Category: Topics

AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting – Links to photos

Photos from AIC’s Annual Meeting are being uploaded to our Flicker site as time permits. Each photo below represents a set. So far I’ve posted photos from the reception at Philadelphia Museum of Art on Wednesday night, the Manikin workshop, and Thursday’s portfolio review session. There will be a lot more coming, so please check back regularly to this post or go directly to our Flicker site (at www.flicker.com/photos/aic-faic/) to view additional photos.

Museum Manikins Workshop (click on this photo to view the entire set)

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The reception at Philadelphia Museum of Art, June 1 (click on this photo to view the entire set)

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Portfolio Review Session (click on this photo below to view the entire set)

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ECPN Officers (click on this photo below to view the entire set)

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May Meeting Minutes

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ECPN MEETING MINUTES

May 19, 2011

Conference Call Attendees:
Rose Cull

Ryan Winfield

Karen Pavelka

Heather Brown

Carrie Roberts

Amy Brost

Rebecca Rushfield

LeeAnn Barnes Gordon

I. April Minutes

a. ECPN April minutes approved.

II. AIC Meeting 2011

a. Portfolio Session (Carrie) – Amber will send out the final notice on Monday to participants and will include the event location. Ryan will email it to her – it is Room 415, 4th floor. Buffalo will have 2-3 participants, Delaware will have 4, other programs will have at least one. Per Ryan, the 1-1:30 coffee break was canceled, so the committee agreed that the Portfolio Session should run during the 10-10:30 morning break and 3-3:30 afternoon break. Ryan will change the conference program guidelines to reflect this change.

b. Survey (Rose/Ryan) – ECPN members should review the survey (set up in Survey Monkey) that will be given to attendees at ECPN events following the AIC meeting. Rose will send it out to the full committee following the call. Provide comments/feedback to Rose and Ryan. Email addresses of participants will be collected at all ECPN events at AIC.

c. Meeting of the Graduate Programs (Carrie) – Primary discussion topic will be the student research repository. Stephanie Lussier of ETC, Carrie, and Amber will deliver a summary of the proposal, and then open the floor for discussion, which will be moderated by Eryl Wentworth. Will perhaps record it. Discussions will be used to develop the proposal, which is evolving. Topics for discussion: Types of documents (paper or/and posters?) How material will be submitted? What role will programs play in the vetting process? How are we going to sustain the site? Should there be a committee devoted over the long term to overseeing it and maintaining/expanding it? Should the database be part of CoOL or be its own separate entity? If it’s not on CoOL, how can it be funded? Carrie will forward agenda to ECPN members. Rose proposed adding Graduate Student Liaisons to the agenda for the meeting, in terms of a broader goal to connect students to what ECPN is doing. Get them involved in ECPN initiatives, not only the student research repository, but activities across the board.

d. ECPN Informational Meeting – Ryan provided the meeting location: Room 406, 4th floor. Rose asked that each committee member provide agenda items to her for this meeting. Amy, Heather, Carrie, and Amber should provide agenda items by Wednesday of next week.

e. Poster Amber picked it up. She should either download and complete the form for reimbursement from the AIC website, or provide her receipt to Ryan who will complete the form. Amy will connect with Amber and install the poster on Tuesday morning, if possible. Exhibit hall closes at 5 pm. Amy has a tour from 12:30-5:30, so if the poster cannot be installed before 12:30, alternative arrangements will be made. Amy to bring push pins. Ryan provided the space number: #18. Exhibit hall opens officially on Wednesday, 6/1 at 10 am. Anyone interested can join Rose during the poster session. Poster presenters are expected to stand by their posters for an “Author in Attendance” period, during the final coffee break (3:00 to 3:30 PM) on Thursday, June 2.

f. Flier – Ryan is having it printed for the conference bag.

g. Outreach – Heather already created Events in Facebook, and will post the Portfolio Session also. She will update the Wall, and the blog post is completed. Ryan will send out the email reminder.

h. Meeting Attendance – Additional meetings that will be attended by ECPN members are: Publications Committee (Amy), Education and Training (Carrie, Amber, and Karen), ECPN meeting (Rebecca Rushfield from the ETC), RATS meeting (Stephanie Porto). Rose & Amy will attend the Wiki meeting – if others are interested this meeting is 5:30-7 pm on June 2nd after the AIC business meeting. Amy will attend the Heritage Preservation Meeting on Wednesday at 4 pm.

i. Blogging at the AIC Meeting – Rachael needs bloggers. Has BPG and OSG. Looking for more people who are attending other sessions to blog. Karen suggested sending a message to chair of each session to call for volunteers. Rachael has done that, per Rose. Rose to email Rachael and let her know that people could write a summary and she would turn it into a blog post. Not sure why people are hesitant – the note-taking or the posting? For the AIC blog, has some kinks – introduction to Philly blog post going up soon. Heather will follow up with Rachael.

