Emerging Conservation Professionals Network

ECPN Blog Has Moved

2011-11-30T15:08:00.000-08:00

The blog of AIC's Emerging Conservation Professionals Network has moved!

To continue to read ECPN-related posts, go to www.conservators-converse.org/category/ecpn

About the Officers

2011-11-21T17:05:00.000-08:00

About the ECPN Committee Officers

A while back, the names of the new ECPN committee officers were announced on the blog. Now, we thought you might like to know a little more about them:

Molly Gleeson, Chair

Molly Gleeson completed her BA in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware in 2002 and her MA from the UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials in 2008. She is now living and working in San Diego, CA, devoting part of her time to assist on a joint research project between UCLA and the Getty Conservation Institute, focused on Native California featherwork. In addition to her recent election to the ECPN committee, she also serves as a Member-at-Large on the board of the Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC).

Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)

Eliza Spaulding is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Paper Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2010, she graduated from the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University with an Advanced Certificate in Conservation and a Master's Degree in Art History. In addition to working with ECPN, she also is involved in establishing the Philadelphia Area Conservation Association, a regional network for preservation and conservation professionals in the greater Philadelphia area.

Anisha Gupta, co-Outreach Coordinator

Anisha is an undergraduate senior majoring in Art History and Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has worked at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art as a conservation intern and currently works at the Oak Street Library Facility doing book and paper conservation. She graduates in May 2012 and hopes to have a conservation internship for a year and then apply to graduate school.

Megan Salazar-Walsh (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Megan was born and grew up in southern Spain. In 2007 she received a BA in Art History from Whitman College. She interned with several conservators in private practice in Seattle, WA and in Seville, Spain. She also volunteered at the Seattle Art Museum, working with the conservation department on objects, paintings and outdoor sculpture. Last summer she was an intern at the Shelburne Museum, VT. She is currently a first year student at Buffalo State College.

Amy Brost, Communications Coordinator

Amy is a pre-program intern at The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary (paper), Wilson Conservation, LLC (objects) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (photographs) as well as a chemistry student at New York City College of Technology. Over the summer, she worked for the Research Foundation at CUNY, assisting chemistry faculty with research pertaining to the development of solid oxide fuel cells. She came to conservation after 10 years working in advertising and communications. She has a BA in Art History and a BS in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Carrie Roberts (Professional Education and Training)

Carrie is a recent graduate of the Winterthur / University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, where she majored in objects conservation with a preventive minor. Her areas of interest include the conservation of stone and archaeological materials, and the impact of environments on the stability of art objects. She has interned at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, English Heritage, the Worcester Art Museum, and the Kaman-Kalehoyuk archaeological excavation in Turkey. She currently works as a Samuel H. Kress Conservation Fellow at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan.

Amber Kerr-Allison, who has been serving as co-Professional Education & Training, is a Paintings Conservator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Lunder Conservation Center. She will complete her ECPN term in December. She has made a great contribution to growing ECPN over the past four years. The committee is deeply grateful for her sustained commitment to ECPN.

We are holding our committee calls on the third Monday of each month at 1 pm ET. The call-in information is on the ECPN page of the AIC website. Any member of ECPN is welcome to join those calls. Alternatively, keep up with our activities through the minutes from our calls that are posted to the blog each month, and feel free to reach out to any of us with your ideas and feedback.

October 31st Meeting Minutes

2011-11-21T14:19:00.000-08:00

ECPN MEETING MINUTES

Monday, October 31, 2011

Conference Call Attendees:

Ryan Winfield (Staff Liaison)

Stephanie Lussier (Board Liaison)

Molly Gleeson (Chair)

Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)

Anisha Gupta (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Megan Salazar-Walsh (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Amber Kerr-Allison (co-Professional Education and Training)

Caroline Roberts (co-Professional Education and Training)

Rachael Perkins Arenstein (AIC e-Editor)

Rebecca Rushfield (ETC Liaison)

1. Basecamp orientation and training (Rachael) – Rachael conducted training on Basecamp and did an overview of the basic features.

a. General notes – Everyone controls their own username and password, not Ryan or Rachael. In order to change this information or your email address, go to account information settings. If you use Basecamp for projects outside of ECPN, you should have only one login username and password but have access to all your different groups through one account.

b. Uploading Files — You can upload different versions of the same file to Basecamp. These versions will appear as different files and be nested on top of each other. You can email people to alert them that you have uploaded a file. Other people can edit files and their versions will appear as separate versions of the file. If more than one person is editing a file, both of their versions will appear as two separate documents.

c. Writeboards —This is a useful tool when a project is in its early stages and formatting is not crucial. The Writeboard can be used to compare different versions of an idea and keep it all in one place. More than one person can edit the Writeboard simultaneously. Rachael suggested that this was a good place to put the meeting minutes so anyone can go in and add to the minutes.

d. Messages —A good place to brainstorm ideas and also archive ideas so people within ECPN in later years can come back and see our ideas. Files can also be attached to the message. These files can be found in the file list under that particular project. Important note: the author of the message can include anyone on the message, but if other people want to be added onto the thread later, only the author can add more people to the recipient list.

e. Calendars —Basecamp calendar can be synced with iCalendar (Apple calendars). Two different types of things can be created on the calendar: events and milestones. An event is of short-duration and had a set beginning and end time. Our monthly conference calls would be examples of events. A milestone is a bigger project that requires different tasks leading up to the milestone that need to be accomplished. A milestone can be assigned to the whole group or just one person; multiple people cannot be assigned with a milestone.

f. To-Dos—To-Do lists can be created to organize projects. A full description can be given for what the to-list pertains to. To-Dos can be added to milestones. One can comment on a To-Do list and have multiple To-Do lists going at once.

2. Minutes – 13 October 2011 meeting minutes were approved (Molly)—Molly suggested that we start putting the agenda on the Writeboard for everyone to look over before the next meeting.

3. Student Research Database (Carrie and Amber)—Carrie and Amber have been working on creating an online platform for student work to be accessed. Right now, they are trying to gauge interest in this project from graduate schools. They are still discussing whether it will be a database or website. When talking to contacts at the graduate schools, some issues were raised, such as how it would be supported financially and who would contribute the up-front costs. In order to gauge interest, they have put together a questionnaire of what they would like to ask grad school programs. This document has been uploaded to Basecamp. They plan that the responses to this survey will inform a budget and a second proposal. Reaching out to Abby Aldrich was also discussed because she expressed interest in getting involved. She can help with the continuation of the project when Amber steps down.

4. Allied Professionals List (Eliza)—The list of Allied Professionals is being updated and expanded and is currently on Basecamp. The pre-existing list on AIC was checked and updated. Carrie and Amber are getting together more organizations we can call our allies and those have been added to the Writeboard. Eliza said some doubts had come up about some of the organizations. She will send out an email with further details.

5. Outreach Coordinators’ Questions (Anisha)—Anisha asked about how we would like to proceed with forum calls. Molly suggested putting ideas about the subject of future forum calls on Basecamp. Anisha also asked about moving to the AIC blog. Ryan said we can move whenever we want to. ECPN will get authors’ privileges and will post on the blog with the tag “Emerging Conservator.” When we want to move is something that the group needs to discuss more. When we decide when to move, Rachael Perkins Arenstein can give us all a tutorial about using the new blog. In general, Ryan does not need to be informed of blog ideas but it may be a good idea to run administrative issues by him. Stephanie would like to be cc’d on emails about blog ideas and posts.

6. Email Blasts (Molly)—Ryan said it would not be wise to do email blasts too frequently so people are not annoyed by too many emails. He can do email blasts before forum calls or if we would like to really advertise a particular initiative. For most other things, continue advertising through the blog or Facebook page.

The next meeting was confirmed to be on Monday, November 21 at 1pm EST.

Respectfully submitted,

Anisha Gupta

Next deadline to apply for Professional Associate (PA) status is January 1

2011-11-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

If you completed your conservation training 3 years ago (or more), you may now be eligible to apply for Professional Associate (PA) status. Being a PA comes with many benefits, including approval for listing in the online guide Find a Conservator and eligibility to apply for Individual Professional Development Scholarship s, which help defray costs for professional development activities, including attending workshops, courses and conferences (excluding the AIC annual meeting).

The next application deadline is January 1. The application involves submitting examples of your work, including condition and treatment reports, lab reports and research papers, and obtaining 3 sponsors, such as current or former supervisors who are AIC members with PA or Fellow status.

Are you wondering if you are eligible to apply or do you have questions about the application process? You can find more information about the necessary qualifications and the application form here.

Please give us your feedback! We’d like to know what you think about PA status, and if you have recently qualified as a PA, we’d love to hear from you about what the process was like. Also, if you have any questions that we might be able to help answer, please let us know! Stay tuned to the blog and our facebook page for more information.

October 13th Meeting Minutes

2011-11-11T11:42:00.000-08:00

ECPN MEETING MINUTES

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Conference Call Attendees:
Ruth Seyler (Staff Liaison)

Ryan Winfield (Staff Liaison)

Stephanie Lussier (Board liaison)

Molly Gleeson (Chair)

Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)

Amy Brost (Communications officer)

Anisha Gupta (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Megan Salazar-Walsh (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Amber Kerr-Allison (co-Professional Education and Training)

Carrie Roberts (co-Professional Education and Training)

Rose Daly (former Chair)

1. Committee Introductions – each person provided a brief introduction. Everyone should send a couple of sentences to Amy for a “meet the committee” blog post.

2. Brief Committee Overview (Ryan) – started about 4 years ago as part of a larger trend seen in other associations such as AAM, which has a young professionals group. Ruth & Ryan saw a need, from a staff perspective, to engage with students and emerging conservators in a structured way, within AIC. Through trial and error, found a way to engage the audience for the committee (including AIC’s first blog) using social media. Gradually built up and established structure and roles. The mentoring program and annual meeting activities developed into key initiatives, and we have a robust group spanning the “emerging” career spectrum, and many new exciting initiatives. The conference calls started out as more program than committee business, but now they have turned into committee business, even though anyone is welcome to call in. Business Meeting at the annual meeting is for committee business, but programs have been added, such as the Portfolio Session. More growth is anticipated, and this is an exciting time for the committee.

3. Committee Process (Ruth) – Post-graduates and students are a critical group for AIC. Important for Ryan and Ruth to be informed of the group’s activities, to identify synergies within AIC. Use Ryan and Ruth as point of contact and liaisons to other AIC staff. Stephanie, as Board liaison, works on our behalf with the Board. The Board will be approving and providing directives to ECPN, and they appreciate ECPN and what we’ve accomplished. Committee has diversified significantly since the earliest days. Goal to have the committee serve everyone in the “emerging” conservator category, with equal emphasis. Board meets three times per year (IAG meeting will occur in November in conjunction with Board meeting). Molly’s role as Chair includes reporting about ECPN to the AIC Board.

4. Communications Overview (Amy) – Her role involves print media, such as the 2011 AIC meeting poster and flier, and ANAGPIC flier, writing and soliciting blog content, writing at times for AIC News, being involved with the Publications Committee and Wikis as an ECPN representative. As Wikis develop, will act as liaison for specialty groups looking to leverage help from emerging conservators to populate Wikis. Act as ECPN secretary (taking and posting meeting minutes).

