals make use of online resources
This blog post accompanies the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN)’s poster at AIC’s 41st Annual Meeting: The Art_Con<server>: How conservation professionals make use of online resources, which captured and analyzed preferences in our field regarding the creation and use of conservation information online. The content for the poster was generated based on a survey distributed to AIC members. In this survey, respondents were asked to rate their usage and preferences about various online resources. These resources are summarized in this post.
- AATA: This Getty-run site is “a comprehensive database of over 120,000 abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage”.
- AIC website: The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) website has resources for conservators and the public. These include academic journals, the member newsletter, and helpful guides.
- AIC Wiki: The AIC Wiki has sections for each of the specialty groups, drawing information from different resources, including the print conservation catalogs. This “platform allows for easy and timely collaborative editing and also provides much broader access to these resources, ensuring that innovative methods and materials are documented and widely disseminated to practicing conservators and conservation scientists.”
- American Alliance of Museums (AAM) Resource Center: Resources for museums include collections stewardship, financial stability, and marketing and public relations.
- Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network (BCIN): One of the “most complete bibliographic resources for the conservation, preservation and restoration of cultural property”.
- Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) website: The CCI website includes many documents and links, including resources from other Canadian heritage organizations.
- CoOL: A centralized repository covering over twenty-five preservation and conservation topics.
- CoOL DistList archives: The Conservation DistList is an email distribution list and an interdisciplinary forum open to conservators, conservation scientists, curators, librarians, archivist, administrators, and others involved in the preservation of cultural property. The archives include posts dating back to 1987.
- Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) website: The GCI site includes an e-bulletin, digital collections, a large library of free PDF versions of GCI publications, and article and research databases.
- Google Scholar: Search for scholarly work in all disciplines.
- JSTOR: A digital library of academic journals.
- National Park Service (NPS) website: The NPS has handy Conserve-O-Grams, “short, focused leaflets about caring for museum objects, published in loose-leaf format”. They cover all of the various specialty groups, as well as disaster response and collection care.
- Wikipedia: A free encyclopedia that can be edited by the public.
- WorldCat: The largest network of library content and services, WorldCat allows the user to search for libraries all over the world.
Of course there are a large number of other very useful resources for our field. What resources do you find yourself referencing most often? Do you have an interesting resource to share? Please leave comments so that others can know about them.
Collective energy: harnessing the power of community
If you ask me if I’m connected, I might at first think, well, I have a smartphone where I can access my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, my family and I share a Google calendar, so sure, I guess I’m connected. But what does it really mean to be connected? With all of these devices, apps, and programs, I find that it is becoming increasingly easier to never leave the comfort of my home or desk in order to feel like I’m an active part of a community – whether it be my neighborhood, my family, or the conservation field.
But nothing replaces the experience of connecting with other people face-to-face. Our field is experiencing some big changes, and making the effort to go to conferences each year, and even venturing a bit outside of our close-knit community, may be more valuable than ever before. By attending allied professionals meetings, I believe that we will find that this not only benefits us as individuals, but our field as a whole.
Last week I spent 2 very full days at the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) annual meeting in Baltimore and I returned feeling inspired and energized with new ideas.
This was my first time attending this meeting, and as Chair of the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN), I went on behalf of our group in an attempt to promote ECPN to the wider museum community, to connect with the AAM Emerging Museum Professionals (EMP) network, and to seek ideas and ways for ECPN to collaborate with other emerging museum professionals. In the interest of supporting the significant work of ECPN, The University of Delaware generously supported my participation.
I was fortunate to have a meeting buddy – ECPN Vice Chair Eliza Spaulding also attended the conference, and between the two of us, we sought out as many opportunities to take in all AAM had to offer. Some of the highlights included:
- A first-time attendees orientation meeting
- A one hour speed-networking event
- The Emerging Museum Professionals (EMP) reception
- One-on-one career coaching
- One-on-one resume review
- The Alliance opening party at the American Visionary Art Museum
- Keynote talk by Freeman Hrabowski, III, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) about the role of museums in inspiring future generations
And of course we attended several interesting sessions, met many new people, and had a chance to visit the booths at the MuseumExpo.