III. Position Vacancies – Chair, Vice Chair, and Outreach positions will be turning over and will transition by September. Heather will write a position description for Outreach and send it to Rose before the informational meeting at AIC.

IV. Mentoring Program – Rose and Ryan are drafting an e-mail to send to PA’s and Fellows to get more mentor applications. Some people applied and never heard back, probably due to legacy issues with the previous system. Rose will follow up with them and ask them to apply again. Karen added that she has heard the same – Karen will send something out to BPG to encourage people to apply again. The AIC Annual Meeting is a good opportunity to ask people in person. Karen would like paper forms to hand out to people. Ryan indicated that the revised forms are up on the website to download and print out. Rose will distribute hard copy forms as well.

V. Updating the AIC Website – Discussed at the Education and Training meeting. Stephanie Lussier indicated that the group is seeking suggestions from ECPN. Areas for updates include documents on the Education & Training page and “How to Become a Conservator.” Rose will set up an area for ECPN feedback on Google Docs.

VI. CAC – Rose will follow up with Stephanie to find out if anyone else from the Canadian group is coming to AIC, and to explore more ways to collaborate.

VII. IAG Meeting 2010 – Rose reminded everyone to take a look at the minutes from the November 2010 meeting of the Internal Advisory Group, to get a sense of the issues of importance for the organization as a whole.

VIII. Discussion – Rebecca made a general comment that she felt ECPN was a valuable resource, one that she would have appreciated when she first started. She hopes that students and recent graduates take full advantage of what the committee has to offer.

a. She asked about member numbers, and ECPN has around 500 people in the AIC mailing list (who checked the box to receive ECPN information), over 300 Facebook friends, and around 30 people attended last year’s informational meeting. The group has many stakeholders and is growing.

b. K-12 initiatives are being discussed by ETC to increase the number of people who appreciate the field and are interested in it. Rose responded that there is a tremendous need for conservation, and a discussion of how ECPN can help meet this need followed: (1) Perhaps a mentor program for small institutions on fundraising; (2) Engage the regional centers to help small institutions; (3) Advocacy that can help increase funding for the field; (4) Explore alternative funding models based on social media (example, Kickstarter.com)

c. See the poster at AIC about the value of conservators which has statistics about the profession and its past, and future

d. Brainstorming can be part of the ECPN meeting at AIC

IX. Early Career Support – Point was raised that there is a need for funding in the intermediate phase between student and Professional Associate (PA). Per Karen, the PA requirement was added to some funding to encourage PA status, but it does create a gap in funding eligibility. ECPN can help support emerging conservators seeking PA status. Also, in the ECPN statement about “what we do” it says we facilitate people’s transition to PA. Helping with the application? Maybe develop a “How to become a PA” FAQ sheet? Some people don’t know the steps or the benefits. Rose could call someone in membership to talk about this. Rose will speak with Tom Edmondson and Martin Burke. Ryan indicated that the PA evaluation committee has a different structure – the members process/approve applications. Function-oriented, and not interested in growth, per se. They try to remain impartial. Rose will develop talking points for ECPN informational meeting. Karen mentioned that acquiring PA status could be the point at which members move out of ECPN.

Note on accommodations at AIC: Rebecca Rushfield can share her room on Tuesday and Wednesday night for $10 per night. Email Rebecca if you or anyone you know is looking for a room to share. For the 2012 AIC Meeting, consider reaching out to more established conservators in advance to see if they would be willing to share their rooms.