5. Professional Education and Training Overview (Amber) – Communicating to the different universities involved with training in conservation, and working with ETC to look at their website and generate ideas, contributions for it (working with Stephanie). Move forward on a student research repository initiative and develop liaison positions for each of the conservation training programs. Surveyed the ECPN members at the beginning, and a follow-up two years ago to see what people’s interests were and how ECPN could serve them. The Portfolio Session was a new initiative this year, and this program involved coordinating participation by the programs and coordinating the on-site execution. This initiative was very successful and it can grow in new directions, perhaps helping to connect emerging conservators to job opportunities.

6. Student Research Repository (Carrie) – Exploring how to meet the needs of the students and training programs. At the 2011 AIC meeting, discussed the concerns and interests of students and training program faculty and staff. Questionnaire being developed to see how the initiative could be supported and populated with research content. The repository will be an ECPN/AIC joint initiative, with cooperation from the educational institutions.

7. Poster Abstract (Carrie) – For AIC 2012 meeting. Collecting case studies. May have an interactive component, to showcase emerging conservators’ blogs, etc. Awaiting acceptance notification. Carrie is reaching out to people to solicit content for case studies. Abstract is general, overarching, so some flexibility in the selection of case studies. If abstract is accepted, Amy, Anisha, and Megan to work on poster, and pick up Comments from Facebook and Blog with ideas for case studies.

8. Chair and Vice-Chair Overview (Molly and Eliza) – Began drafting documents describing roles (Vice-Chair is a new position). Share organizational roles and project/team leadership. Mentoring program, annual meeting organization, Angels Project, allied professionals lists, student research repository are all projects they’ll be directly involved in. Molly’s Chair duties involve making reports to the Board will be hers solely, but other duties can be shared with Eliza working as second-in-command.

9. Committee Communication (Stephanie) – Stephanie mentioned that communication between committee members and the Chair and Vice-Chair should be enhanced – the Chair and Vice-Chair need to be aware of what everyone is working on, and any critical developments. The creation of the Vice-Chair position helps relieve the burden on the Chair, and also gives ECPN a more formal structure like the other AIC committees. This structure provides for continuity by having the Vice-Chair ultimately move into the Chair position.

10. Agenda Development (Molly) – standing items include an update from each officer, but items can be added by emailing the Chair before the meeting.

11. Basecamp for ECPN (Amy & Ryan) – Amy suggested ECPN use Basecamp to organize committee documents and discussions, and has experience using it through the Publications Committee. Ryan asked Rachael Perkins Arenstein about ECPN using Basecamp, and the licenses are available. Ryan will follow up with Rachael to obtain licenses for ECPN and arrange for Basecamp training during a future call.

12. Outreach Overview (Anisha & Megan) – Molly will set up a call with Heather, Amy, Ryan, Anisha, and Megan. Pick up any projects Heather was working on. Ryan to set up Anisha & Megan’s blog author privileges and admin status for Facebook. Projects Heather initiated, including a networking toolkit and organizing webinars, will be continued. In the past, selection of topics has been democratic and open to whoever wants to write, with committee agreement. Develop blogging strategies – keep a running list of ideas and then use it to identify potential authors and prioritize topics. Keep momentum by having steady activity on social media. Committee members are encouraged to write, comment, and participate actively on the committee’s social media sites.

13. Terms (Molly) – Terms have been irregular in the past, but now ECPN will bring the terms in line with those used by other committees. The terms will last for a year and turn over at each AIC annual meeting. Amber felt that the Chair position could benefit from being a longer term, because of the nature of the projects the Chair undertakes and leads.

Current terms:

1. Molly-will serve as Chair for approximately 1 year 8 months

2. Eliza, Megan and Anisha-will serve 8 month terms with the option for renewal for a second term. If Eliza chooses to stay on for a second “term,” will then become Chair for one year after Molly steps down.

3. Amy will serve until AIC 2012.

4. Carrie will serve until AIC 2013.

5. Amber will serve until December 2011.

14. Rose (former Chair) joined to indicate that she was available to answer any questions that arise.

15. Anisha will take minutes for 10/31 call, which Amy is unable to attend. The future calls will be on the 3rd Monday of each month, starting in November. The previous month’s minutes (for review prior to approval) and agenda will be sent out on the Friday before each call.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Brost

NARA technician positions

2011-10-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

The National Archives and Records Administration Conservation Branch wishes to hire two Conservation Technicians to work on a grant-funded, two-year project to preserve and make available a collection of flood-damaged, largely 19th-20th c Hebraic and Arabic books and documents.

As a member of the project team, the successful candidates will assist with conservation treatments to stabilize and prepare selected books and archival materials for digitization and exhibition, collection housing, packing materials for shipment and other project activities.
This position is a term federal appointment. Knowledge of Hebrew and/or Arabic is desirable but not mandatory. The work location is at the modern and well-equipped Archives II building in College Park, MD, a close-in suburb of Washington, DC.

Job and application information is at http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/301817300 under job announcement number JD555155DGA Conservation Technician. The vacancy announcements closing date: Friday, November 18.

If you are interested in this position, or seek additional information, contact Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler, Director, Conservation Branch or Doris Hamburg, Director, Preservation Programs

Deadline for Jan Merrill-Oldham Professional Development Grant December 1, 2011

2011-10-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Award is established by the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) to honor the career and influence of Jan Merrill-Oldham, distinguished leader, author, and mentor in the field of library and archives preservation.

Over the past three decades Ms. Merrill-Oldham has been instrumental in the development of standards and best practices, writing more than forty publications including co-authoring the Guide to the ANSI/NISO/LBI Library Binding Standard, a document used by almost all libraries and commercial library binders. Ms. Merrill-Oldham has served on key committees within ALCTS, ALA, the Association of Research Libraries, the Council on Library and Information Resources, the National Information Standards Organization and many others. She has educated and mentored countless preservation librarians and conservators and her support for students and dedication to the field serves as a model to all of us. In September of 2010, Ms. Merrill-Oldham announced her retirement after a long and notable career in library and archives preservation. In December 2010, she was named the recipient of the ALCTS Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes Jan Merrill-Oldham’s wide ranging contributions, deep commitment to the field of library and archives preservation, and her undying support of young professionals by supporting participation in an ALA Annual Conference.

It is important however to encourage new and young preservation librarians and staff to further pursue their professional development. A significant part of that involvement is to attend the ALA Annual Conference to network and learn from their colleagues. Ms. Merrill-Oldham over her career has dedicated herself to mentoring young professionals and it is in recognition of that service that an award that supports professional development and involvement by librarians and para-professionals new to the preservation field be established.

The Jan Merrill-Oldham Professional Development Grant is awarded by the ALCTS Preservation and Reformatting Section to provide librarians and paraprofessionals new to the preservation field with the opportunity to attend a professional conference and encourages professional development through active participation at the national level. The grant is to be used for airfare, lodging, and registration fees to attend the ALA Annual Conference.

For more information, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/awards/grants/jmogrant.cfm.

News Updates: Eligibility for George Stout Grants and PA Status

2011-10-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

George Stout Scholarships Now Open to Recent Graduates

Exciting news for recent conservation program grads! If you have graduated from a conservation program within the last two years, you are now eligible to apply for the George Stout Memorial Fund to help defray expenses (up to $1000) to attend professional meetings (previously, student enrollment was a requirement). The deadline for receipt of applications is December 15. You can find a link to the application form at www.conservation-us.org/grants

Emerging Conservators Encouraged to Apply for PA Status

For those of you who have been out of school longer than 2 years, you are probably either eligible or nearly eligible to apply to become a Professional Associate (PA) of AIC. If this is the case for you, now is a good time to think about applying to become a PA. There are many benefits that come along with PA status, including eligibility to apply for Individual Professional Development Scholarships and approval to be listed in the online guide Find a Conservator. For questions about preparing your PA application or the application process and requirements, please contact Ruth Seyler at rseyler [at] conservation-us [dot] org or 202.661.8062. PA application deadlines are January 1, May 1, July 10, and October 1, and a link to the application can be found at www.conservation-us.org/peerreview.

New ECPN Officers

2011-09-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

ECPN was very fortunate to have so many strong candidates interested in a leadership role on the committee. We are pleased to announce the following new officers:

Chair

Molly Gleeson

San Diego, CA

Vice Chair

Eliza Spaulding

Philadelphia, PA

Outreach Co-Coordinator

Anisha Gupta

Champaign, IL

Outreach Co-Coordinator

Megan Salazar-Walsh

Buffalo, NY

Carrie Roberts will continue as Professional Education and Training Coordinator, Amber Kerr-Allison will continue as Professional Development and Training Coordinator through December, and Amy Brost will continue as Communications Coordinator.

Please join us in thanking outgoing Chair Rose Cull and outgoing Outreach Coordinator Heather Brown for all their hard work to help make ECPN what it is today.

The officers are looking forward to an exciting and productive year for ECPN. Please note that our monthly meeting time will be changing, so stay tuned for more information on the committee call schedule for the coming year.

Art Conservation Training Programs Outside the USA

2011-09-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

Talk to anyone in the profession, and you may hear that a lot has changed in the art conservation field. In the past, conservators often toiled behind the scenes, but in recent years conservation has become a much more visible profession. Today, some museums have conservation labs open to public view. Many institutions and private conservators use social media to get the word out about their work, and exhibitions and the accompanying catalogues often feature the contributions and perspectives of conservators. As a result, more and more people discover conservation, making entry into an academic training program more competitive than ever.

As a prospective student in the US, one way to expand your ideas about your future in the profession might be to consider undergraduate or graduate study outside of the United States and Canada. If you have the flexibility and desire to explore another country and culture, one of these programs might be for you. Some of them offer training in specialties that might mesh with your specific interests and experience, enabling you to make a strong application. (Anyone interested in building and conserving clocks? Set your sights on West Dean!) These programs are often just as competitive as those in the US, if not more so (The Courtauld Institute program accepts eight students once every three years). However, some have a stated interest in receiving applications from candidates outside the country. Perhaps your experiences will bring diversity to the composition of an incoming class, strengthening your application in that way.

If you are not aware of it, Queen’s University in Kingston (Ontario, Canada) has a highly respected graduate program:

http://www.queensu.ca/art/artconservation.html

Here are a few universities in the UK that offer graduate programs in English. Be sure to contact the schools you are interested in to fully understand how the degrees correspond to those awarded in the US. For example, in the UK, the “first degree” is the bachelor’s and is a 3-year program. Then, you would read for a graduate diploma, usually one year, and a post-graduate diploma after that. Following that, the master’s degree can be earned.