Eliza and I are excited to share some of our experiences at AAM, and how these have given us ideas for future projects, at the ECPN informational meeting during the AIC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis this week. The ECPN meeting will take place on Friday, May 31 from 5:30-6:30 pm in the JW Marriott Meeting Rooms 201-203.
We hope to see you there!
Why blog from the AIC annual meeting?
I first volunteered to blog from the AIC annual meeting 2 years ago. At that point, I didn’t really have much experience blogging, and honestly, I was a bit intimidated by the idea. I was concerned that I wouldn’t get the author(s) points across very effectively (or worse get details completely wrong) and I was also worried that my posts would be boring. A lot of the blogs that I followed were funny, clever, and insightful, and I just didn’t feel that I would be able to measure up to such standards. Finally, I just felt out of practice doing that kind of writing – being just out of graduate school, I was used to doing lots of technical writing and writing for scholarly purposes, but writing for a blog is different – you want to impart your voice and opinions, and it can be difficult to adjust to such a different format and style.
Well, I did blog from the annual meeting that year, and then blogged again last year, and I’m here to say that it isn’t all that bad. In fact, it was really worthwhile (and dare I say, fun??). Knowing that I was blogging for specific presentations made me pay attention to details I otherwise wouldn’t have, and it also made me think of capturing components of the talks that would work well in a visual presentation on the blog – photos of a poster or handout, a screenshot from the powerpoint, or an image from the conference room, etc. Blogging is also a great way to reflect on a talk and form your own opinions about the content. You don’t need to express these all in your blogpost, but ultimately, digesting a talk in a follow-up blogpost helps make that particular presentation more memorable and valuable.
Thinking about blogging from the annual meeting but unsure if you can hack it? Keep the following points in mind:
- Only sign up to blog for a presentation that you’re already planning on attending.
- Don’t worry about capturing all of the details – it’s okay to say in your blogpost that you missed something, or to even say – “did anyone else understand this particular point, or capture that particular detail?” This is a way to engage readers-some of the best blogposts are those that ask for reader feedback or ask questions.
- Start by signing up to blog for 1 presentation or event. This shouldn’t be a stressful task, and signing up for 1 blogpost will be a huge help. If you are feeling adventurous (or thirsty) AIC is offering a free drink ticket at the opening reception for the first 35 volunteers who sign up for two talks!
- Try to write up your thoughts about the talk soon after you hear it, but don’t worry about posting something right away. The goal is to have posts up in the week after the meeting – but at least organizing your thoughts sooner rather than later will make things easier on yourself.
- Think about images. If you have a camera or smartphone with you, snap a photo to include in your post. Readers always appreciate blogposts with images.
- Have fun with it! Consider taking the opportunity to follow up with the speaker or talking to other attendees about the talk, and incorporate this feedback into your post. No pressure to do this, but it could make for a more enriching experience.
- Keep it simple. Most people who read blogs don’t have a lot of time or patience to read thousands of words of content. They’re looking for quick access to information, so try to write succinctly and use headings to break up long blocks of text. Blogposts 600 words or less are typically best.
- If you do end up blogging, include this on your CV. Future potential employers will take notice, and this type of writing is also good practice for future jobs or projects where you may be asked to contribute to a blog.
If, after reading this, you think you might be interested, please check out the Google Doc Spreadsheet to see which sessions or events are in need of bloggers and to sign up:
There is a separate tab down at the bottom for each session, workshop or event. Input your name and email next to the talk you are interested in covering. Easy! Also, please leave a comment here if you have further questions, and thanks for considering this!