Next call will be June 16 at 1 PM EST.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Brost

39th Annual Meeting – CIPP Seminar: Obtaining Work Through The Insurance Industry

Written and Video Review of the 2011 CIPP Seminar – Philadelphia

“Claiming Your Piece of the Insurance Pie”

 

There was at this seminar an excellent cross section of insurance experts that are intimately associated with the art conservation field: George Schwartz our fearless CIPP leader and Vice Chair last year (our new Chair For 2012) who teaches on this subject; Sylvia Leonard Wolf of Fine Art Appraisers and Consultants, NY, NY; Barbara Chamberlain, Director of the Central Region USA, Art Collection Mgmt for Chartis Insurance from Palm Beach, Fl; Mary L. Sheridan, Assistant Fine Art Manager, Chubb & Son, a division of Federal Insurance Co. from NY, NY. Let me also give an honorable mention to Gordon Lewis whose wealth of experience in working with insurance companies in many capacities, his contacts, his coordination of and for this meeting, his input during the meeting is much appreciated.

George’s presentation the first two hours was an excellent primer in understanding how the insurance field works in settling claims. His depth of detail and the valuable information he presented in his PowerPoint we hope will be available online soon. Much or all of his information seemed to be a direct result of working with the insurance industry for decades in the capacity of an art conservator (sorry about the reference to your age George) and being a teacher on the subject.  Perhaps this is not the place to try and summarize his presentation and I won’t try. If you would like to contact George call (561) 912 0030 or george@conservart.com www.ConservArt.net

See his video clip:

Sylvia Leonard Wolf, who teaches her subject at NYU, spoke from her extensive experience as an appraiser and how appraisals impact claims and treatments that conservators perform. She works closely with conservation issues and spoke eloquently and on subject while presenting important issues that conservators must be sensitive to. A couple of key points she made are that conservators should always remember:

*Always get paid for everything you do (bill out at full rate) for your expertise, consultations and services when working on issues for insurance companies.

* If you are looking to network for contacts, appraisers refer conservation work.

You may contact Sylvia at www.sylvialeonardwolf.com, (845) 679 6363, SylviaLWolf@gmail.com

Barbara Chamberlain, Chartis Insurance, gave a terrific presentation and the audience was well served by her openness to respond to questions. Her staggering responsibilities regarding high-end collections clients was most interesting. She confirmed the high regard that Chartis has for the Conservation Field and indeed considers it an essential part of the team to service their clients. It was very interesting to hear the priorities Chartis has to care for and prepare collections in order to avoid damage… not just respond to damage. She is available for you to contact her at (561) 623 4050 and at barbarae.chamberlain@chartisinsurance.com See her video clip: 

Mary Sheridan, Chubb & Son Insurance, was very open and personable about her company’s efforts with high end art collections and clients. Many similarities between Chubb and Chartis in how they care for collections and respond to needs were expressed. Mary’s discussion and her participation in questions and answers were invaluable and very entertaining. Her extensive experience with art conservation was evident and she spoke on subject and to our profession’s interests. She is available for you to contact her at (212) 612 4384 and mlsheridan@chubb.com

In summary, I think it was generally expressed among attendees and presenters that  a follow up effort would be beneficial to art conservators in order to better understand how to get work from insurance companies, as there are many different sources from which a conservator can receive work. See the following video clip: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuYpkA7b3tM&feature=youtu.be

If you have suggestions for the 2012 CIPP program in Albuquerque, NM, contact Judith Tartt of Art-Care (www.art-care.com), new CIPP Vice Chair and program organizer.

Express yourself and reach out: “Like” this article by clicking on the thumbs up below, refer this posting to others you connect with via Facebook, Twitter etc. Please pass the link for this blog post along to other conservators.

Scott M. Haskins, Professional Associate AIC

Fine Art Conservation Laboratories (FACL, Inc.)

Best_artdoc@yahoo.com

805 564 3438

www.fineartconservationlab.com

www.saveyourstuffblog.com

www.tipsforartcollectors.org

Preserving Aboriginal Art at the Kluge-Ruhe Collection

The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia has rehoused over 400 bark paintings using this innovative system developed by Associate Curator and AIC member Dominique Cocuzza.

Watch their 5 minute video Preserving Aboriginal Art at the Kluge-Ruhe Collection which oulines the project and takes the viewer through the assembly process with step-by-step instructions.  Then download the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Bark Handout for additional details.

