Category: Emerging Conservation Professionals

We are happy to introduce the officers of Emerging Conservation Professionals Network for the 2017-2018 term! We are grateful for the dedication and service of ECPN’s outgoing officers Jessica Walthew, Kimi Taira, and Alexa Beller; our AIC Board Liaison Stephanie Lussier; and our Regional, Graduate Program, Specialty Group, and Committee liaisons; and our outgoing Chair, Michelle Sullivan. We wish you all the best and hope to see you involved in future AIC and ECPN initiatives!

2016-17 and 2017-18 ECPN Officers at the 2017 Annual Meeting in Chicago

Back row (left to right): Caitlin Richeson, Jen Munch, Eve Mayberger, Michelle Sullivan, Kat Fanning, and Stephanie Lussier (AIC Board Liaison)

Front row (left to right): Kimi Taira, Alexa Beller, Jessica Walthew, Rebecca Gridley, and Kari Rayner

Meet the 2017-2018 ECPN Officers:

Rebecca Gridley, Chair
Rebecca holds a BA in Art History from Yale University, and an MS in Conservation and MA in Art History & Archaeology from the Conservation Center, The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. She is currently an Assistant Conservator in the Objects Conservation Department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she completed her internship year placement. She has also held graduate internships at The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, The Frick Collection, and the American Museum of Natural History. Before graduate school she worked in private practices in Chicago and New York. She previously served for ECPN as Vice Chair (2016-17) and Communications Co-Officer (2015-16).

Kari Rayner, Vice Chair
Kari graduated with a BA in Art History and a second major in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University. She holds an MA in Art History and Advanced Certificate in Art Conservation with a specialization in paintings conservation from the Conservation Center, the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Kari interned during her graduate studies at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne, Germany; and Modern Art Conservation in New York, NY. She completed a post-graduate internship at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge University from 2015-2016 and has since returned to the National Gallery of Art as a Mellon Fellow in Paintings Conservation. This is Kari’s second year serving ECPN.

Emma Schmitt, Professional Education and Training Co-Officer
Emma Schmitt graduated from the College of Wooster in 2010 with a BA in Archaeology. She attended the Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History at the University of Glasgow (2012-2014). During this time she interned at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford UK, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Glasgow Museums, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Upon returning to the US, she worked for Windsor Conservation and was The Andrew W Mellon Fellow in Textile Conservation at The Denver Art Museum (2015-2017). This is Emma’s second year serving ECPN.

Kat Fanning, Professional Education and Training Co-Officer
Kat is currently a Preservation Associate at the Center for Jewish History. She holds a BA in Art History with a minor in Chemistry from Southern Connecticut State University. In 2011, she was a pre-program intern in the Guggenheim’s Conservation Lab. Kat is in the process of completing her MSLIS with certification in Conservation and Digital Curation from Pratt Institute’s School of Information. She recently completed a Conservation and Digital Curation Fellowship in the library department of the American Museum of Natural History (2016/2017). She also volunteers in the New Jersey Room at the Jersey City Free Public Library. This will be Kat’s first year serving ECPN.

Jen Munch, Webinar Coordinator
Jen is a second year graduate fellow at Buffalo State College, focusing on the conservation of paintings. This past summer, Jen completed a summer paintings conservation internship at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Prior to graduate school, Jen gained conservation experience at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, the private practice Rika Smith-McNally and Associates and the Conservation & Maintenance Program of the Cambridge, MA Arts Council. Previously, Jen served as an ECPN Regional Liaison to Boston (2015-16).

Evelyn (Eve) Mayberger, Outreach Co-Officer
Eve holds a B.A. in Art History with a concentration in Asian Art from Wesleyan University (2010). In 2016, Eve graduated with a M.A. and M.S. degrees in art history and conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University where she specialized in objects conservation. She has worked in the conservation departments of the Olin Library at Wesleyan University, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Historic Odessa Foundation, Small Collections Library at the University of Virginia, National Museum of the American Indian, Worcester Art Museum, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (fourth-year internship). In addition to museum work, Eve has participated in excavations at Sardis (Turkey), Selinunte (Sicily), and Abydos (Egypt). Currently, Eve is the Mellon fellowship at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. This is Eve’s second year serving ECPN.

Caitlin Richeson, Outreach Co-Officer
Caitlin holds a BFA in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the Maryland Institute College of Art (2012). She is currently a graduate fellow in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, majoring in objects conservation with a minor in preventive conservation. She has completed internships or contracting work with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Navel History and Heritage Command’s Archaeology and Conservation Lab. This summer she will be in Potomac, Maryland interning with Glenstone. This is Caitlin’s first year serving as the Outreach Co-officer.