Spotlight on Molly Gleeson, ECPN Chair and Project Conservator of "In the Artifact Lab: Conserving Egyptian Mummies" at the Penn Museum
Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN) Chair, Molly Gleeson has been busy in her new role as Project Conservator of “In the Artifact Lab: Conserving Egyptian Mummies” at the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, PA. “In the Artifact Lab” is a collaborative project between the Penn Museum’s Conservation Department and its Egyptian Section that is both a visible conservation laboratory and exhibition that opened on September 30, 2012. To learn more about this initiative and to see some exciting press, please visit the links below. Many congratulations to Molly and her colleagues at the Penn Museum for their work on this exciting initiative!
www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/45842- at-penn-museum-unveiling-the-secrets-of-mummies-while-you-watch?
An update from the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN)
On the heels of a busy and successful 2012, 2013 is turning out to be another eventful year for the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN), with many exciting activities planned and several projects already underway. We’re also working hard to prepare for our activities at the AIC Annual Meeting in May. Here is a summary of what we have been up to and what lies ahead. You can also find out more about our network’s mission on our webpage.
ECPN at AIC’s 41st Annual Meeting in Indianapolis
Portfolio Seminar
On Wednesday, May 29th, ECPN will be holding a Portfolio Seminar from 4:00 to 6:00pm. Following the successes of ECPN’s Portfolio Review Sessions at the 2011 and 2012 AIC Annual Meetings, we are expanding the session this year to address a larger, more diverse audience and provide increased opportunities for discussion. This two-hour session will include presentations, a panel discussion, and interactive portfolio sharing. The presentations will focus on topics including building conservation portfolios, creating an architectural conservation portfolio, creating an online or digital portfolio, and professional development beyond the portfolio. The panel discussion will address audience questions, and portfolio sharing will be composed of volunteers representing different graduate programs and conservation specialties.
ECPN Happy Hour
After the Portfolio Session on May 29th, join us for an extended happy hour from 6:30 to 10:00pm at High Velocity in the JW Marriott, sponsored by Tru Vue. Our happy hour is a great opportunity to mingle with other emerging conservators, as well as mentors and colleagues. Please join us – all are welcome!
ECPN Informational Session
On Friday, May 31st, from 5:30 to 6:30pm, we will be holding our annual informational session, where you can learn about ECPN, propose and discuss ideas, and meet others in the network.
ECPN Poster
This year, ECPN is presenting a poster entitled “The Art_Con<server>:
How conservation professionals make use of online resources,” in which we will explore different viewpoints surrounding public access to conservation information and its effects on the conservation profession. The content of the poster was generated with support from the AIC Publications Committee and is based on a survey distributed to AIC members that addressed the creation and promotion of conservation content online and the accessibility of conservation literature.
In addition to ECPN’s activities, please support emerging conservators who will be presenting in the Specialty Group sessions and poster session. In addition to presentations interspersed throughout these sessions, the Architecture Specialty Group is holding a special student session on Friday, May 31st from 8:00 to 10:00am .
ECPN Webinars
In 2012, ECPN held two webinars, both of which received an outstanding response. Our first webinar – “Self-advocacy and Fundraising for Independent Research” – was held in July and featured Debra Hess Norris. This webinar attracted over 90 registered participants from 6 different countries. Our second webinar – “Considering your future career path: working in private practice” – was held in November, and 80 registered participants called in to learn valuable insight into the world of private practice from Paul Messier, Rosa Lowinger, and Julia Brennan.
ECPN is planning for our next webinar on the topic of Pre-program internships to be held in summer 2013. Webinar speakers include both emerging conservators and conservators with experience supervising interns. Stay tuned for more details. For more information on ECPN’s webinar series, please follow this link. You can also find reviews of last year’s two webinars on AIC’s blog and video content by following these links:
Self-advocacy and Fundraising webinar
Private Practice Webinar
Mentoring Program
ECPN’s Mentoring Program, which successfully matched 24 mentees with mentors since last year’s annual meeting, is undergoing a restructuring to better and more swiftly meet the needs of emerging conservators, including pre-program, graduate, and post-graduate. This will involve the creation of pre-program resources that will address common concerns, such as tips for applying to graduate school programs. To learn more about the program, or to apply to be a mentor or to find a mentor, follow this link.