On the Road to Conservation: A Pre-Program Road Trip – Part II

Clockwise from top left: JessiKat on the Buffalo campus, Niagara Falls, the Liberty Bell, JessiKat back home, JessiKat outside UPenn's museum, Katherine with Buffalo's mascot. Center: Reading Market in Philadelphia.

 

This entry by Katherine Langdon is the second part of a two-part blog post. Read the first entry by Jessica Ford below (posted 1/12/2011). Both Katherine and Jessica are pre-program interns working with Richard McCoy at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
I’m Katherine Langdon, pre-program intern in conservation at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and prospective conservation graduate student, and today I am continuing the story begun previously by my fellow intern, Jessica Ford. If you didn’t catch her blog entry you should begin there.
After our delightful and fast-paced visit to Winterthur for the WUDPAC Portfolio Day we spent the night in nearby Philadelphia. Philly turned out to be an ideal way-station for our travels, not only as a central hub of the east coast, but also as a bustling capital of culture and American history.

Our Thursday began early with a drive to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, where we had an appointment with Head Conservator Lynn Grant. As I have a background in archaeology, I was especially keen to see how conservation was approached at an archaeologically-focused museum. Lynn was very generous with her time and expertise, answering our slew of questions. We started with a tour of the collections in storage, where nearly a million objects are protected long-term – in fact the collection is so large that only about 3% of their artifacts can be on display at any one time. All of this is in the care of the two (soon to be three) full-time conservators and their assorted interns. The museum, housed in a historic building on the university campus, recently began renovations on much of the service area, so although the conservation staff currently operate in a makeshift lab, they anticipate having great new facilities in the near future.

Thrilled with the thorough visit, we thanked Lynn and stepped out into the very rainy city for an afternoon of exploration. This was Jessica’s first visit to Philly, so I made sure we hit all the major sites, beginning with lunch at the Reading Terminal Market. The rest of the afternoon we wandered through historic Philadelphia, finally visiting the Liberty Bell Center, which contains one small and uplifting exhibit, and touring Independence Hall, which is currently undergoing its own massive conservation project.

As you read yesterday, we spent the following day in New York City before catching a late bus to Washington, D.C. I headed for the National Mall, where I visited for the first time the D.C. branch of the National Museum of the American Indian, built in 2004. I loved the unique design of the building itself and its flowing exhibits, and I was pleased to see that the exhibits included a wide range of cultures and time periods, including some breathtaking contemporary pieces of art. That evening Jessica, Duncan, and I reunited in time to attend a gallery opening downtown where some of Jessica’s artwork was on display.

After spending Sunday driving to upstate New York, we headed to Buffalo State College to get to know the campus and to meet with second-year art conservation student Christine Puza. As we approached the school, two copper peaks towering over the campus caught our attention. A bit of research revealed that the building was part of the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane (known now as the Buffalo Psychiatric Center or the Richardson Olmsted Complex), designed by H.H. Richardson in 1870 and now out of use. The state of New York has committed to a restoration of the complex, which could someday perhaps provide great research and conservation projects for the neighboring school.

The friendly Buffalo State campus gave its art conservation program a more collegiate atmosphere than the independent departments of NYU and Delaware. I was surprised that the three programs could have such different, yet equally pleasing, settings and characters. At Buffalo, the Art Conservation Department is proudly housed in Rockwell Hall, the main campus building, near the music department. (The school clearly has its priorities in good order.)

Christine met us here and gave us an in-depth tour of the various labs, where she told us about the coursework underway and shared her own projects. As we entered one room filled with students’ original artwork she explained that the Buffalo program emphasizes the simultaneous development of hand skills and intimate knowledge of historical artistic techniques, taught by having the students replicate traditional methods of manufacture, such as painting with egg tempera. First-year students even design their own projects to focus on crafts of personal interest (smithing or flintknapping, e.g.).

The artworks used for conservation training are brought in from outside sources. People or museums can bring in their items for evaluation and treatment, with the understanding that it might be a few years before a student chooses it for a personal project. Christine was excited to show us her current paper conservation project, the removal of a poor backing from a woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai. In the objects lab she pulled out a damaged wooden box she was working on and told us that the second year students enjoy the opportunity to go “shopping” for such projects in the storage facilities of the next-door Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

After a delicious lunch with Christine at the Indian buffet near campus, we realized that the perfect autumn weather would be best spent on a visit to Niagara Falls, only a twenty-minute drive away. There the crowds were sparse and the trees were just unveiling their seasonal chromatic brilliance. Refreshed by this natural masterpiece, we began our long drive home to Indianapolis.