Alyssa Rina, Communications Co-Officer
Alyssa graduated with a B.F.A. in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of Visual Arts (2013) and worked at Jim Kempner Fine Art in Chelsea before discovering art conservation and becoming a pre-program student. Since then, she has studied Chemistry, French, and additional studio courses in ceramics, mold making, three-dimensional printing, and book binding. Alyssa has completed pre-program jobs and internships at Linda Francavilla Paper Conservation, The Better Image, Cultural Preservation and Restoration, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Alyssa will begin two pre-program summer internships at The Historic Odessa Foundation and in the paintings lab at Winterthur. Alyssa is most interested in object conservation, but continues to seek opportunities that will diversify her experience across most conservation specialties. This is Alyssa’s second year serving ECPN.

James Riley Cruttenden, Communications Co-Officer
Riley is an MLitt candidate and a US-UK Fulbright Award recipient in the Technical Art History program at the University of Glasgow. Riley received a BFA in sculpture from the Ohio State University where he later returned for studies in chemistry and for a pre-program internship with the university’s Library Conservation Unit. He has contributed to research on mass spectrometry with Ohio State University’s Badu Research Group and recently researched historic molds and plaster casts in the Archives and Collections of the Glasgow School of Art. He is currently conducting a technical examination of four British-made, 19th century ship models at the Rijksmuseum and will begin a six-month pre-program conservation internship at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in the fall of 2017. Riley is especially interested in the conservation of objects and in analytic methods for cultural heritage research, and he looks forward to applying to graduate programs in conservation in the near future. This is Riley’s first year serving ECPN.

ECPN would like to congratulate Molly Gleeson, a former ECPN Chair, on her election to the AIC Board of Directors. In this role, Molly will serve as ECPN’s Board Liaison.

Molly Gleeson, AIC Board Director for Professional Education
Molly is the Schwartz Project Conservator at the Penn Museum. Since 2012 Molly has worked in the museum’s open conservation lab, which was recently renamed “The Artifact Lab: Conservation in Action.” In the Artifact Lab, she treats artifacts in full public view, interacts with museum visitors daily, blogs about the ongoing work in the lab, and regularly gives presentations about conservation. Prior to the Penn Museum, Molly worked on contract in Southern California and as a Research Associate on the UCLA and Getty Conservation Institute feather research project. She completed her M.A. in 2008 at the UCLA/Getty Master’s Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials. Molly is a Professional Associate member of AIC and is the current co-chair of the Archaeological Discussion Group (ADG). She previously served for 2 years as the Chair of the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN).

Once again, we would like to thank those who have dedicated their time and efforts to working on ECPN projects this past term! In looking forward to the 2017-18 term, we hope that our ongoing projects and new initiatives will continue to provide valuable resources for pre-program candidates, graduate students, and emerging conservation professionals.

During the month leading up to ECPN’s webinar “Picking Up the Pieces: Accepting, Preventing, and Learning from Mistakes as an Emerging Conservation Professional,” which took place on April 7, 2017, ECPN disseminated a survey over various conservation listservs and the ECPN Facebook page. The purpose of this survey was to increase transparency regarding mistakes and inspire a dialogue on this subject in the field. Responses were requested for the following prompts:

• “Please describe a conservation-related mistake or setback you have experienced, and how you responded to, managed, and ultimately resolved this issue.”
• “What did you learn from this experience?”
• “How have you taken precautions to avoid the reoccurrence of this mistake?”

Sincere thanks to the individuals who participated in this survey! Twelve responses were received, with the majority of respondents choosing to remain anonymous. These answers contained some incredibly valuable pieces of advice and words of wisdom. If we look at these submissions through the lens of different categories of error, as webinar presenter Michele Marincola discussed, one response fit into the category of rule-or knowledge-based error, an “error of ignorance”; two responses fit into the category of “setback”; and nine responses fit into the category of “errors of execution – errors of planning or performance.”

An “error of ignorance” is a type of mistake that involves the lack of knowledge or skill required to complete a task, often complicated by a bias towards what has worked in the past. The case recorded in the survey described inappropriately transferring a treatment procedure learned from textile dry-cleaning methods to a birchbark basket. The author noted that this incident occurred approximately thirty years ago and pointed to the danger of becoming over-confident in one’s knowledge. As Michele mentioned during the webinar, this is precisely the sort of mistake that tends to happen more commonly in the early stages of one’s career, but the rapidly expanding knowledge base in conservation can make us all susceptible to this type of error.

For the two setbacks, the first response described multiple attempts applying to conservation graduate schools, and the second addressed difficulty with managing client expectations. Both of these examples stress the importance of communication, having a realistic perspective, and staying mentally flexible.