West Dean College

West Sussex, UK

MA, Conservation Studies

Graduate and Post Graduate Diplomas in Books & Library Materials, Clocks, Ceramics, Furniture, Metalwork. Programs in Stringed Instruments and Buildings, Interiors, and Sites.

http://www.westdean.org.uk/West%20Dean%20Prospectus%2011-12.pdf

Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK

MA, Conservation (2-year program new in 2011)

Art on Paper, or Books & Archival Materials

http://www.camberwell.arts.ac.uk/courses/coursesbylevel/graduateschoolcourses/maconservation2year/

Cardiff University, Wales

School of History, Archaeology, and Religion

BSc, Conservation

MSc, Conservation Practice

Cultural heritage, archaeological materials

http://www.cf.ac.uk/share/degreeprogrammes/archaeology/postgraduate/

City & Guilds of London Art School

BA, Conservation Studies (Stone and wood sculpture)

Post Graduate Diplomas in Conservation

http://www.cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk/departments/conservation

The Courtauld Institute, London

MA, Conservation of Wall Painting

Post Graduate Diploma in the Conservation of Easel Paintings

http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/degreeprogrammes/postgraduate/index.shtml

Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge, UK

Postgraduate Diploma, Easel Paintings

http://www-hki.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/courses/

Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Conservation, Department of Arts within the School of Arts and Social Sciences

MA, Conservation of Fine Art (paintings or works on paper)

MA, Preventive Conservation

http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/sass/about/arts/subart/cu/?view=Standard

Bucks New University, Buckinghamshire, UK

BA, MA Conservation of Furniture and Decorative Arts

http://bucks.ac.uk/en?t=/customCode/courseFinder/view/course&ParentID=1295428942034&courseCode=MD1CFD1&tab=1

London Metropolitan University, London, UK

MA, Conservation (Wood and metal objects; decorative surfaces, architectural interiors)

http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/pgprospectus/courses/conservation-of-decorative-surfaces.cfm

Lincoln School of Art & Design

University of Lincoln, UK

MA, Conservation of Historic Objects

http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/lsad/_courses/postgraduate/conservation_of_historic_objects/Default.asp

For archaeological materials, be sure to look into Cardiff (above), UCL Institute of Archaeology in London, offering the MSc (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/studying/masters/degrees/msc_conservation), and Durham University’s MA program (http://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/postgraduate/ma_conservation/).

This list is by no means comprehensive. For example, this list focused on art conservation, but there are a number of programs for buildings and architectural conservation, as well as many schools offering conservation courses. You should definitely visit the “Training” page of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) at http://www.iccrom.org/db_train.php. There, you can search for programs around the world by specialty. Listings indicate the language of instruction. If you happen to explore another program in detail, please let us know so you can write a post about it for this blog! And if there’s a great program you think our readers should know about, feel free to add it in a Comment and provide a link.

Publishing Opportunity for Emerging Conservators: WAAC

2011-09-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

WAAC, the Western Association for Art Conservation, is a nonprofit membership organization for professional conservators. WAAC was founded in 1975 to bring together conservators practicing in the western United States to exchange ideas, information and news. Although WAAC is specifically a regional organization for the western states including Alaska and Hawaii, any individual or institution may become a member regardless of location or national boundary.

The WAAC Newsletter is published three times per year, in January, May and September. Over the last few years, each issue has been 28-32 pages long. The Newsletter contains feature articles, regional news, a technical exchange column, a health and safety column, conference reviews, an events calendar, positions available and a publications section. Newsletters are available online at the website approximately 6 months after publication.

Students and emerging conservators are welcome to submit content to the Newsletter, especially feature articles or items for the Technical Exchange section. Feature articles can be from any specialty area, or they can focus on a more general topic, such as philosophy, basic science, new technology, exhibition/display, disaster recovery, preservation, and/or business practices.

Also, as of March 2011, authors submitting content for the newsletter can also include a video component. This would be a short clip designed to function as a “video illustration” for a specific point in a written article, much like a traditional figure. The maximum length is five minutes. Complete video submission guidelines are also available on the website. This could enrich your written content and also perhaps expand what you can demonstrate in your article.

If you are not familiar with WAAC but feel you should be, you’re in luck – the group’s Annual Meeting is scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas on October 19-22, 2011. You can download the registration form here.

Publishing Opportunity for Emerging Conservators: Write a Book Review for JAIC

2011-09-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

Emerging conservators developing confidence in an area of expertise should consider writing a book review for a print publication or online forum. One publication actively seeking submissions is the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC), the peer-reviewed journal of AIC.

According to Harriet K. Stratis, Book Review Editor for the JAIC, there are many books available for reviews, and she welcomes submissions from emerging conservators.

However, to write a successful review, you must be a strong writer and choose a topic to which you can bring a high level of expertise and insight. While this could be a tall order for an emerging conservator, there could be texts that are directly relevant to your education, experience, and current research. If you are interested in learning about the available titles for review, contact Harriet directly; she is at The Art Institute of Chicago and is listed in the AIC Member Directory. Then, if you identify a text you would like to review, you might want to identify an advisor or mentor who can give you tips and feedback before you submit.

For your reference, the complete “Guidelines for JAIC Book Reviewers” appear below:

GUIDELINES FOR JAIC BOOK REVIEWERS

The purpose of the review is to give readers a sense of the strengths and weaknesses of a publication, and to acknowledge whatever contribution the publication makes to the field and to the literature. The review should succinctly describe the contents of the publication being reviewed. The intended audience, as stated by the authors or as implied, should be identified, and the success with which the book deals with its subject for that audience should be evaluated. Reviewers are encouraged to critically assess the information found in the publication, as well as the method of presentation and point of view, as appropriate. If the publication makes a contribution, for example, of new information, or of compiling previously scattered information, or of publicly voicing for the first time a particular point of view, the contribution should be noted and its relative importance acknowledged.

Reviews of more than one publication on a particular subject are encouraged. Such reviews should provide the information noted above, and in addition may include the reviewer’s assessment of the relative successes of the publications in dealing with aspects of the general subject matter that they share.

Reviews may be of two general types: reviews of single publications and reviews of two or more publications. Suggested maximum length for reviews of single publications is 1000-2000 words (approximately 4-8 typewritten pages). Review of multiple publications may be proportionately longer.

The review should begin with standard bibliographic information and availability, in the following order: 1. Author; 2. Title of Book; 3. City: Publisher, 20XX; 4. xxx pages, hardcover, $xx; 5. (If applicable) AIC member price $xx; 6. (If applicable) Available from Name of Organization, address; 7. ISBN xxxx. The review should end with the reviewer’s name and complete working or institutional address.

Manuscripts must be typed in a 10 or 12 point standard typeface, with paragraphs indented, double-spaced, with reviewer’s name and page number in the upper right corner of each page, and a 1 inch margin or more on all sides.

Reviews will be edited by the Book Review Editor in consultation with the Editor, and sometimes with an Associate Editor in the appropriate specialty. No change in the substance of the text will be made without consulting the reviewer. The Editor of JAIC is the final authority in matters of content. Reviews will be copy edited by the paid copy editors who handle all Journal articles. The reviewer will receive page proofs.

Send the review by e-mail to Harriet K. Stratis (see the AIC Member Directory for details).

Publishing Opportunities for Students and Emerging Conservators: e-conservation magazine

2011-09-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

Online publications and forums offer tremendous opportunities to connect with the conservation community worldwide. One online journal, e-conservation magazine, is a bimonthly publication focusing on the conservation of cultural heritage. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, the magazine includes news, reviews, project reports, and other content as approved by the editorial board. It is published exclusively online, both as a PDF and on a website: http://www.e-conservationline.com/

The magazine is an Open Access project, so all issues are free. The editorial board is comprised of conservators and conservation scientists. The magazine is actively seeking papers on a broad range of topics, including treatment case studies, preventive conservation, documentation, theory, and conservation science. Articles from other fields that relate to conservation and restoration are also welcome. Emerging conservators developing confidence in an area of expertise could consider writing a book review of a conservation text.

Prospective authors may check the suitability of their submission before writing a full paper or article by using the preliminary submission form on the website. In particular, this could be a useful route for students who are interested in publishing in the magazine, and want to utilize their time most effectively. The magazine hopes this will encourage student submissions; in the past, e-conservation magazine has published articles, conference and book reviews, case studies, and project reports written by students.

While there are submission deadlines listed on the website, full and preliminary submissions are accepted at any time and are evaluated for the next available issue.

If you are interested in publishing in e-conservation magazine, visit the website for complete information, and to read the current issue as well as issues from the archive.

Below are some helpful links to get you started:

· The details about how to submit articles of any sort, including book reviews, can be found at: http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/view/20/114/

· The email address for submissions is submission [at] e-conservationline.com

· The preliminary submission form can be found at:

http://e-conservationline.com/index.php?option=com_performs&formid=2

· The submission deadlines can be found at: http://www.econservationline.com/content/view/503/116/

Even if you’re not ready to submit an article, this is definitely a publication to bookmark and read regularly. You can also find e-conservation on Facebook and Twitter, and you can follow their daily online newspaper (http://paper.li/econservation/econservation-daily), so there are several ways to stay plugged in to this valuable resource.

July Meeting Minutes

2011-09-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

July meeting minutes were approved on the 9/13/11 call.

ECPN MEETING MINUTES

July 21, 2011

Conference Call Attendees:

Rose Cull

Ryan Winfield

Heather Brown

Amy Brost

Rebecca Rushfield

Stephanie Lussier

Stephanie Porto

Amber Kerr-Allison

Gwen Manthey

Ruth Seyler

I. June Minutes

a. Not everyone received the June minutes. Rose will send out again. Call for approval will occur on the next call.

II. Officer Vacancies

a. Transition of officers: Ruth suggested a two-year term for the chair position for continuity purposes, with all other committee positions at one year. Also, she recommends the chair be a few years out of a graduate program – if possible, a PA – in order to provide guidance to all levels of emerging conservators. Rose mentioned that the new chair should also have a different background than herself, and thus different ideas. Stephanie Lussier suggested the term follow the same timeline as the other AIC committees, beginning right after the annual meeting. Rose and Ruth are going to reach out to a few individuals they believe would suit the position and may be interested. Those nearing the end of a grad program are busiest. Someone with 1-2 years experience may be more willing to make the time commitment.

b. Those on the call agreed that inviting candidates was appropriate, especially because the committee is still somewhat new, so members have not had an opportunity to move up through the ranks.

c. There will be a voting process - candidates will be put to the committee for approval.

III. Angels Project 2012

a. Ruth is in the process of exploring sites for the Angels Project in Albuquerque. ECPN will step in once the site is selected to help with marketing, providing volunteers, etc.

b. Moving toward doing two projects at the annual meetings.

IV. Expanding Participation on ECPN Calls

a. The idea came up to attempt to involve the broader ECPN network on calls. Currently, the ECPN officers, staff and board liaisons, and partners participate, but others typically do not.

b. Perhaps invite the full network for a "forum" type of call with a special agenda. Try to get more people involved between being a member of the network and becoming a committee officer.

c. Reach out to East Carolina University, Cardiff, etc. - include students of schools outside of ANAGPIC.

d. The frequency of the “forum” call could be every third or fourth call, depending on how many topics are on the list. One idea for a topic is a discussion of internships. Ryan suggested maintaining a list of topics and then doing a forum call when there are four topics, with a goal to have a full-network call roughly 3 times per year.

e. Perhaps see if any topics are specific projects, and see if volunteers would work on a project basis (research, etc.) and then bring findings/work back to full group for discussion.

V. Mentoring Program

a. Rose is seeking mentors - one for paintings and a few for people without an interest in a specific specialty area. Ryan mentioned that a few mentor applications have come in.

b. The online application form could be updated to include a space to make a note if the person is applying in response to a request to mentor a specific person.

c. Rose will be drafting a mentor invitation letter.

d. Amber asked if perhaps publishing mentee profiles that prospective mentors could browse to see if they were interested? Rose indicated that there would need to be a place on the application to give permission for this.

e. Rose mentioned that conservators could add "mentoring" to their profile in the AIC Directory to show they mentor in some way - whether by taking pre-program people or by participating as a mentor in the Mentoring Program.

f. Important that the mentoring offer not be broad and open-ended, because people want to respond to specific needs, rather than make broad, open-ended commitments to mentor anyone who calls.