AIC Wiki
This past January, ECPN officers and members actively participated in the AIC Wiki January edit-a-thon, working on the Exhibiting Conservation page and the Lexicon Project.
ECPN would also like to encourage emerging conservators to participate in the AIC Annual Meeting wiki edit-a-thon luncheon event on Friday May 31 from 12-2pm. For more details about this event please contact ECPN Chair Molly Gleeson at: mollygleeson [at] gmail [dot] com.
ECPN Liaisons
This year ECPN welcomed the following new graduate program liaisons:
Christina Simms and Christina Taylor – Buffalo State College
Mayank Patel and Brooke Young – Columbia University
Saira Haqqi – Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Samantha Fisher and Marie-Lou Beauchamp – Queen’s University
Casey Mallinckrodt – UCLA/Getty
Michelle Sullivan – Winterthur/University of Delaware
Sarah B. Hunter – University of Texas, School of Architecture
A complete list of our current liaisons can be found on our webpage.
These are just a few of the activities that ECPN is engaged in. We encourage you to join us at our annual meeting events, or on one of our conference calls! If you have any questions, ideas, or would like to get involved, please leave a comment here or contact Eliza Spaulding, ECPN Vice Chair, at elizaspaulding [at] gmail [dot] com.
Portfolios and career transitions: pre-program, graduate, and post-graduate portfolio tips
The following article was written by Suzanne Davis and posted on her behalf by Carrie Roberts. Suzanne Davis is Associate Curator of Conservation at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, and a member of the Education and Training Committee of AIC. Suzanne will be speaking on the subject of conservation portfolios at ECPN’s Portfolio Seminar at AIC’s 41st Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 starting at 4PM.
I can still remember the satisfaction of creating my portfolio in graduate school. This was before digital photography or Adobe Photoshop, and the black cloth-covered binder is filled with slides, black and white photographs (that I printed myself in my school’s cramped dark room), and intricate hand-drawn condition diagrams. Sixteen years later, this binder sits on the bookshelves just above my desk at work, and I still like to look at it sometimes.
Your portfolio is a representation of your identity as a conservator and scholar, so it’s a good idea to be constructive and discriminating in the way you assemble and use it. Typically it’s most useful early in your career, at a time when you might feel pressure to showcase every conservation experience you’ve ever had. But it can serve you best if you’re selective. Think about what you want a review committee to notice, and which experiences you want to highlight. Make it work for you.
If you’re applying to a graduate program, the admissions committee will be concerned with your academic ability in addition to your pre-program conservation experience. If you’ve undertaken research projects in conservation or a related field like art history or archaeology, feature these! The committee will also be looking to see if your research and career interests are a good fit for their program. How does your portfolio demonstrate this? At this stage in your career, your portfolio should clearly reflect your academic identity, interests, and your potential to succeed as student and professional.
Once in graduate school, it’s most helpful to think about your vision for your future. Knowing what kind of job you’d ultimately like to have will help you shape your graduate experience, choose classes and internships, and create a useful portfolio. Talk to conservators who have the kind of job you’d like. Try to intern with them, if possible. Learn what do they do every day, and what experiences and skills they value. What would they want a prospective employee to feature in a portfolio?
When using your portfolio to apply for post-graduate fellowships and jobs, it’s important that it reflect the full range of your experience. Many portfolios that I see for young conservators focus almost exclusively on conservation treatments and technical studies. But treatment is only one small piece of what most professional conservators do on a daily basis, and technical research is an even smaller component. Preventive conservation knowledge is very important, as is the ability to assess condition, prioritize work, and manage projects. The same is true for communication skills and working with students and volunteers. Experience with outreach and education activities is also good. As you read a fellowship or job description, think about ways to use your portfolio to highlight the skills and experience that the employer seeks.
