Preservation Week is coming soon—April 21-27! How can your institution or those institutions you work with promote Preservation Week? Propose a project that can be publicized and help make it happen. Need ideas? Start with these and suggest others:
• A public lecture on a preservation topic
• A behind-the-scenes preservation tour for school groups, special donors, or the board of trustees
• A condition survey of a particular collection with a summary provided for visitors (why this is an important step in preservation)
• A preservation quiz to give to visitors (with answers, of course!)
• Print outs to leave in galleries about the conservation of a particular piece on view
• Offering Guides for Taking Care of Your Personal Heritage to visitors (www.conservation-us.org/treasures)
Be a part of Preservation Week and be sure to spread the news!
National Archives and Records Administration presents Preservation EXPOsed!
March 14, 2013
11:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m.
William G. McGowan Theater and Lobby
National Archives Building
7th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC
Learn about preservation and caring for your personal treasures at the 2013 Preservation EXPO. Hear preservation lectures and bring in a document, book, photograph, artifact, motion picture, photographic film or audio recording for a consultation with a NARA Conservator on how to preserve it. Appointments are required for individual consultations. Please contact Preservation by email at preservation@nara.gov or call Preservation Programs Officer, Allison Olson at 301-837-0678 to schedule one.
Attendees should enter the National Archives Building through the Special Events Entrance on Constitution Avenue between 7th and 9th Streets, NW. http://www.archives.gov/preservation/exposed-2013.html
It’s once again time for AAM’s Museums Advocacy Day! Registration for this year’s event, taking place February 25-26, closes this Friday, January 25. In light of the current economic climate and political gridlock, we need all the advocacy help we can get. Please note: AAM does not currently have anyone registered from the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. If you can make the trip to Washington DC, February 25-26, please register for AAM Museums Advocacy day today. If you are from one of the urgent need states listed above, your participation is greatly needed. This year, there will be an “at home” component of Museums Advocacy day. So even if you can’t get to DC, please set aside some advocacy time for February 25-26. But remember–nothing beats an in-person visit to your elected representatives. We will send another email closer to the date with more details. Please consider making the trip to Washington, if it is possible for you. Remember to register by Friday, January 25. Register today >>
Consider helping to ensure the future prosperity of the field of conservation by taking part in one or both of the following advocacy day events:
American Alliance of Museums: Feb. 25-26, 2013, Washington, DC
Work to make a unified case to Congress in support of museums.
Take part in a day of programming geared toward your level of advocacy experience, then visit Congressional offices with colleagues from your community. AAM will set up your Capitol Hill meetings for you, and give you talking points and pointers on how to make the best case.
Representatives from throughout the entire museum field are encouraged to take part–and please note there is NO registration fee if you are an AAM member!
National Humanities Alliance Annual Meeting & Humanities Advocacy Day: March 17-19, Washington, DC
Connect with a growing network of humanities leaders, communicate the value of the humanities to Members of Congress, and become a year-round advocate for the humanities.
Sessions and events will be held at the One Washington Circle Hotel, George Washington University, and Capitol Hill.
We (LeeAnn Barnes Gordon and Suzanne Davis) are pleased to announce a new conservation workshop session at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). This year’s session will be held on Friday, Nov. 16th from 4:20 – 6:25 pm at the Chicago Marriot Downtown Magnificent Mile, and we would like to encourage Chicago-area conservators to join us for what promises to be an interesting and constructive afternoon.
The workshop, Archaeological Conservation Strategies in the Near East, aims to foster collaboration and promote information sharing among conservators and archaeologists working in the Near East. Contributors will present multi-disciplinary projects and research on archaeological heritage from Egypt, Israel, Turkey, and Iraq. Topics examined will include regional trends in conservation, balancing preservation and access, site management, treatments of challenging materials, and collaborations with local conservation and archaeological communities. A moderated discussion will engage the contributors as well as the audience, creating an ongoing dialogue that we hope will ultimately improve preservation for archaeological materials and sites in the Near East.
The first two presentations of the session will focus on site work. Hiroko Kariya will discuss the Luxor Temple Fragment Conservation Project, which includes the documentation, treatment, and monitoring of tens of thousands of sandstone fragments. Kariya’s presentation will address two particularly challenging aspects of the project: the protection of a massive number of semi-portable, inscribed fragments and providing accessibility to the collection on site for a high volume of visitors. In the following presentation, “Getting What You Came For: Conservation and Research at Tel Kedesh, Israel,” Suzanne Davis will demonstrate how on-site conservation activities can successfully contribute to archaeological research. This talk will also introduce the important discussion topic of how to balance the expectations of local conservation and archaeological authorities with the on-the-ground realities and priorities of international project teams.