On the Road to Conservation: A Pre-Program Road Trip – Part I

This post by Jessica Ford is the first in a two part blog entry. Please check back for the second post by Katherine Langdon. Both Jessica and Katherine are pre-program interns working with Richard McCoy at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

It’s been almost two months since Katherine and I embarked on our epic journey to visit conservation graduate schools: one that tested our navigational skills, our endurance, and our conservation aspirations. Having returned to the IMA in one piece with a strengthened determination towards our goals, I can say that the adventure was certainly a success.

Considering our daunting plan to visit all three East Coast graduate conservation programs (University of Delaware – Winterthur, NYU-IFA Conservation Center, and Buffalo State) in seven days, teamwork was a must

Image Caption: Clockwise from top left: Our host house in Pittsburgh, Winterthur's campus, Katherine at the Conservation Center, Jessica in Times Square, home away from home - the car, Winterthur's entrance sign.

from the moment we loaded up my trusty Honda Fit with a week’s worth of personal belongings, snacks, and study material.

Our first stop was to visit the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation’s (WUDPAC) annual Portfolio Day. Although we only got a taste of the breathtaking campus, we were assured that Winterthur was a fantastic place to be by Katherine’s book 1000 Places to See Before You Die. Two eager faces in the crowd of about 70 prospective students, Katherine and I were happy to have a chance to walk and talk for a moment with Professor of Material Culture and Adjunct Paintings Conservator Joyce Hill Stoner and converse in-depth with first-year student Crista Pack.

Second-year student Steven O’Banion gave our group an impressive and detailed review of his recent conservation opportunities. His presentation was followed by a whirlwind tour of the entire department. Pictures and more details of the event can be found on WUDPAC’s website.

From there we drove to the suburbs of Philadelphia, where we took lodging for a couple of nights (more on this stop in Part 2 of our story). Early on a dark Friday morning we set out again, this time by train to New York, New York. Katherine had never been to the Big Apple, and I had been once and loved it. Needless to say we were both quite excited for this excursion. The only challenge was smashing as much as possible into one day.

First, we hit the Conservation Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Open House. Located just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Met, the building is in the tall, narrow, town-house style that one would expect uptown, which resulted in the different labs being neatly stacked on top of each other all the way up to the penthouse paintings lab. It was there that we met 3rd year student Kristin Robinson, who talked to us about the school and her experiences. The program in NYC is distinctly different from the other conservation grad programs in that the degree is actually a MA in Art History with an Advanced Certificate in Conservation. A strong interest in art history is part of what drew me to conservation in the first place, so I appreciate the emphasis. Kristin showed us a small, medieval icon that she was currently working on, which highlighted another benefit of the program – its proximity to the IFA’s prestigious art history program (right across the street). A Latin verse on the painting was illegible, but Kristin was able to find help from the Art History Department’s specialized faculty in puzzling together the correct phrase before restoring it.

In addition to the IFA, the number of important museums located nearby makes the location mind-blowing with respect to resources, art historically and otherwise. Some of the conservation curriculum takes place in the labs of the Met, MoMA, etc., and the network of connections built in this environment surely helps many students obtain 4th-year and post-graduate internships from these institutions as well. Plus, anyone who survives in NYC for three to four years automatically gains a fair amount of street cred.

After our visit to from the Conservation Center we headed to the MET, where objects conservator Beth Edelstein showed us where the conservation magic happens: a subterranean labyrinth of labs full of art objects – musical instruments, jewelry boxes, Islamic wall panels – and no less than 40 professionals to work on them. At one point, Katherine nearly had a heart attack when she spotted a very convincing replica of the Mask of Agamemnon. After Beth’s tour ended, our self-guided tour of the galleries began. After a couple of hours the rest of New York beckoned, and we filled the remainder of our afternoon and much of the night with the sights, sounds, and food of Midtown.

Saturday we were in Washington DC, where Katherine and I split up to cover as much museum ground as possible. While she investigated the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, My husband Duncan and I trekked to the Museum of Unnatural History at a nearby Renaissance Faire.

This tale is only halfway done! Check back tomorrow to learn about the rest of our adventures from Katherine’s perspective including our time in Philadelphia, more about D.C., and our visit to the conservation program in Buffalo, New York.