The rest of the responses dealt specifically with mistakes made during treatment. “Errors of execution” is a category that indicates a situation where the conservation professional knew how to execute a treatment step, but failed to do so for whatever reason. Of these types of responses, two involved instances of misplaced tacks damaging paintings, and two involved damage to artwork due to impact from nearby equipment (a microscope in one case, and a camera setup in the other). Another involved failing to properly secure the artwork itself. These are not uncommon errors and could all be considered errors of planning, in which proper precautions would have mitigated the risk of damage occurring. Isabelle Brajer states in her article “Taking the Wrong Path,” that “collective errors often have more impact on our profession, largely because of increased exposure.”[1] It is acknowledging the prevalence of this sort of mistake that allows us to develop preventive rules of thumb: for example, collecting tacks in a jar, or always tying paintings to an easel. Some of the other mistakes took the form of errors of execution: a chisel slipping when removing plaster from a stone relief; unintentionally dissolving part of a paper artifact weakened by mold; or grabbing the wrong bottle when preparing an epoxy.

One respondent mentioned feeling stressed at the time of the error and subsequently developed strategies for slowing down, focusing, and mentally preparing to approach a treatment. Individuals generally described themselves as “devastated” or “horrified” when these instances occurred, but it was acknowledged that the mistakes were valuable learning experiences.

Other thought-provoking and impactful excerpts from the responses are listed below:

“You may think you won’t drop that tool, spill a solvent, or lose track of your tacks. I believe it’s safer to assume you will do all of those things and more. Anything that can go wrong probably has gone wrong for someone and it could easily go wrong for you. It’s not defeatist to acknowledge the commonality of human error and take appropriate preventive measures.”

“Sadly, one remembers one’s mistakes more vividly than one’s successes.”

“I think many of us have a strong inner voice we hear or a feeling that we have right before something goes wrong. This incident made me learn to listen to that voice, and know that when I ‘hear’ it, I need to put down my tool and stop for a moment.”

“We put so much effort into avoiding mistakes that sometimes we forget to acknowledge they exist. I think that can lead to an unfortunate dichotomy between the theory and reality of how we will react to those situations.”

“I spent many, many years focusing on my treatment work, and neglected to get out there and meet colleagues, write, speak, share. I regret that for many reasons. So I would say that an important part of your professional life is to reach out, in whatever way feels right for you. Mentoring, outreach, committee involvement. There may be periods in your life when you are sidelined from treatment work, and you will be glad for the other avenues.”

As Tony Sigel, another of the webinar presenters, mentioned in his response to a question about reluctance to discuss mistakes, both individuals and the profession must be willing to change for this attitude to shift. Redefining the culture in conservation to enable free discussion of mistakes and setbacks can only happen one conservation professional at a time, and I would like to commend these individuals who were willing to share their experiences!

Please visit ECPN’s post on Conservators Converse following up on the webinar for Q&A and Further Resources.

[1] Brajer, Isabelle. 2009. “Taking the wrong path: learning from oversights, misconceptions,failures and mistakes in conservation. Examples from Wall Painting Conservation in Denmark.” CeROArt 3: L’errer, la faute, le faux. Accessed 2017.

ECPN’s webinar “Picking Up the Pieces: Accepting, Preventing, and Learning from Mistakes as an Emerging Conservation Professional” took place on April 7, 2017 and featured presentations by Ayesha Fuentes, Geneva Griswold, Michele Marincola, and Tony Sigel. Please see the previous blog post announcing the webinar for more extensive biographies of our speakers, and visit AIC’s YouTube Channel for the full recording of the webinar. Many thanks to the speakers, my fellow ECPN officers, and the AIC board and staff who made this program possible!

Several questions from viewers could not be addressed during the webinar due to time constraints; however, the panelists have generously answered them here. This post also includes an extended bibliography and further resources. A supplemental blog post will discuss the responses to the survey ECPN disseminated requesting stories of mistakes and setbacks.

Q&A

How would you suggest opening a dialogue with your supervisor about mistake-making at the outset of a pre-program or graduate internship? How can you initiate a discussion about how to respond and what sort of institutional protocol to follow in the case of an accident?

Michele Marincola: Since this can be an unfamiliar or even awkward topic to broach, I suggest mentioning/describing the webinar and how it prompted you to think about mistake-making in an internship. Then ask if the company or institution has a preferred protocol to follow in the event an accident with an artwork occurs. Most museums have an Accident Report form that the security department initiates – this form may or may not be sufficient. In addition, not all mistakes cause visible damage, and the ideal protocol to follow might be a discussion rather than a form to fill out. Your question could be a great way to open the dialogue and effect positive change!

Doctors long ago instituted what are called M&Ms (Morbidity and Mortality reviews) after a patient in their care dies. They admit failure to their colleagues in order to teach and learn. Over the decades of my career conservators have shown consistent resistance to the discussion of treatment failures. I think there must be some powerful forces acting upon us that we haven’t discussed. What might they be? Could one possibility be that there is a kind of profession-wide fear of shaming that has prevented individual conservators from doing what this webinar attempted, to learn from failure? 