When presenting your portfolio in an interview, it’s useful to pre-select the projects you’ll discuss. If it will be reviewed in your absence, indicate the projects you’d like reviewers to turn to first. The portfolio should be well-organized, with a table of contents and tabs that will make different sections easy to find. Consider including short project summaries to give readers a quick overview of each experience. Too much information can be overwhelming, so think about removing projects that are not relevant and do not contribute to the overall message you want to communicate. Many prospective employers will expect a presentation in addition to or in place of the portfolio, so spend some time thinking about how to translate the experience captured in your portfolio into an engaging talk.
Finally – and this is very important – don’t focus on your portfolio to the neglect of other application components. An interview and portfolio review is usually the very last step in a selection process. Without a well-crafted curriculum vitae and cover letter or personal statement, no one is ever likely to see your amazing portfolio. Good luck!
ECPN’s Portfolio Seminar is a FREE event for AIC’s 41st Annual Meeting attendees and will cover topics including ideas for building your portfolio, digital portfolios, and ‘beyond the portfolio’ topics like application materials and networking.
If you are a conservation student or recent graduate and are interested in sharing your portfolio during the ECPN Portfolio Seminar, please contact Carrie Roberts at carrizabel@gmail.com.
ECPN December Meeting Minutes
ECPN MEETING MINUTES
Monday 17 December 2012
Attendees:
Molly Gleeson (Chair)
Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)
Angela Curmi (Communications)
Anisha Gupta (co-Outreach)
Genevieve Bieniosek (Student Liaison, ETC)
Megan Salazar-Walsh (co-Outreach Coordinator)
Carrie Roberts (co-Professional Education and Training)
Gwen Manthey (co-Professional Education and Training)
Mina Thompson (OSG Chair)
Emily Williams (ETC Chair)
Ryan Winfield (AIC Staff Liaison)
1. November Meeting Minutes Approved
2. Portfolio Seminar – updates and planning
- Gwen and Carrie have invited the speakers and heard back from all but 2. They have commitments from a few and others have expressed interest. They will follow-up with those they have not yet heard back from. The schedule has been planned.
- An email has also been sent out to the grad program liaisons and an invitation posted on the blog and facebook for portfolio presenters. So far, 1 student from Winterthur, 1 from Buffalo, and 1 from Northumbria have responded. Gwen and Carrie will re-visit this after the new year and maybe try a more grassroots approach. It will also depend on students’ academic schedules.
- Molly asked if, for the more formal presentations, we have speakers for all topics. Carrie said that Suzanne Davis is interested in the “beyond the portfolio” topic. Gwen will be speaking about building the portfolio. Cher Schneider will be speaking about digital portfolios. They will now focus on finding someone for the networking/ interviews topic.
- Molly asked Gwen if she had reached out to Richard McCoy, and Gwen said that he was interested but couldn’t commit at this time. She is now thinking of Kathleen Kiefer.Gwen thinks Kathleen would be good for this topic, but is less familiar with her work in outreach. While the topic should be defined, Gwen is also trying to keep the invitation a bit loose so the speakers can bring their own ideas to it. Speakers should be finalized by mid- to late January.
Blog post on portfolios
- Emily Williams asked if ECPN would be willing to recruit an employer and an educator to write a blog post on portfolios (the idea came up because they are re-doing the ETC education webpages). Molly suggested we ask 2 or more of the people involved in this session to write the post. Emily recommended Suzanne Davis. Carrie and Gwen will talk to her about this. And as soon as the speakers are finalized, they will ask about the blog post; however, we don’t have any educators among the speakers. Molly said we moved away from this because we didn’t want to invite someone from just one program. Gwen suggested that perhaps in the blogpost, it can be phrased as the viewpoint of an educator from a particular program. Emily recommended that rather than have just 1 educator for the blogpost, we approach all the programs (because there do seem to be differences) – Suzanne might be willing to help with this – and talk to several employers so that it’s not just 1 person’s opinion but a synthesis. Anisha suggested we create a survey to send out to the programs and streamline the information, then write a blogpost based on the results. Everyone agreed this was a good idea.
- Molly will schedule a call in January to discuss the portfolio session and poster.