Case studies presented by Krysia Spirydowicz and Catherine Foster will discuss the challenges of preserving two exceptional and fragile archaeological collections. Spirydowicz will outline the methods used to conserve ornate, wooden furniture from the royal tombs at Gordion. This presentation will highlight the difficulties of preserving ancient wooden objects, while addressing the particular conservation problems posed by the charred and fragmentary Gordion furniture. The focus of Foster’s talk will be the preservation of the Nimrud ivories, which resulted from a joint Iraq-U.S. project undertaken at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil (the Institute). The project initiated a program of conservation and improved display of the famous ivories, as well as provided training to Iraqi conservation professionals. The final presentation by Vicki Cassman will elaborate on the history and goals of the Iraqi Institute. Institute participants receive training by international conservation experts, as part of an effort to build a sustainable conservation community that will serve preservation needs at sites and museums throughout Iraq.
This workshop session will be held at the 2012 ASOR Annual Meeting on Friday, Nov. 16th from 4:20 – 6:25 pm.
To learn more about ASOR and/or to register for the 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, please visit the ASOR website at www.asor.org.
Read the letter from Meg Craft, AIC President, to Governor Deal:
“Dear Governor Deal:
As the board president of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works (AI C), the national membership organization supporting conservation professionals in preserving cultural heritage, I write to ask you to reverse the decision made by Secretary of State Brian Kemp to close the Georgia Archives. Public access to the critically important records held by the Georgia Archives is a right of your citizens, while the loss of open access will have long-term negative consequences for both your state and the nation.
The Georgia Archives serves a multitude of constituents, including genealogists, historians, teachers, students, lawyers, and governmental employees. It supports legal arguments, settles disputes, documents “historical events,. and helps us all better understand our past. While I echo the dismay of others, as expressed in letters such as those from the presidents of the American Library Association and Society of American Archivists, I want to make sure that you are aware of other critical losses that will result from closing your state archives.
The conservation lab at the Archives is a comprehensive and well-equipped facility that has provided much needed space for conservation and preservation educational programs, workshops, and meetings for state and national conservation professionals. The Prese.rvation staff hosts graduate students from the Clayton State University’s Master of Archival Studies Program, and works with”numerous interns, providing valuable hands-on experience in a conservation lab working on archival records, from land grant maps to chain gang records. The Preservation Services Division also provides training for a steady stream of scanning interns, who are funded by a “Friends of the Archives” grant. All of these initiatives help ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of Georgia’s legal and cultural history…”
The Georgia Archives are slated to be closed to the public as of November 1. Georgia will then be the only state not to have archives for the public. The citizens of Georgia will no longer have access to these primary, historical resources unless action is taken now.
The building conservation-program at Seinajoki University of Applied Sciences in Finland is threatened to be terminated. The program is the only one of its kind in Finland. Please sign a petition in which the Finnish section of the Nordic Association of Conservators pleads the decision-makers at Seinajoki University of Applied Sciences for reconsidering closure of the study program.
Since 1942, University College London (UCL) has hosted forty minute long lunchtime lectures for the general public at which UCL academics present their research. For the past few years, the lectures have been broadcast live online and can be viewed on YouTube after the event.
This June, the UCL Lunch Hour Lectures went “on tour” to the British Museum where four lectures highlighting collaborative work between the two institutions were presented. Two of the lectures, “Discoveries and re-evaluations: painting practices under the microscope” (Libby Sheldon on her examination of English Renaissance paintings) and “A book by any other name would smell as sweet”(Dr Matija Strlic on how intensity of smell is used as a means of determining state of decay) were related to conservation and technical studies. As an average of 200 people view the lectures each week on YouTube (www.youtube.com/UCLLHL), this is the type of public outreach program that other institutions might wish to use as a model.
Today, most conservators have come to the understanding that public outreach and communication are essential components of their work and vital for the well-being of the cultural heritage. If they are wondering how this might be accomplished they might look to “Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts”, a joint project of the Virginia Association of Museums (VAM) and the marketing firm ToMarket which was recently honored by the Richmond Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. “Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts” allows each museum and other collecting institution in the state to present an art work or artifact in great need of conservation. As almost 100,000 votes were cast in the 2011 campaign, the word is getting out to the public.