Tony Sigel: I think “shaming” is both too harsh, and too simple a term to describe the issue. The reasons why conservators are reluctant to discuss and acknowledge mistakes are many, and start with simple human nature—when your job is to preserve and protect works of cultural property, it is very difficult to admit that you have caused harm. An unwillingness to confront and admit mistakes is true of most people–in all professions. Modern science and ethics-based art and artifact conservation is relatively young as a profession, and from birth has fought to create its own identity separate from the disdained practice of restoration, and the depredations of unlettered previous restorers.

The conservator is the standard bearer of a new profession, and the pressure is great to be an authority, translating modern “science-based” conservation to owners, curators, archaeologists, to be able to answer all questions and consistently carry out treatments, to create safe environments, and the myriad other duties that are involved. Add to that normal human ego, the fear of possibly losing one’s position and livelihood, and, within the profession, the lack of a culture and organized structures that allow examination and discussion of setbacks and errors, and you have a broader view of the situation.

Error is an unavoidable and normal consequence of human endeavor, but is essential to its development. To solve our particular problem, both individual conservators, and the profession must be willing to change our culture and restructure itself, perhaps by creating appropriate venues to acknowledge these valuable lessons, learn from them, and encourage discussion.

The examples of mistakes we’ve discussed have generally centered around treatment, but one of the mistakes/sestbacks submitted to ECPN dealt with not having adequately managed the expectations of the owner of a cultural heritage object. Another spoke about the regret of having focused disproportionately on treatment and neglecting to engage with writing, speaking, and meeting others in the field. Could you comment on what other sorts of non-treatment mistakes we tend to encounter as conservation professionals?

Ayesha Fuentes: I’m not sure these are mistakes so much as they are part of professional development. Communicating our decision-making processes and limitations should be part of our expertise. In both of these challenges, the conservators learned how to manage the expectations of both the clients and themselves. Our professional contribution is often our technical skills and knowledge, and that’s been the emphasis in education, but I think there is an increasing awareness of how conservation relies on a larger skill set that includes consultation, communication and project management.

Have you ever had to describe a mistake that you’ve made in an interview? If so, how did you broach the subject?

Geneva Griswold: I have been asked in several interviews to describe how I overcame a situation that did not go as planned. The topic has never been presented as a “mistake,” however the intention of the question is the same: to illustrate how you think and to assess your ability to adapt. I find that juxtaposing two situations can be helpful; the first defines the challenge, and the second shows how you applied lessons learned in the first. Being aware of your mistake, setback, or failure is the important part, as is thinking reflexively about how to improve. If you feel uncomfortable broaching a mistake made during treatment, instead consider setbacks that occur in communication between team members, poor time estimation, or failing to meet a deadline. There are many ways to illustrate your ability to think critically, so prepare your best response prior to the interview and be confident in broaching the subject when it arises.

Thank you once again to Michele, Tony, Ayesha, and Geneva! ECPN is grateful to the speakers for their participation in the webinar and for sharing their research and thoughts on this topic. If you have additional comments or questions on this subject, please email ECPN.aic.webinar@gmail.com.

Please see the following resources for more information on this subject.

Extended Bibliography

Brajer, Isabelle. 2009. Taking the wrong path: learning from oversights, misconceptions,failures and mistakes in conservation. Examples from Wall Painting Conservation in Denmark. CeROArt 3: L’errer, la faute, le faux. Accessed 2017.

Fuentes, Ayesha and Geneva Griswold. 2012. The ‘Dead-Bucket’: An Inexperienced Conservators Guide for Evaluating Setbacks. 2012 Association of North American Graduate Programs in Conservation Conference, the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

Marincola, Michele. 2010. Blink Twice: Making Mistakes in Conservation. Paper Presented at the 38th Annual Meeting, Milwaukee Wisconsin, May 13, 2010.

Marincola, Michele and Sarah Maisey. 2011. To Err is Human: Understanding and Sharing Mistakes in Conservation Practice. ICOM-CC Triennial Conference, Lisbon 19-23 September, 2011: preprints. 

Mancusi-Ungaro, Carol. 2003. Embracing Humility in the Shadow of the Artist. In Personal Viewpoints: Thoughts about Paintings Conservation, edited by Mark Leonard. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute.

Recent Setbacks in Conservation 1, 3, 4. 1985. Ottawa: International Institute for Conservation-Canadian Group, 1985.

Related Resources

AdmittingFailure.org

Brown, Brené. “The Power of Vulnerability.” TEDxHouston, 2010.

Brown, Brené. “Listening to Shame.” TED2012.

Goldman, Brian. “Doctors Make Mistakes. Can We Talk About That?” TEDxToronto, 2010.

“Making Mistakes,” TED Radio Hour Podcast, 2013.