3. Webinar Q&A plans, feedback
- Thank you to Eliza, Anisha, Ryan, and everyone who helped make the webinar possible. It was a huge success.
- A follow-up Q&A is planned (using google hangout) for tomorrow morning at 11. There are 15 questions. Anisha will moderate the Q&A and Eliza will also be on the call. Each speaker has arbitrarily been given 5 questions. They will try to get through the questions as fast as possible (approx. 4 minutes each). The google hangout will be recorded and uploaded to youtube. Anisha said that the only issue is that it will be uploaded to her account if she records it. Molly asked if Ryan wanted the Q&A to be uploaded to AIC’s account. Ryan will discuss with Anisha later today.
- Eliza asked Ryan if he was able to locate the recording of the program. Ryan responded that he had not, but he had emailed Eric about it and will ask him again today. It looked like it was saved on someone’s desktop or hard-drive, not within the account itself.
- Eliza asked everyone about the audio quality. Carrie said it was great, but there was a bit of a lag between video and audio, though it didn’t disturb her at all. Not everyone saw the lag. Angela said it would be nice to go back and forth between powerpoint and live video. Eliza said we can try this in future and are gradually adding more technology to our toolkit.
4. Next webinar – topic, dates
- Molly asked if we could have one more webinar before the annual meeting, sometime in the next 2-3 months. She will start a basecamp discussion on possible topics. Anisha thinks it is feasible. Though it was a lot of work, she never felt overwhelmed because the work was divided, and it resulted in a great discussion. Ryan agreed that it is more than worth the work and is great programming. Although it’s simpler with 1 speaker, the interaction between multiple speakers makes it worthwhile. Everyone agreed having 3 speakers was great, as opinions were varied, the speakers were able to feed off of each other, and the pressure is off each individual, which makes it less daunting to commit to.
- Regarding topics, there is a lot of discussion lately on paid vs. unpaid internships (Rose Cull suggested this when she was chair). Molly asked how we can tackle this for a webinar in a constructive way. Everyone agreed this is a good idea and that it would be great to turn this into a constructive conversation. Molly will start a basecamp discussion – we will think about how to tackle this topic, what format it will take, and what kind of involvement everyone would like to have.
5. Mentoring program – updates, next steps
- Over the past month Eliza has been able to make matches here and there and follow-up with people (for the 3-month follow-up on how mentorships are going). The latest group of mentee/mentor candidates included 9 mentee applications and 11 mentor applications (there are more mentors than mentees for the first time.) She would like to work on making those matches. Broader changes to the program have also been discussed and we can continue talking about this. Gwen and Carrie were not on the last call but can find the discussion in the minutes. Eliza asked Gwen how she felt about leading the match process with her assistance. Gwen feels comfortable taking it on with Eliza’s guidance. Carrie will take on the responsibility of the second officer (for the general resource).
- Ryan explained that the new database/ website has a member-matching tool, so you can set up criteria for people to fill out and the system will automatically match them based on the criteria. So a lot of the arcane matching process using spreadsheets won’t be necessary anymore – it can be handled automatically through the website. This will launch when the new website is launched.
- Eliza will follow-up with Gwen and Carrie about the changes to the program.
6. Wiki edit-a-thon in January and at annual meeting; Grad program liaisons – tie-in with Wiki event in January
- The Wiki edit-a-thon is in January. They’re also organizing a live edit-a-thon at the annual meeting and we should try to get emerging conservators involved. Molly will be speaking to Rachael and Emily Williams about the PR Toolkit later today. We may want to work on the toolkit during the January edit-a-thon. Molly also asked for ideas for the live session and getting emerging conservators’ input for the wiki. One idea Rachael has is to contact grad programs (through the liaisons) and find out what they think they can contribute and if professors are willing to let them put coursework on the wiki.
- Megan agreed it would be good to get students involved. Students will be on break in January, so they will have more time to contribute. But faculty members might be hesitant to put course material on there.
- Molly suggested sending out a few questions to the liaisons – have they contributed to the wiki? What do they think they can contribute? Would their programs be interested?