VI. Student/Emerging Members

a. Rebecca has drafted a letter to encourage the committees and SG's to have student/emerging members. It will be emailed out to all specialty groups and AIC committees. Rose will send the final letter to ECPN dist list.

b. Could take it back to the program heads to show them that opportunities exist for students to get involved.

c. Rose is writing an article for AIC News about this.

VII. Annual Meeting 2011 ECPN Survey Results

a. Ryan will send out to everyone. Nothing too unexpected. Most people attended the Portfolio Review, followed by attending the Informational Meeting and viewing the poster.

b. Most people found out about ECPN events through the meeting program, followed by email and Facebook.

c. The highest rated event was the Portfolio Session, followed by the poster.

d. Most people by far wanted to see a dinner or Happy Hour take place outside of the annual meeting (84.2%), and there was also high interest in a Portfolio Session and Informational Meeting outside of the AIC meeting.

e. Roughly 1/3 of the respondents were conservators, 1/3 graduate students, 1/3 pre-program. The smallest number was undergrads or people in related fields.

f. Most people prefer email as a way to keep up with ECPN. We don't do much email now, so perhaps enhance that.

g. Most people, over half, want to participate in a future Angels Project (57.1%). Next was participating in Mentoring Program (nearly 40%). Smaller interest in a future Portfolio Session or serving on a committee.

h. Ryan will send any comments that respondents wrote in, but there were not many. Most were very positive comments about the Portfolio Session.

VIII. Outreach

a. Heather Brown will be attending graduate school in the fall, so this will most likely be her last ECPN call as Outreach Coordinator.

b. Ryan will give Heather list of people interested in blogging.

c. Amber noted some summer interns, etc. have blogs. Suggested Heather ask if they will guest-blog for ECPN.

d. Overhaul blog when AIC website updated. Move to different platform?

e. Ryan indicated that the new website is still being discussed, so what will happen with the blog is not yet known. Discussion is slated for the end of the summer. New website launch date slated for October. New blog will most likely be a Wordpress format that integrates better with the CMS.

f. Heather is doing a networking toolkit, like AAM's. Many people want to network with people in their area. She is working on a blog post on this.

g. Heather/Amber suggested a map, or way to show where network members are located. Perhaps do this in partnerships with the regional guilds.

h. Washington and Philadelphia will have new liaisons. Amber will see if Richmond area can identify a liaison also.

IX. Communications

a. After completing the flier and poster, the Communications project load is fairly light. Amy is working on several blog posts.

b. Amber suggested tapping into the Public Outreach/Engagement theme for Albuquerque. Develop a poster about how emerging conservators are leveraging social media and other tactics to create awareness of their activities. Solicit input from network. Session? Poster? Panel? See what ECPN can contribute to 2012 annual meeting on this theme.

X. Education & Training Updates

a. Amber has the survey results from the graduate meeting at AIC and the student research repository meeting. Those results will be shared in an upcoming call.

b. Attaining PA status: More PA's could be a way to bring in more mentors. Talk to graduate programs about how to discuss this more. Draft something for the programs to send to their graduates. Encourage PA status among post-graduate fellows. Make the case for being a PA for conservators. But also have a list for why people within and outside the field should care about PA's and Fellows. Now that the debate about certification is behind us, perhaps time for another push for the PA program.

XI. ECC Update

a. CAC Board now has an emerging conservator. Meaghan Monaghan is a co-chair of the ECC, and there are a few new members. The group is in a state of transition. CAC is revamping its website. ECC will have a new presence on the new CAC website.

XII. Communication with Grad Programs outside ANAGPIC

a. First have blog posts about them, and then once the programs learn about each other, look for ways to collaborate.

b. IIC in September (panel) - at the conference, Amber will talk to them about blogging for ECPN

XIII. Emerging Museum Professionals Group for AAM

a. Panel on conservation training, at the 2013 meeting. Rose suggested that the AAM proposal be revisited in March.

The next call will be August 18 at 1:00 pm ET.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Brost

June Meeting Minutes

2011-09-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

June meeting minutes were approved on the 9/13/11 call.

ECPN conference call Agenda June 16, 2011 1PM EST

Call 1- 866-225-4944. ID: 9992396916

Stephanie Lussier

Emily Williams

Carrie Roberts

Heather Brown

Rose Cull

Ryan Winfield

Annual meeting recap

Informational Meeting – next year it would be helpful to have a bigger room, more introductory information about the ECPN and what it is, a packet including an agenda, previous meetings minutes, and the flier about ECPN which can be distributed to all attendees at the informational meeting to give more information about the group.

Happy Hour – It was really successful and we thought it was good to keep it casual next year. Rose estimated around 40 people attended the happy hour, and it included emerging conservators who had a chance to network amongst themselves and established conservators who were interested or looking for interns.

Portfolio Session – next year a bigger room and an additional table would make the session more comfortable. Perhaps in a thoroughfare would encourage more dropping by and make the session more casual. There was some concern expressed that this portfolio session could mis-represent the requirements to be accepted into a particular graduate program. Carrie and Amber will approach their contacts at the graduate programs, give them a summary of how successful the portfolio session was, thank them for their participation and the participation of their students, and in a conversational way discuss the future of this project or a similar project at the 2012 meeting. Please CC Rose on this conversation.

Angels Project – Angels 2011 had a good turn out and Rose has written up a summary on the AIC blog. For Angels 2012 Rose was hoping there could be a public art project similar to the work Richard McCoy is doing on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Public_art) Stephanie will follow-up with the AIC board and Ruth Seyler and see if an ABQ saving public art project for Angels 2012 would work.

The Education and Training meeting about student research was well-attended and productive, representatives from: Buffalo, UCLA/Getty, Delaware, Jerry Podany, talked about the model the database should take, whether on CoOL or on university websites, abstracting student work and putting those on AATA would be a huge benefit. A url link to the .pdf of the student work could go on AATA. ECPN will contact the graduate programs about what types of research their students produce, since the students carry out different types of projects, there are certain types of projects produced by different programs. Students could abstract their work, but the full text may be owned by the university.

The ETC general meeting welcomed Emily Williams as the new chair of ETC.

A survey will be going out in the next few days to those who signed up at the ECPN informational meeting. There were many interested inquiries and it is hoped the survey will better direct the ECPN to interested individuals who would like to stay involved.

The Mentoring Program is still looking for more mentor applications, Rose will mail an application to David Bayne and Lynn Grant, and encourage others who expressed interest to become PA’s. Ryan is sending an e-mail blast to PA s and Fellows next week. In the future, ECPN could ask to have names submitted for mentors and then contact those directly. Rose is following up with Stephanie about the mentoring program.

PA Status

The ECPN is promoting the attainment of PA status, and there has been discussion about how to best go about promoting this. A few conversations at the annual meeting reminded member of ECPN about the differences in what is required to be a PA and what conservators believe is required. It was interesting to note that most applicants for PA status include more information than they need to and do not specifically answer some of the ethical questions that are posed as part of the application. The ECPN will partner with the North American graduate programs to encourage the attainment of PA status for students with 3+ years of experience.

Call for new committee members

(Chair, Vice-Chair, Outreach) please direct those interested to Rose Cull

ECPN Archives

Time to organize the archives for the ECPN, this will include minutes from all meetings, all publication materials, and additional materials – individual committee members will send Ryan the digital files and he will save them to the server. Amy and Heather will send Ryan copies of the minutes, Amber and Carrie will send Ryan copies of proposal they wrote for the student research repository and relevant communication with graduate programs about the portfolio session, Rose will send her application for a discussion at AAM, and any other relevant information you would like included in the archive should be sent.

Suggestions from annual meeting – involve more students in programs like the East Carolina Maritime studies program - http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cas/maritime/ Stephanie suggested contacting her classmate Emily O’Brien about working as a conservator with archaeologists. Emily Williams is interested in ECPN having more outreach in archaeological conservation, especially international to include: UCL, Cardiff, and Durham in the UK. Emily is following up with an intern in her lab who is currently a student in the Cardiff program. ICCROM has a search function to find graduate programs by country which could also be useful in making contacts (http://www.iccrom.org/db_train.php) Actually having a project these students could contribute to would be necessary to build this relationship.

We were very happy with using social media to get the word out about events at the AIC annual meeting. Next year the AIC twitter would be available to post more updates about ECPN events.

Communications

Amy submitted communications updates by e-mail:

I collected a number of names of people who could write blog content. I will follow up and facilitate the development of posts on:

1. Conservation education programs in other countries;

2. Voices of people in the conservation field who did not go the route of an art conservation graduate program for their training

I will write the following posts:

1. Complete the book reviews post;

2. Conservator oral history project spearheaded by Joyce Hill-Stoner;

3. Overview of programs by Heritage Preservation, based on their annual meeting, which I attended during AIC

On our next call I can provide an update on the Publications and Wiki meetings I attended during AIC. Progress on both is slow but steady.

Respectfully Submitted,

Rose Cull

Publishing Opportunities for Emerging Conservators: News In Conservation IIC Newsletter

2011-09-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) is a London-based membership organization with worldwide reach. IIC members come not only from the conservation community, but also from many other fields engaged in cultural heritage preservation.

IIC is particularly committed to emerging conservators. In fact, as a reminder, the organization is hosting the “Student and Emerging Conservator Conference – Conservation: Futures and Responsibilities” on September 16-17 in London. Presentations can be viewed as live web broadcasts, so if you can’t make it to London, you can still see the sessions via streaming video. (Visit the website (www.iiconservation.org) or see the 7/14/11 announcement on this blog for details.)

As an extension of its support for emerging conservators, IIC welcomes their contributions to its newsletter, News in Conservation, which is published six times per year. Just this month, the newsletter completed an exciting transformation to an all-digital format, which will soon present new opportunities for authors to include live links and other web-enabled features in their articles. The new editor, Barbara Borghese, would especially encourage emerging conservators to submit articles ranging from news features and longer articles to shorter items for “News in Brief.” One suggested topic would be to report on internships and fellowships, with descriptions of the treatments and projects carried out at the host institutions. Another topic of interest would be reports from emerging conservators who have attended courses, workshops or seminars, particularly local or less-publicized ones.

The next deadline for submission of long features is November 1st for the December issue. Anything else such as news articles, news in brief, reports etc. can be submitted up until two weeks prior to publication. If you have an idea for a submission to News in Conservation but you have questions or would like some advice, you can contact Barbara at news [at] iiconservation [dot] org, or start by visiting the web page for the newsletter, where you can download the “Guidelines for Authors” PDF.

At a future date, IIC may have a need for contributors to its blog, but not at the present time. In the coming months, IIC plans to enhance its blog, as well as its presence on Facebook and Twitter, so keep an eye out for those developments. In the meantime, visit the website, which has a “Students” section, and consider becoming a Student member for around $30 US (for full-time conservation students). If you are not a conservation student, anyone can become an Individual member for around $90 US. The subscription year just started; it runs from July 1, 2011 to July 1, 2012. It would be great for each of us to get involved with IIC at a time when the group is doing so much to reach out to our community of emerging conservators.

