{"id":2276,"date":"2012-01-05T11:20:16","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T16:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=2276"},"modified":"2012-01-05T11:20:16","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T16:20:16","slug":"aic-reaches-out-to-appraisers-at-aaas-annual-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2012\/01\/05\/aic-reaches-out-to-appraisers-at-aaas-annual-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"AIC reaches out to Appraisers at AAA’s annual meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second question that I am most frequently asked in my work after \u201cCan you fix it?\u201d is \u201cDo you have any idea what it is worth?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Hopefully the answer to the first question is \u201cYes!\u201d but my answer to the second question is \u201cNo, assigning value isn\u2019t what conservators do, but I know the name of several good appraisers\u201d.\u00a0 It is understandable that private clients are more likely to proceed with conserving a piece with high intrinsic worth, and there is synergy between what we do and what appraisers do.\u00a0 Thus it was an important outreach opportunity for AIC to have an exhibitors table at the recent Appraisers Association for America<\/a><\/em>\u00a0annual meeting in November in New York City.\u00a0 My business partner Eugenie Milroy and I had the privilege of representing our colleagues by manning the AIC booth during the two day meeting.<\/p>\n

\"Yuri<\/a>
Yuri Yanchyshyn and Rachael Arenstein at the AIC table<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were about 300 people in attendance and during the coffee breaks the exhibitor\u2019s area was full of appraisers perusing the tables.\u00a0 We brought a laptop so that we could have the visually appealing AIC outreach PowerPoint presentation on a looped display and then use the computer to connect to the AIC website when we wanted to show people how to access the Find A Conservator<\/a><\/strong> feature online. Some attendees were well aware of conservation as a field, and AIC as a professional organization.\u00a0 These individuals tended to stop by the booth to pick up some of AIC\u2019s brochures, fliers and bookmarks to pass along to clients or ask specific questions.\u00a0 Then there were others who, while aware of conservation, were not familiar with AIC.\u00a0 Once they understood that AIC was to conservation what AAA was to appraisers, they often gave a sigh of relief to know that there is a place to turn to find us!\u00a0 It was illuminating to talk to these allied professionals and learn more about their views on conservation and conservators.\u00a0 In addition to these individual interactions that will hopefully turn out to be productive for AIC, the opportunity to talk with and reach out to the other exhibitors was also valuable.\u00a0 There were auction houses, art storage companies, insurance agencies, and others who now know more about AIC.<\/p>\n

It was important that AIC was represented at this meeting but we were not the only conservators there.\u00a0 It was nice to catch up with colleague Yuri Yanchyshyn of Period Furniture Conservation<\/a>\u00a0who had a beautiful booth displaying before and after images of some of his furniture conservation treatment.\u00a0 Yuri has been working with AAA for several years and has been a good ambassador for our field.\u00a0 Also in attendance was conservator Gordon Lewis of The Fine Arts Conservancy<\/a>\u00a0whose wife is an appraiser and has a long history of working with AAA.\u00a0 Having more conservators exhibit on their own at events like these and on behalf of AIC is good for our profession as a whole.\u00a0 While Eugenie and I were there representing AIC, we did have questions about our own specializations and practice and we have even received one potential job lead from someone we met at the conference.<\/p>\n

The meeting was titled Tomorrow\u2019s Challenge: Valuing Art & Design in the 20th<\/sup> Century<\/em><\/strong> and when there was no traffic in the Exhibitor\u2019s area we were able to listen to a few of the talks.\u00a0 The Keynote Address by James McAndrew a Forensic Specialist from law firm Gunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP was titled A Decade of Transition in the Trade of Art and Antiquities<\/em>.\u00a0 He discussed the role that everyone in the art world (including conservators) has to play to reduce sale of stolen and looted art.\u00a0 Other sessions at the conference included topics such as:<\/p>\n