In Haiti: Rescuing Art Amid the Rubble

So, one afternoon, in the rubble-strewn courtyard of Ste. Trinité, I asked architect Magdalena Carmelita Douby, the project’s registrar, about local attitudes towards our somewhat unusual rescue effort. Her answer came without hesitation: ‘We have lost everything except our culture,’ she said calmly. ‘We have to protect what is left.

This poignant quote is from “In Haiti: Rescuing Art Amid the Rubble”

 

Read more about AIC Members Rosa Lowinger and Viviana Dominguez who were deployed to Haiti to assess the murals at The Cathedral of Sainte Trinité. Read about their trip in Lowinger’s article for the Gallerina blog at the wnyc.org/culture website.

AIC Advocacy – AIC Needs You

In today’s tough times, advocacy is more important than ever. AIC continues to partner with organizations such as the American Association of Museums and National Humanities Alliance to advocate for funding and recognition for conservation and preservation in the U.S. However, we cannot do it without you.

How can you help AIC advocate on your behalf?

  • Be part of our Emergency-Efforts Email Campaigns
  • Sign up for our Advocacy List
  • Engage in long-range advocacy efforts

AIC’s advocacy efforts have two tracks. One encompasses emergency efforts and other encompasses long-term efforts, and you can play an important role in both.

Emergency Efforts

These most often take the form of email blasts from AIC asking you to contact your members of Congress to encourage them to support or oppose a particular piece of legislation. AIC often gets very little notice in advance of legislation votes, so short emails sent to your members of Congress within 24 hours of receiving the AIC email are the most effective way to respond to these calls to action.

One important piece of information to remember is that members of Congress DO listen to their constituents, and these emails and phone calls do make a difference. However, timeliness is what is important, not a well crafted email or letter. Congressional staffers often just keep tallies of those calling or emailing in for or against a particular issue. The result of these tallies is often the only information passed on to the member of Congress.

So, when we ask you to take five minutes to cut and paste a message in an email and send it to your representatives, that is really all the time that is needed.

Some good examples of the important role individuals can play in the federal legislation process are the defeat of the two Coburn Amendments:

  • Early this year Sen. Coburn attempted to prohibit museums from competing for or receiving any funds from H.R. 1, the economic stimulus bill. After a lobbying effort led by AAM in which AIC members were involved, the word “museum” was dropped from the final prohibition. Unfortunately, zoos and aquariums remained barred from competing for economic stimulus funding.
  • More recently, on September 16, 2009, an amendment sponsored by Senators Coburn/McCain – which would have prohibited ANY funding from the Transportation Appropriations bill from going to ANY museum – was defeated on the Senate floor after another AAM lead lobbying effect.

Interestingly, a recent amendment that would have targeted museum funding proposed by Senator Coburn did not make it out of committee, which illustrates that building an effective lobbying effort can extend beyond a particular bill or amendment. I can envision a time when members of Congress will be fully aware that they don’t want to “rile” those conservation people.

Sign up for our Advocacy List

Join our advocacy-efforts list. AIC is developing a list of members who would like to be contracted beyond emergency efforts to assist AIC in broader advocacy work for the arts and humanities. You would be sent additional email blasts when action was needed on Federal issues and to keep you informed of actions being taken that might affect the arts and humanities. Also, we might be able to expand our efforts and advocate for state issues if needed

You can join the list today by:

  • Login to the AIC website and click on Manage Your Profile and scroll down to Interests and select Advocacy Alerts
  • Email resyler at conservation-us dot org and ask to be added to the list.

Long-Term Advocacy Efforts
These following organizations offer occasional training sessions on how to be a good advocate.

If we want conservation to have a greater focus in arts advocacy, we need to be represented.  Take a few minutes to try to open up a dialog with the staff in your representative’s District Office.  You can set up an appointment to talk about what you do, invite them on a lab tour, or include them in museum events.

We at AIC are happy to help you gather materials and make your case. Contact me at rseyler_at_conservation-us_dot_org.

Thank you!
Ruth Seyler

April Meeting Minutes

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ECPN meeting minutes – April 21, 2011, 1 PM EST

Call Participants:

Karen Pavelka

Amber Kerr-Allison

Ryan Winfield

Ruth Seyler

Amy Brost

Heather Brown

Rose Cull

Carrie Roberts

Communications

* Poster – Amy is sending out a final version, if a committee member does not send back comments or changes after 3 days it means the content and layout are approved.