Discussion with Sculpture Conservator MC Reiley

2011-09-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

MC Reiley, Associate Director of Preservation and Conservation at The Central Park Conservancy (CPC), came to his current position by an interesting route. After receiving a BFA in sculpture and art history, he trained at a foundry and also studied masonry conservation and historic preservation. He is currently responsible for the preservation and conservation of the monuments and structures in Central Park, located in the heart of New York City. Each summer, he selects a small group of conservation students for the Monuments Conservation Internship Program, offered by CPC with a grant from The Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation Inc. and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. This paid internship gives participants the opportunity to participate in a range of conservation projects and develop their skills in hands-on examination, documentation, routine maintenance, and conservation treatments. He also started the AbOmInOg Intl. Arts Collective in Trenton, New Jersey, which nurtures creative metalworking talent. Since many of the readers of the ECPN blog are aspiring conservators, we asked him to share more about his career path with us.

Q. You originally studied sculpture. How did you find out about the conservation profession, and how did you get started?

A. Growing up my father was a collector of arms and armor, which he also restored with the help of fellow collectors and a conservator or two. I liked lending a hand with his various projects and that experience helped steer me towards sculpture. After college, I entered into an apprenticeship in a fine art foundry where I had a stint in the painting and conservation department. I first began practicing outdoor sculpture conservation full time when I joined the Conservancy in 2003.

Q. How did your hands-on experience in a foundry make you a better conservator today?

A. The experience helped me gain an intimate perspective on the materials and techniques of the foundry process and exposed me to the work of seasoned artists, designers, craftsmen, engineers and conservators. After I left, I wanted to make my own sculpture so I built a foundry and started a small art services business. I was able to call upon that previously gained knowledge and technique, and practically apply it to my work. I still have relationships with many of these people who are a vital part of my development as an artist and a conservator. We exchange ideas about art, current technologies and materials and critically analyze our work rationale and methods.

Q. Where did you study masonry conservation, and what led you to pursue that training?

A. I first encountered stone as a sculpture material. I am also fascinated with natural history and geology. Consequently, I volunteered as a member of a team collecting fossil material in New Jersey. That painstaking and exciting work coincided with my attending RESTORE and Jahn mortar training, and later laboratory courses at Columbia University. I consider my training to be ongoing because of the daily preservation challenges of the Park and the diverse conservation goals of the CPC, which require abundant research and testing, and afford valuable interactions with consulting conservators and specialized contractors.

Q. You’re also the founder of the AbOmInOg Intl. Arts Collective. When and why did you start the collective, and what kinds of programs and opportunities would it offer for aspiring conservators?

A. AbOmInOg intl Arts Collective sprang into being in 1999 as a homespun alternative to the strictures of a commercial fine art foundry. Over time, the collective has transformed into a collaborative engine, where members share their talent, knowledge and resources as well as the sweat of their brow to create art. The collective is now a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, an arts services organization (fracturedatlas.org). We are presently implementing an internship program and have volunteer opportunities in a variety of areas from hands-on foundry fundamentals and sculpture conservation to archival documentation, organizational development and beyond.

Q. Can you tell us a bit more about AbOmInOg’s upcoming workshop at Grounds for Sculpture? Can anyone participate? More about the workshop can be found here.

A. We aspire to expand our reach into the community with workshops, demonstrations and exhibitions like the one on November 5th at the Grounds For Sculpture in Mercerville, NJ. This workshop is fun and educational. All levels can participate.

Q. Do you think this kind of hands-on experience with metalworking is valuable for aspiring conservators?

A. It certainly is important for much of my work such as outdoor sculpture conservation and restoration, historical recreations, fabrication, rigging and cast-iron repair. The focus of the conservation may be simultaneous wide and sharp. My specialized experience guides my approach but does not define it. Metalworking led me to conservation and perhaps both disciplines will lead me to something else.

Q. What kind of experience are you looking for in the students you select for the summer internship in Central Park?

A. The CPC monuments conservation internship requires that candidates are currently pursuing a graduate degree in historic preservation, objects conservation or a closely related field. Besides this requirement, no specific training or educational experience is obligatory but certain personal qualities are sought. Traits that I look for are reliability, mindfulness, initiative and the ability to work extremely well as a member of a team. The goal of the internship is to provide experience within the annual maintenance regime of monuments collection and select conservation activity.

Q. What advice do you have for aspiring conservators today?

A. I doubt I need to mention that you should love what you do - but I will anyway. I applaud ECPN members for organizing and building relationships amongst themselves and encourage them to cast a wide net in creating an exchange with allied professionals as well as across disciplines, and to practice in a way that imparts to the public the principles and value of the conservation profession.

ECPN thanks MC Reiley for taking the time to share his thoughts with us. You can follow AbOmInOg on Facebook or visit AbOmInOg online at http://www.abominog.org

New Mexico State University Museum Conservation Program

2011-09-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

One of Las Cruces' Beautiful Sunsets

Welcome to Las Cruces, New Mexico! I recently graduated from the Museum Conservation Program at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I am so grateful to have had the experience the program offers and am happy to have the opportunity to present the program to other emerging conservators.
Basically, the program’s requirements are the same as conservation graduate school requirements. Some of the classes can be taken as graduate level classes, but the program is primarily an undergraduate program. Silvia Marinas, the Head of the Museum Conservation Department and a private Conservator herself, engineered the program to fulfill all of the graduate school requirements. This means that you take Art History, Studio Art, Archaeology, Entomology, Museum Studies and Chemistry. In addition, there are four core classes. One of the classes teaches the basics of Collections Care & Management, skills that you later put into practice in an internship with the New Mexico State University Museum. In two other classes, titled Museum Conservation Techniques, you learn the basic restoration techniques for ceramics, paintings on canvas and paintings on metal. Then you put those skills to work on other, real, objects in an Internship class with Silvia Marinas.

New Mexico State University Museum

Overall, the program is structured to be useful in real life. The format in which Silvia Marinas teaches the classes is particularly useful, because she has us create materials that will be useful for us in the future. For instance, from her Collections Care class I have a binder with information on things such as temperature & humidity guidelines, handling, storage, etc., for each kind of museum object. From her Museum Conservation Techniques classes I have condition reports that I created of various types of objects that I can and have referenced when working on similar objects. And overall, the program is structured to fulfill the requirements for graduate schools and Pre-grad internships, so students are well prepared to apply to these places.

Reconstructed Ceramic Vessel from Museum Conservation Techniques Class

The best part of Las Cruces is the people. Las Cruces is primarily a college town but the professors make every effort to let us know what exhibitions, shows or lectures we should attend. There are many cultural events related to the strong Hispanic & American Indian heritage in the area, such as American Indian Week (pictured). The community is tight-knit and friendly. There are farmers’ markets, gallery walks and museumsto explore as well as hiking and outdoor recreation (Las Cruces gets over 350 days of sunshine a year) and great Mexican food.

Dancers at American Indian Week

I would be happy to try and answer questions for other emerging conservators! Here is the link to the Program’s website: http://artdepartment.nmsu.edu/programs/museumcons/index.php?go=home.html

Emerging Conservators and Outreach

2011-09-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

The ECPN is collecting case studies about conservation outreach and we hope those emerging conservators who read this blog would contribute their stories or case studies.

Please include information in the comments section of this post, case studies could include:

Public conservation treatments
Speaking about conservation to collectors, museum visitors, students, etc.
Involving the community in a conservation project
Using social media to reach out about conservation including blogging, facebook, twitter, flickr, and how these sites are helpful to stay connected to conservators and non-conservators alike
Advocating for conservation by contacting Congressional representatives
Reaching out to related museum or arts associations to build networking groups and connect with professionals in related fields

The topics could also include basic 'How to' information like:

How to write a blog post
How to run a Facebook group as an admin
How to write a press release for a conservation project
How to organize a happy hour (Northern Californian Conservators - I am looking at you)
How to explain conservation to a four-year-old, a teenager, a professional in a similar field, a museum visitor

I am looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts and stories/case studies about conservation outreach!

~Rose Cull

Join the ECPN Committee

2011-08-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

EXTENDED SUBMISSION DEADLINE, please see details below...

The Emerging Conservation Professionals Network seeks three new committee members:

Chair, Vice-Chair, and Outreach Coordinator

The Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN) works with various AIC committees to address the needs of conservation professionals with fewer than 7 years of experience. This includes pre-program students, graduate students, and recent graduates. The committee seeks to increase participation in AIC amongst emerging conservators.

The chair position coordinates monthly conference calls, writes agendas for these calls, oversees projects like: the mentoring program, the student research repository, and is responsible for editing all published material about the group. The chair represents the committee to the board of directors and at the Internal Advisory Group meeting, and collaborates on projects with other AIC committees and with representatives from conservation graduate programs. This position holds a term of two years.

The vice-chair is a new position that will oversee all of the ECPN activities at the AIC annual meeting (ECPN informational meeting, happy hour, portfolio session, and any new activities) and the yearly ANAGPIC meeting (there is a speaker each year from the ECPN who attends the ANAGPIC meeting). The vice-chair will also be a logical candidate for taking over the chair position after their one-year term.

The outreach coordinator is in charge of all social media communication including the ECPN blog, Facebook page, Flickr site, and other projects that involve outreach and communications. The outreach coordinator works closely with the communications coordinator, currently Amy Brost. The outreach coordinator may also take over the chair position after completion of a one-year term.

The ECPN communicates primarily via email correspondence and monthly conference calls. The committee meets in-person annually at the AIC meeting.

Please submit a brief statement of interest and your resume to Rose Cull, Chair, AIC-ECPN, (roseemilycull@gmail.com) by September 1, 2011.

Questions about committee activities can be directed to Rose, or ECPN’s current outreach coordinator: Heather Brown (hnmbrown@yahoo.com)

For more information about the ECPN see: www.conservation-us.org/emerging.

Northern California ECPN Meet & Mingle

2011-08-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

When I first emailed Melissa asking if she was interested in meeting up to talk shop about being a pre-program student I was excited to talk with one person. Little did I know, once we both put the word out we would have a group of thirteen!

Our group was so well diversified that all curious questions were answered and if no one knew the answer then there was someone they knew who could help. We made introductions and expressed what we were most interested in. It was amazing to hear the wide variety of backgrounds that brought us all to this career choice. The most important part was that all different levels of interest attended. From the just curious about what this whole art conservation thing is to third year students at Buffalo in their internships and a graduate of the NYU program. We had several who just finished chemistry requirements and are prepping to apply this upcoming winter to others who are working at obtaining lab hours. It was great to meet so many new people and to learn about different programs and internships.

We really encourage others to put the word out in your area and see who responds. It was a great learning experience and a way to meet others who are in the same boat as you. You get to hear stories of others and form a group of associates to reach out to if you ever have questions. We are definitely planning more meetings in the future. In fact, as a result of this meeting many professional conservators have expressed interest in getting to know the emerging conservators of the Bay Area. We will be coordinating a meeting where emerging and professionals can come together in the future.