- Molly will get a list of topics from Rachael that she’s hoping to have fleshed out so that we don’t leave it too open – some are topics students may be working on in their courses. We should also be proactive in pairing up emerging conservators with more experienced conservators through the wiki (like a mentorship). Megan and Molly will work together on a letter to send the grad liaisons and will reach out to them in January.
7. Student representation
Letters have been sent to most SG chairs about student representation and supporting students at the annual meeting. Mina responded and is interested. Molly will reach out to the rest of the chairs within the week.
8. Next conference call:
2nd or 4th Monday in February, with a few project-specific calls in January (one about the annual meeting). Molly will follow-up.
Two summer Internships at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in objects conservation
A summer internship program has been launched at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar Hazy center in the brand new Emil Buehler laboratory located in Chantilly VA. Two, 10-week internship positions are available for students currently enrolled in a recognized training program, and/ or advance pre-program individuals with over 1,000 hrs of documented work experience. The two internships offered have specific research components (see descriptions below), in addition to providing hands-on treatments of modern materials.
Description of research for the first internship:
Research on the Aluminum Alloy Disconnects of Spacesuit gloves in the NASM Collection:
A conservation intern is required to assist NASM Conservation staff with primary research on the corrosion and conservation of aluminum alloy glove disconnects related to the space program. The intern will work in a team with NASM conservator Lisa Young, Malcolm Collum (Chief of Conservation), and the curator of the collection. The research will involve hands-on analysis and testing as well as literature searches, contact with industry experts and collaboration with Smithsonian conservators and scientists when deemed necessary.
Contact Lisa Young: YoungLA [at] si [dot] edu with questions regarding this research.
Description of research for the second internship:
Research consolidants and application methods for deteriorating polyurethane foam in the NASM collection:
A conservation intern is requested to collaborate with NASM Conservation staff in the evaluation of treatment methodologies for deteriorating polyurethane foam. This material is found as a component in many composite artifacts in the NASM collection and recent advances have identified new materials to help preserve polyurethane foam. The selected intern would be responsible for conducting hands-on testing and analysis complimented by literature searches and evaluation methods. The intern will work in a team with NASM conservator Lauren Horelick, Malcolm Collum (Chief of Conservation), curators and materials scientists. The intern will have access to other Smithsonian conservators and scientists when deemed necessary.
Contact Lauren Horelick: Horelickl [at] si [dot] edu with any questions regarding this research.
Start / end dates: Monday, June 3-Friday, August 9, 2013.
Funded amount: $ 5,500.00 available for each intern.
Deadline for application: February, 15 2013
Procedure for application: All applications must be submitted on-line through the Smithsonian’s SOLAA web-site. After creating a username find the link to “Internships” and use the drop down menu for the Air and Space Museum (NASM) for further information about applying. Please specify in your statement of purpose which internship you are applying for. Also, please notify either Lauren Horelick or Lisa Young when you have completed your application so we can be sure it arrives at the correct place.
*Individuals not currently enrolled in school are welcome to apply. Disregard this eligibility requirement on the SOLAA website.
Questions: Application questions should be directed to Myra Banks-Scott: BanksScottM [at] si [dot] edu
First Annual Graduate Symposium for Students of Conservation and Preservation (GSSCP)
Call for papers!
The students of the UCLA/Getty Master’s Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials invite you to the first annual Graduate Symposium for Students of Conservation and Preservation (GSSCP). This is a FREE, half-day, student-run symposium for graduate students of conservation, preservation, heritage studies, and related fields to be held on the UCLA Campus in Los Angeles, CA on April 27, 2013.* This symposium aims to encourage a conference of ideas, experiences, and observations between different fields engaged in the promotion and management of cultural properties, sites, materials, and values. The deadline for paper submissions has been extended to February 1st. Please follow this link for more details.
*The timing of the symposium coincides with the final day of the Association of North American Graduate Programs in Conservation (ANAGPIC) Annual Meeting, held at the Getty Villa and UCLA from April 25- 27, 2013.