* Amber and Amy will coordinate having the poster printed, brought to the conference installed, and removed from the exhibition space. Rose will be present for the ‘author’ coffee break on June 2, 3-3:30PM. Other committee members are invited to stand with the poster during this time or at other breaks throughout the AIC meeting. The poster will be taken down on Friday, June 3rd by an ECPN member.

* Flier – Ryan, will have it printed and included in the bag for AIC.

* Amy Brost will attend the publications committee, face to face meeting. They are currently investigating Basecamp as a repository for documents, which may be a future archive for ECPN information. Ryan mentioned that he has a folder on a server in the AIC office for ECPN information. Committee members should send Ryan a CD of information if they would like it backed up on the server. Committee members are recommended to write up a few bullet points about their position and transitioning their position and give this information to Ryan.

* Article in WAAC newsletter – We are currently looking for anyone out West who would be willing to talk about their experience in ECPN – to create some new content for the newsletter article. Rose and Ryan may have a few options of who this could be. This article will be pitched for the September WAAC newsletter.

Education and Training

* Mentoring program: Rose, Carrie, Amber, Karen are contacting specialty groups, and Ryan is sending out an e-mail blast in early May. It is hoped to have all matches before the AIC 2011 meeting so mentees and mentors can meet face to face at the meeting.

* ETC business meeting will be Thursday June 2nd at noon during AIC annual meeting – Amber and Carrie is willing to sit in on that meeting. Amber is contacting Stephanie Lussier about the possibility of attending that meeting. Rose has contacted Rebecca Rushfield about a representative from the ETC attending the ECPN meeting on May 31st.

* Student research database meeting has set a time, has representatives, and Amber and Carrie will provide a summary of the project. This meeting is introducing the project to the graduate programs. Amber and Carrie are drafting a proposal and summary along with input from RaTS and the ETC. A final proposal will be ready for review during the AIC annual meeting.

* Portfolio session: still no representatives from Buffalo, Rose will contact Buffalo students who are receiving Stout funding – to look for a representative, and cc Amber as the contact. There is a room designated for the portfolio session, we will know in a few weeks. Representatives will be informed by Amber via e-mail one week prior. Amber is contacting Heather to make this into a facebook event.

* Rebecca Rushfield has joined the ECPN as the ETC liason, she was unavailable for this conference call, but will be present in the future. Here contact e-mail is wittert@juno.com. The ETC welcomes Genevieve Bienosek as their new student member and Rose has suggested that either Rebecca or Genevieve, or both are invited to the ECPN business meeting at AIC 2011.

AIC 2011 meeting

* Angels Project: ECPN committee members should still volunteer by contacting Ruth via e-mail and include their C.V., there is a good number of volunteers, mix of conservators, graduate students, pre-program conservators, etc.

* A Survey will be created to discuss all ECPN activities at the AIC 2011 meeting, a sign in book or sign in sheet will be at the Informational meeting, portfolio session, in front of the poster, at the Angels project, and at the happy hour to get a list of e-mails that can be contacted with the survey. Rose will carry a notebook, Amber will keep a notebook of the portfolio session, other committee members are encouraged to keep a notebook with them as well. Rose and Ryan will draft a few questions about the survey for the next call.

* Two weeks before the meeting Ryan will send out an e-mail blast about the ECPN events at AIC 2011. Heather is organizing the Facebook events. Amber will contact Heather about the portfolio session.

ANAGPIC

* Ryan mentioned that it went well, he met students, there is more awareness. Rose is going to follow up with Erin Anderson about whether the ECPN flier made it into the bags.

Outreach

* Looking for people to write blog posts about AIC 2011, Rose is going to send Heather Rachael Perkins Arenstein’s contact info. Carrie has volunteered to draft a blog post that will be posted during the week of AIC. Other blog authors will also be solicited, perhaps in a blog post soon. Stephanie gave a contact about an American working in Canada. Ryan and Rose may have a contact for an American working in Canada.

Advocacy

* Rose is drafting a blog post about advocacy and how emerging conservators can get involved.

Respectfully submitted,

Rose Cull