- Melissa Stone & Jennifer Martinez

Philadelphia Area Conservation Association - Summer Update

2011-07-31T18:30:00.000-07:00

PACA has been working hard this summer to develop our organization and plan events for the fall. We will be distributing PACA’s Bylaws and Officer Descriptions and a working calendar for the rest of 2011 shortly. In the meanwhile, for those of you who were unable to attend, please find Christie Romano’s summary of our event in May that featured Sam Anderson below. Photos of the event are also on our Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63294574@N03/

All the best,
PACA
__________________________________________

PACA Inaugural Event Summary, Christie Romano

On May 24th, 2011, the Philadelphia Area Conservation Association (PACA) held its first event at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The evening’s guest speakers were Samuel Anderson and Eddie Gormley from Samuel Anderson Architects NYC whose talk was titled “Rules and Wisdom of Conservation Lab Design with Insights into Museum Expansion Projects.”

The architects discussed conservation lab renovations completed at the MOMA, the Morgan Library & Museum, Harvard University’s Library, the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, as well as projects within the Gardner Museum and the Barnes Foundation. Sam and Eddie shared insights into designing paper, paintings, objects, textiles, and analytical spaces for conservators by gathering information regarding conservators’ needs and challenges, visiting surrounding labs, working to create sustainability plans, and finally executing renovations based on the input received and institutional stipulations. A reception, sponsored by George Blood Audio & Video, followed in the Mosaic Gallery. The event was well-attended with almost 50 attendees coming from various local institutions and backgrounds. Many of the attendees shared ideas and enthusiasm for future meetings.

"Conservation: Futures and Responsibilities" A new international conference for students and emerging conservators

2011-07-14T08:01:00.001-07:00

16-17 September 2011

IIC is delighted to announce a new international conference for
students and emerging conservators. 'Conservation: Futures and
Responsibilities' will focus on the relationship between
conservation education and the actualities of conservation in
practice. Its aim will be to offer an international perspective and
to facilitate communication between students and emerging
conservators on the one hand and, on the other, professionals active
in the field of conservation in national institutions and museums as
well as in the private sector. The themes discussed will be
supported by visits to some of central London's conservation
studios, at both not-for-profit cultural institutions and
conservation businesses.

The presentations will be held in the form of collaborative Live Web
Broadcasts, in IIC's familiar Round Table format, which will allow
an international community of speakers and participants to join the
conference, either in person or on-line. Participants, including
those attending via the web, will be able to ask questions and join
in the debate.

IIC will be launching a new page with booking details very
shortly--keep an eye on

www.iiconservation.org

Graham Voce
Executive Secretary
International Institute for Conservation
of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC)
6 Buckingham Street
London WC2N 6BA
UK
+44 20 7839 5975
Fax: +44 20 7976 1564

Art, Color, and Gloss | Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

2011-07-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

Repost from Nicole Peters, IMA Scholar Objects & Variable Art Summer Intern.

http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2011/07/13/art-color-and-gloss/

Special Academics-only pilot of the workshop, "Your Life as an Independent [Whatever]."

2011-07-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

90% discount. 20 July to 9 August 2011.
I am pleased to announce that Research and Writing now offers a revised version of the popular online workshop, "Your Life as an Independent [Whatever]." Starting 20 July we will be piloting a special academics-only version of the course.
We're looking for participants--recent PhDs, MAs or MFAs. You don't have to be planning to establish a studio or clinical practice or a consulting business. You should believe that your job or job search would benefit if you knew more about being an independent professional.
You can participate in this new version for academics only for $30 -- a 90% discount on the regular price.
Your Life. . . is a 3-week asynchronous workshop with additional opportunities for real-time meetings. Participants learn to describe their skills and expertise to strangers and identify potential clients or employers. We'll also discuss the basic work-life issues of time management and budgeting.
You'll find more information and link to a payment form at http://bit.ly/YL-Acad. Use discount code 11023.
Or contact Research and Writing: info@researchandwriting.net.

Here's your chance...

2011-07-04T05:03:00.000-07:00

…to become more involved with the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network! For all of you emerging conservators hoping to connect with ECPN, here’s an easy way for you to help:

What you need to do: Like I said, it’s very simple; all you have to do is contribute your ideas for a potential blog post or webinar. Just click ‘comment’ below and type in a topic—general or specific—that would be useful to you. Commenting does not oblige you to author a blog post or organize a webinar, but if you are considering it, please mention that and we'll put your talents to good use.

Why contribute: This blog is meant to support all emerging conservators, from pre-program to graduate students, to beginning professionals—anyone with less than 7 years experience in the field of conservation. In order to ensure that everyone is being represented, we need to know what all of you would like to see.

How you benefit directly: Besides seeing more of the topics that interest you personally, you’ll also connect with other people in the group and begin building a network of colleagues. Also, each time you contribute a post or help with a project, you can add that to your resume. It’s a win-win!

Washington Conservation Guild

2011-06-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm Ana Alba and I've been asked by Heather Brown to contribute to the ECPN blog about our local conservation group here in the DC area! The Washington Conservation Guild has been an important local resource for conservation in the DC area since 1967. I joined as soon as I moved into the area as an intern and now play a more active role in the organization as a Director and soon to be intern coordinator. Heather asked me some specific questions about the organization and I'm glad to tell you a little more about it.

1. When, why and how was the group founded?
WCG was founded in 1967 to promote the increase and exchange of conservation knowledge. There is a wealth of information on the how our group was founded in our September 2007 newsletter. There is a four-newsletter series on the history of the Guild, by decade, starting with that newsletter.

http://cool.conservation-us.org/wcg/docs/news0709.pdf

2. What regions do you cover?
WCG is based in Washington, D.C., and draws its membership primarily from Washington, Maryland, and northern Virginia. Members represent a wide cross-section of the conservation community and allied professions. They work in government, state, and private museums, studios, and laboratories, and other cultural and academic institutions and organizations.

Membership
3. How many members does the group have?
We currently have 230 members.

4. Are there any restrictions on membership?
No. All interested people can join.

5. What is the cost of membership and what does that fee cover?WCG membership benefits include monthly receptions and meetings (October through May), a quarterly newsletter, a membership directory, website and email announcements of local activities and job openings, intern/fellow activities, volunteer opportunities, free admission to special lectures, and reduced registration on WCG-sponsored workshops and events. The membership year runs from July 1 through June 30.

6. Is there a discounted fee for students?
Yes. The student fee is 20.00. Additionally, WCG’s Sidney S. Williston Memorial Fund provides up to five interns/fellows with free membership in the Washington Conservation Guild. Intern supervisors must apply on behalf of the student and in return, elected interns must assist at the monthly meetings and prepare meeting summaries for the upcoming WCG newsletter. (The meeting summaries are also an easy way to add a publication to your CV, by the way.)

7. Are there opportunities for emerging conservators to become more involved?
Definitely! This year Kristin DeGhetaldi was the intern coordinator. I will be replacing her next year and will come up with lots of tour opportunities and visits to local institutions. Also, we try to do monthly happy hour meetings to give local interns a chance to make friends, connect and talk about their experiences. At one of our monthly meetings we host intern talks, where local interns and fellows have the opportunity to present their current research.

Interns and fellows can also volunteer time at WCG's Angels Projects. Angels Projects are created to pair local collections that need assistance with local conservators. This past November the WCG Angels took over the National Park Seminary to re-house, document and archive paper records belonging to the group Save Our Seminary (SOS)! This non-profit organization is a dedicated group of volunteers, who bring public awareness to the National Park Seminary through tours, research, public lectures and more. It's a great opportunity to get some hands on experience and meet people along the way.

Events
8. What kinds of events do you hold and how often?
The Washington Conservation Guild holds meetings from October through May each year, usually on the first Thursday of the month from approximately 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. Most meetings are held at metro-accessible cultural institutions in the D.C. area. Meetings usually consist of a social hour (with hors d'oeuvres and drinks) followed by an illustrated lecture or tour of interest to conservation professionals. Meetings are free of charge to members, $5 for non-members.

Outreach
9. Would any of your members be interested in joining the ECPN mentoring program?
Probably. Having met with and worked with many of the WCG members and knowing they've helped train many interns and fellows along the way, I'm sure that they would be open to this sort of one-on-one mentorship program. In any case, a friendly email can get you a long way. WCG members are generally very helpful and full of good advice.

10. What is the most special thing about your guild?

Few places in the world have this many museums in such close proximity to one another and this means... you guessed it... lots of conservators. Members aren't only from institutions. WCG brings together conservators in private practice, conservation scientists, or other related specialists. The atmosphere that this provides fosters sharing ideas, collaboration, talking about projects, and networking.

Much of the information I provided in this overview was taken from the WCG website: http://cool.conservation-us.org/wcg/

Additional questions can be directed to me at a-alba@nga.gov

Thanks for this opportunity to share!

Diversifying your experience while you’re pre-program

2011-06-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

Heather has posted some wonderful tips on what it takes to become a conservator, and her last post really rang true with me. It takes a lot of sacrifices to try to get even as far as a graduate school interview in this field, but we’re also blessed to do rewarding and interesting work that makes these sacrifices worth it.

I would like to add one more piece of advice to Heather’s list: (11) Diversify.

Even if you think you may know which specialty within conservation interests you the most, one key part of pre-program experience is to get a broader perspective on the field. Maybe you’re lucky enough to live in a major metropolitan city with abundant opportunities for internships, but maybe not—that’s why you have to have an open mind about the field of conservation and what “pre-program experience” really means.

Conservators come in many breeds, and many have worked in other places before coming to conservation. It’s no disadvantage to work a related field, even if the work seems not to offer the treatment experience we all crave. Here are some tips on how to think in broad terms and find ways to amplify your pre-program experience:

1. Think big.

Conservation is a large discipline, even if it may seem like a small community at times. Looking through the AIC directory can give you a sense of how diverse our profession is: there are conservators working on underwater archaeological conservation, natural history specimens, archival photos, national and international built heritage, and everything in between. Even if you’re interested in something specific, chances are you have something to learn by stretching yourself.

I started off with a summer Museum Studies Internship, which showed me that conservation in a big museum is one (important!) part of a much larger institution. Understanding the broader picture has helped me appreciate the relationships that form between conservators and education and curatorial departments in the museum, and other members of the arts community.

2. Think small.

Small museums are great places to work! Look for related positions in collections management, education, or anywhere else you can get involved. I worked for a year as a collections intern at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, an amazing gem of a museum that has both a historic home and a research library replete with rare books, prints, photographs and plenty of Americana.

I got a lot of experience working with the collection and seeing the needs of a smaller museum that focuses heavily on preventive conservation. Even though I’m interested in objects conservation, this experience was crucial to my understanding of the field and I saw firsthand the value of historic documents and the importance of their preservation

3. Don’t be shy.

When I visited the Academy of Natural Sciences for the first time since I was a little kid, I walked by the Fossil Preparation lab and saw people working on fossils right before my eyes. I asked some questions about what they were doing and what kind of experience they had. I was excited to learn that many of people I saw in the lab were volunteers, and asked who I could talk to learn more about working in the lab. After speaking to the lab supervisor, I contacted the museum’s official Volunteer Coordinator to begin volunteering. Now I get to work in an awesome lab preparing dinosaur fossils, and all it took was asking.

Don’t be shy when you visit museums. You should feel free to ask employees (docents, guides, visitors services, etc.) about opportunities to work or volunteer where they do. Usually when you show genuine interest in what someone does, they’re happy to talk to you. Make sure to ask for contact information and follow up.

Other tips:

Don’t forget to check the institution’s website: there’s probably a volunteer and internship coordinator waiting to hear from you.

Be persistent: sometimes emails get put on the back burner. If you haven’t heard back from someone, it usually doesn’t mean they didn’t find you important enough to email back. If you haven’t heard back from someone in a few weeks, email again, politely, to ask if they’ve had a chance to look over your request or if they know someone who can help you.

If you want to get diverse experience, you might consider trying to make some time for additional unpaid work, though I know this isn’t an option for everyone. If you can look for options to work as a weekend volunteer, you’ll get some valuable experience without sacrificing your 9-5 hours.

Last but not least, if you have an opportunity to meet other pre-program interns, ask them where they work and how they started out there. We pre-program interns know that it can be difficult to find internship opportunities, so let’s all help each other out. Current grad students and recent or not-so-recent graduates can also be a resource. Everyone has their own story of how they got into conservation, so don’t be afraid to ask.

Good luck!

Jessica Walthew

Open Positions on the ECPN Committee

2011-06-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Emerging Conservation Professionals Network seeks three new committee members:

1-year term, beginning in September 2011, submission deadline August 25, 2011

Chair, Vice-Chair, and Outreach Coordinator

Questions about committee activities can be directed to Rose, or ECPN’s current outreach coordinator: Heather Brown (hnmbrown [at] yahoo [dot] com)

For more information about the ECPN see: www.conservation-us.org/emerging.

May Meeting Minutes

2011-06-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

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

April Meeting Minutes

2011-05-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

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 3^rd 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 2^nd 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 31^st.

* 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

ECPN in Philadelphia

2011-05-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

Here's everything you need to know about the exciting events hosted by ECPN at the AIC Annual Meeting in Philadelphia (only two weeks away!):

Informational Meeting

TUESDAY, MAY 31, 5:30 PM–6:30 PM

Come learn about ECPN’s activities — the growing Mentoring Program, the use of social networking sites, the creation of a student research database, enhancements to the website, development of resources for setting up a private practice, and more. Other new initiatives will help students and others learn about publishing, internship, and job opportunities. We will also announce some positions opening within the ECPN committee.

Portfolio Review Session
THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 10-10:30AM and 3-3:30PM in meeting room 415 (4th floor)

Several representatives from the various graduate-level conservation training programs will be on hand to present their pre-program and graduate portfolios, and to discuss their portfolios with attendees. Pre-program and graduate students are especially encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to see examples of student work first-hand.

Happy Hour
FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 6:00 PM–10:00 PM

Don’t just head home when the sessions end at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, June 3. Stop by Mcgillin’s olde Ale house at 1310 Drury Street — Philadelphia’s oldest continuously operating tavern —anytime between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to enjoy dinner and socialize with your fellow emerging conservators. If you'd like to walk over as a group, please meet in the lobby of the hotel at 10 to 6.

Check out the ECPN Facebook page for more updates during the meeting. I look forward to seeing you in Philly!

Formation of the Philadelphia Area Conservation Association (PACA) and Inaugural Event

2011-05-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the year, a small group of conservators and preservation specialists gathered to gauge interest in the formation of a Philadelphia area conservation network. In March, we tested the waters by sending out a survey, distributed both on the consdistlist and via email to professionals in the Philadelphia area. After receiving positive results, the Philadelphia Area Conservation Association, also known as PACA (just like the adorable animal from Central and South America!) was born. Like other regional networks, PACA hopes to offer both informal events where professionals can gather to hear talks and exchange information, as well as social gatherings. In the future, other endeavors, such as outreach events may be considered.

On Tuesday, May 24th, we are pleased to be hosting our inaugural event. Samuel Anderson of Samuel Anderson Architects, NYC will be speaking to PACA about designing conservation lab spaces. The title of his talk is, “Rules and Wisdom of Conservation Lab Design with Insights into Museum Expansion Projects.” Since 1993, Samuel Anderson Architects has designed numerous research, academic, and cultural spaces. Some of their clients include: The Morgan Library & Museum, Harvard University Library, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Please find details for the event below. We hope to see you on the 24th and look forward to future posts on the ECPN blog as our group evolves!

Please join us for our inaugural event featuring
Samuel Anderson of Samuel Anderson Architects, NYC
“Rules and Wisdom of Conservation Lab Design with Insights into Museum Expansion Projects”

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
5:30pm + reception
Free

Penn Museum, Rainey Auditorium (please enter through the Kress entrance)
3260 South Street
Philadelphia, PA

If you are able to attend, please RSVP by Friday, May 20th with a simple ‘YES SAM’ in the subject line to pacaphiladelphia@gmail.com.

For directions, transportation, and parking information, please visit: http://www.penn.museum/directions-and-parking.html

Please direct all inquiries to:
pacaphiladelphia@gmail.com

March Meeting Minutes

2011-05-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

ECPN MEETING MINUTES

March 17, 2011

Conference Call Attendees:
Carrie Roberts

Rose Cull

Ryan Winfield

Amy Brost

Heather Brown

Amber Kerr-Allison

Stephanie Porto

I. Minutes

a. ECPN February minutes approved. Amber made the motion for approval, Rose seconded.

II. AIC Meeting 2011

a. Angels Project. Site was identified: American Philosophical Society (APS). Rose volunteering for Angels project, Saturday after the meeting. Rose encouraging ECPN members to sign up. Email your CV to Ruth and indicate your interest.

b. Outreach. Ryan will coordinate the email blast about the Portfolio Session so it goes out to student members of AIC 2-4 weeks before the meeting, with a “reminder” email the week before. Ryan indicated that email blast timing is more flexible with the smaller lists. Heather will create a Facebook event for Portfolio Session and Happy Hour. ECPN members encouraged to accept the Facebook events since attendance is visible. When Ryan does the email blast, Heather will post the message to the Facebook page.

c. Portfolio Session. (Amber) UD is in the process of choosing 2 students. Buffalo has not responded in 4 weeks, but they are in the midst of interviews, although they intend to identify students. NYU and Getty have students signed up. ANAGPIC is also coming up, so the 8 student speakers can connect there. Amber will email all 8 students the where and when of the portfolio session. Ryan indicated room has not been assigned yet, though Ruth has it selected. Ryan will follow up with Amber.

d. Room Shares. Rose posted to Cons dist list – not much call for sharing accommodations yet. Unclear if interest will increase closer to the date.

e. Photography. Heather will bring her camera to the meeting for ECPN photography.

f. Poster. Carrie/Amber to massage E&T copy in light of new developments. Rose encouraged group leaders to provide pictures of their faces for recognition at the meeting. Try to be doing something interesting. Rose indicated that Stephanie should go ahead and send a photo, even though ECC and ECPN are at the beginning of their collaboration. To add visual interest to the poster, Amber suggested taking some AIC-approved conservation images from the PPT on the AIC website, which is approved for public presentations. Ryan suggested due date of May 2 or 3 for Amy to deliver the poster file to AIC for production.

g. List Addition. Rose will send agenda and PDFs to Carrie for today’s call and add her to the AIC-Emerging list.

h. Flier. Version for 2011 Meeting. Rose indicated the flier looked completed. New Flickr page URL was inserted.

III. ANAGPIC

a. Flier for ANAGPIC. Ryan emailed Delaware to find out the process for bringing an ECPN flier to ANAGPIC. PDF format is fine. Same version as for 2011 Annual Meeting is fine. Ryan to follow up with UD.

b. Poster and Talk. Stephanie doing poster for ECC, Ryan is drafting 5-minute talk. Rose will schedule a call for mid-April to touch base with them.

IV. Communications – Other initiatives

a. Book reviewers. Michele Derrick indicated that JAIC Book review editor is Harriet Stratis. She selects the books and the book reviewers. Michele indicated that anyone interested in doing a book review should contact Harriet directly. Rose suggested this is a good topic for a future blog post.

b. Wikis. Rachael Perkins Arenstein will get back to Amy about ECPN involvement in the Wikis.

V. Outreach

a. Blog. (Heather) – Rose, Stephanie and Ryan will write a blog post about ANAGPIC. Rose will email a draft to Stephanie and Ryan. Stephanie Porto said 2 members of ECC offered to contribute to ECPN blog about being Canadian and working in the US. One paintings conservator, and one objects conservator. Perhaps identify an American who is working in Canada. (Stephanie is, but she is in private practice – identify someone in an institution if possible). Rose will send out a query or do a Facebook query to see if someone can be identified.

b. Webinars. Exploring topics such as incorporating, or starting private practice. Will do a full script, and can send to Jason to do it, if it’s very detailed. A webinar will be online soon so ECPN members can see the format, what works best, and what topics might be the best fit for the medium. Perhaps tackle in June/July after the meeting.

c. Mentoring Program. (Ryan) Have a few new applicants. Follow-up conference call with Rose, Ryan, Carrie, Stephanie, and Karen to discuss the new applicants, sometime next week, perhaps Wed/Thur. Rose will send out a request.

d. AIC News on Mentoring Program. Heather sent draft for AIC News to Lisa on Monday and she will get back to Heather. Heather will send the article to Morgan at the end of the month.

VI. Education & Training

a. New student position on the ETC. Identify AIC liaisons at the schools and fill this new position. Perhaps develop a list of one student, and one professor at each program to act as liaisons. Amber has a list of representatives from the US schools but no one from Canada yet. Buffalo has offered a student name. NYU, Delaware, and Getty have not identified students yet. Develop list for Canada also. Amber says this list would be a good start, to disseminate the request to have a student member of the ETC. Ryan and Stephanie can try to get a Queens administrative representative at ANAGPIC. Perhaps discuss the issue of school liaisons at ANAGPIC business meeting. If portfolio session becomes a yearly event, this could be another piece of the liaison role. Would involve 2-3 emails per year, to act as the contact person.

b. Student Research Website. (Amber/Carrie) Speaking every other week about this. Working on the proposal. Outline is completed, and Amber and Carrie are each writing sections. Preliminary document to be reviewed at AIC by the ETC committee. Rachel, Nancie will review also. Not mentioning CoOL yet because it may not be the host, so avoid that level of specificity in communications. Foundation will be built on ANAGPIC publications, most likely. AIC and ANAGPIC (Eryl and ANAGPIC representatives) ironing out how it will work. Carrie and Amber will put the proposal to ETC and other parties in the next 2 weeks, for their help in drafting it, and concurrently to ECPN for input. Then, will officially submit to ETC. It will be presented to FAIC if CoOL will be involved. Debbie Hess-Norris will have a meeting with program directors at AIC (not just ANAGPIC) to get buy-in from universities, in preparation for taking in papers. Copyrights, licensing, all comes into play. ANAGPIC currently holds copyrights to the papers they have. Everyone is on board to try to make it happen, so despite the complexities, it is a very exciting project.

VII. ECC

a. ECC Poster. Stephanie will send ECPN the ECC poster. A few changes were made subsequently, so the ECPN-ECC collaboration may or may not be mentioned. But the ECC poster is more for the CAC, to attract involvement within their own organization at this point. Also, it needs to be bilingual for ECC-CAC. Unclear how that will be worked in yet. The poster will be just English for ANAGPIC, and mention of collaboration may or may not be included. Mentoring program status is unclear at this time. Rose felt a sentence about collaboration made sense, just to acknowledge the two groups are working together, if it is possible to include it. ECPN poster will have Stephanie on it as ECC liaison.

b. New Facebook Page. CAC Emerging Conservators. Stephanie encouraged ECPN members to visit.

c. CAC Meeting. CAC conference is coming up in Winnipeg, and there will be an ECC meet-and-greet for anyone interested.

d. CAC Emerging Conservator Award and Grant. Presently there is one candidate for the Emerging Conservator Award. Also, with a generous donation from a retiring conservator, a “Pass the Torch” Grant was established that pays for a student to attend a workshop at the conference.

Next conference call will be April 21, 2011 at 1PM ET.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Brost

Working Abroad: Experience of a Canada-based emerging conservator in the U.S.

2011-04-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

As a recent graduate of the Master of Art Conservation Program at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, I’m currently living the transition between being a student and the ‘real world’. The Program at Queen’s University is a two-year program in which students focus on a particular treatment stream (objects, painting, or paper) from their first day. I learned during my studies that varied work experience is extremely important. So as I neared the Program’s completion, I began a hunt for post-graduate internship and fellowship opportunities that would allow me to further my education in conservation and give me a chance to be involved in a wide range of projects. I was flexible and prepared to travel any distance.

I had several objectives for seeking international experience: 1) on account of my interest in archaeological and ethnographic objects, I wanted to have the chance to work with a range of material culture; 2) I wanted to be exposed to different conservation philosophies; and 3) I wanted to expand my tool box of practical techniques.

Preparations for venturing abroad to gain work experience can be stressful and time-consuming. To be able to complete an internship in the U.S., it was necessary for me (a citizen of the Czech Republic and permanent resident of Canada) to obtain J-1 Research Scholar status. The process consisted of filling out and submitting specific documents, paying SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Information System) and visa fees, and attending a pre-booked interview at the U.S. Embassy or nearest consulate. In my experience, if one is prepared and has submitted all of the required documents, one should be able to obtain a U.S. visa within a week following the interview.

My time in the U.S. as a summer intern during my studies and currently as a post-graduate intern has been extremely enriching. The experience has without a doubt exceeded my original objectives. Learning about different cultures – their traditions, values, and perspectives – has been invaluable in giving me a better understanding of how to care for objects. One of the greatest lessons that working abroad has taught me is the importance of flexibility; every geographical area provides its own challenges. In addition to many professional benefits, working abroad gives one the chance to see new places, meet new people, try new things, and simply enjoy the adventures that a foreign country has to offer.

Personal tips for preparing for a work experience abroad:

1) When contacting individuals or institutions with whom you’d like to work abroad, don’t be afraid of asking about available opportunities and the possibility for financial assistance. I’ve had the pleasure of finding conservators who had been extremely supportive and helpful beyond guiding me through the paperwork for the internship. Even if you are not offered any additional assistance, never hesitate to ask for information.

2) Regarding visas, I would advise that you review any visa requirements as soon as possible. Once you’ve made an agreement with the host institution, it’s important to start completing the paperwork immediately as the documents have to be processed and approved by a number of individuals at the host institution. You should also obtain the visa a good time in advance before your scheduled departure. This will ensure that if any unexpected set-backs should occur – for example, if it becomes necessary to provide additional documents – that there will be sufficient time to take care of the matter. I’ve learned that an invitation letter from the host institution is a vital document.

3) I’ve found it extremely helpful to get in touch with other students, who are travelling to the same institution to complete internships or other requirements, prior to departure.

Happy travels!

Ida Pohoriljakova

Post-Graduate Intern, Arizona State Museum

ida.pohoriljakova@gmail.com

Blogging at the AIC Annual Meeting

2011-04-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

AIC is continually striving to expand access to the stimulating and important content that is presented at our annual meeting. Last year, at the 2010 meeting, we initiated two new "firsts": we had members blogging about talks and workshops and we hosted all available poster presentations online. We received a lot of feedback that this extra information was extremely useful to those who were unable to attend, as well as those who were there, but unable to see everything that they had hoped. We are planning on continuing these services again this year in Philadelphia but we need your help!

If you are attending the upcoming AIC annual meeting in Philadelphia I hope that you will volunteer to blog from the conference on AIC’s soon to be newly relaunched blog. You need not be an experienced blogger nor particularly tech savvy. The Wordpress blog format is extremely easy to use and any necessary hand-holding will happily be provided to make you feel comfortable online. There also is no pressure to be particularly witty. Although active tense, first-person and personal style are all encouraged in blog posts (this is a chance to free yourself from the writing constraints of condition reports!), the writing is expected to be more like reporting and professional in tone overall. The goal is for readers to learn more about the talk than they would gain from the abstract. Additional guidelines and training will be provided for all volunteers.

I am looking for 2-4 people for each specialty group session and general session and 1-2 people per workshop. If you will be attending one of the conference tours we’d love to hear from you too.

Last year our blog saw a huge increase in traffic due to annual meeting posts. We know that many colleagues are looking forward to hearing more about the conference and hope that some of you will volunteer, share your thoughts from the meeting, and take the opportunity to become more comfortable with some of the social networking tools of our present and future! If you are interested in volunteering or hearing more, please contact me off list using the information below.

Thank you,

Rachael

AIC e-Editor

Rachael Perkins Arenstein

A.M. Art Conservation, LLC

Art Conservation, Preservation & Collection Management

rachael@AMArtConservation.com

www.AMArtConservation.com

The Virginia Conservation Association

2011-04-09T09:23:00.001-07:00

Current President, Frederick Wallace, along with Vice President Heather Logue, share their thoughts on the Virginia Conservation Association:

Colleen Callahan presenting her textile conservation treatments at the March 2010 VCA meeting

What is the VCA?

The Virginia Conservation Association is a regional conservation organization dedicated to the care and preservation of cultural materials. The VCA was founded in Richmond, Virginia in 1989 by a small group of conservators working in the region who recognized the value of fellowship and professional discourse. Rather than forming a guild expressly for conservators, the association purposely was established to be open to anyone wanting to learn about conservation.

The VCA provides a forum for sharing knowledge and experiences and to discuss issues and new developments relating to the conservation of art and historic artifacts. The VCA offers a variety of programs to disseminate information, provide education and training, and foster interaction among conservators, museum professionals, collectors and other parties involved and interested in conservation. Members meetings are held five times a year at various cultural sites in Virginia. Workshops, field trips and social gatherings also are organized periodically. Membership in the VCA is open to any individual by way of annual dues ($25 regular; $15 student), giving privileges to the programs and materials of the organization. Non-members also can partake in many VCA services and activities, (a fee may be required). The VCA arena of interest primarily is within the state of Virginia; however the organization also includes and serves members from the neighboring states and elsewhere. The membership roster normally numbers over 100 persons.

The VCA website is located at the internet address provided below.

http://www.virginiaconserv ationassociation.org

Former VCA president Andrew Baxter discusses the

treatment

outdoor

sculpture by Anna Hyatt Huntington

at the 2008 VCA

field trip to the Chrysler Museum

of Art, Norfolk.

VCA member Heather Logue is an “emerging conservation professional” who is a conservation technician at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She also is a current applicant for admission to conservation graduate school. Though young to the field, Heather’s enthusiasm for conservation has resulted in her present service as VCA vicepresident. The following is a her personal reflection about the VCA.

In my opinion, what makes VCA special is that we not only meet so often,
but we are based in an area that is so rich in cultural history. I don't think
that many other professional groups have as many opportunities as we do
to get behind the scenes and tour as many conservation sites/labs. Plus we
have so many conservation professionals here that are fortunate enough to
have a forum and to share their projects and what they learned at the meetings.
As a preprogram intern/technician, I feel very fortunate to have heard about
and joined VCA when I did- I have made many friends had many opportunities
for internships just from networking at the meetings.

Thank you Frederick and Heather! For more information, you can also check out the VCA on Facebook at Virginia Conservation Association.

Emerging conservators at ANAGPIC 2011

2011-04-07T08:44:00.000-07:00

It’s spring, the season when North American conservation students can get out of the labs and libraries and go present their research at the Association of North American Graduate Programs in the Conservation of Cultural Property (ANAGPIC) student conference.

This year the conference will be hosted by the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) in Wilmington, Delaware. ECPN will continue their tradition of sending a representative to the conference to encourage participation from the students in the committee, who will speak at 12:25PM on Saturday April 16th. This year the Emerging Conservators Committee (ECC), a similar committee for emerging conservators in the Canadian Association for Conservation/Association canadienne pour la conservation et la restauration, will have a poster presented during the poster session on Friday April 15th.

Ryan Winfield, Membership Coordinator on staff at AIC, will be representing the ECPN and will be available to answer questions and give students more information about how they can be more involved in this dynamic committee. Queens student Jennifer Robertson will be presenting the ECC's poster on behalf of the committee, and will be happy to answer questions during the poster session about this unique organization and how to get involved in current projects.

The initial schedule looks great and the lectures should be interesting and informative. We hope everyone enjoys the conference and has a chance to sample the mushroom flatbread at Buckley’s Tavern. Winterthur is very close to the Kennet Square which has a yearly mushroom festival, always a fun(gi) time!

Survey on Use of Social Web for Heritage Advocates

2011-03-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

In late 2009, the Voices of the Past website first surveyed heritage advocates about how they used the social web. Since then, the number of people connecting around heritage issues online seems to have grown quite a bit. Can we now definitively say that new media engagement is measurably effective in heritage advocacy, research and networking with peers?
You can help us find out by answering just 12 questions in the 2011 version of the survey. The results of this anonymous questionnaire will be shared with the heritage community worldwide and hopefully inform our common goal to create a sustainable future for heritage resources, and the folks who work to protect them. Please help improve the results by forwarding, tweeting, blogging and listserving the link to your colleagues as well.
Find the survey at http://conta.cc/heritagewebsurvey

Thank you ECPN for helping with this survey. Once compiled the results will be posted.

February Meeting Minutes

2011-03-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

ECPN MEETING MINUTES

February 17, 2011

Conference Call Attendees:
Carrie Roberts

Rose Daly

Ryan Winfield

Amy Brost

Heather Brown

Stephanie Lussier

I. Minutes

a. ECPN January minutes approved

II. ECPN Co-position for Education and Training

a. Carrie Roberts takes co-position with Amber Kerr-Allison; full transition of the position to Carrie will occur at the end of 2011.

III. AIC Meeting 2011

a. Angels Project (Ryan) – no updates. Contract with the site is pending.

b. ECPN attendees – several committee members plan on going. Heather posted room-sharing notice on Facebook. One person seeking to share accommodations so far, but more anticipated as the date nears.

c. Meetings – Business meeting and dinner scheduled. Registration brochure has full page on this. Brochure is also on the website available for download.

d. Related Facebook Group – Conservators in private practice or freelance Facebook group has a posting about meeting up at 2011 meeting. Rose will mention the ECPN dinner and invite them to join. Carrie added that she is looking to create a workshop for emerging conservators just starting out and going into private practice. Rose will invite Kirsten, Amber, and Carrie to be members of this group.

e. Portfolio Session Presenters – Via email, Amber notified the group that three of the four graduate programs have committed. Buffalo has 2 students available and added that the event could be expanded to provide a full introduction to all the schools, include professors, and perhaps even be open to local pre-program students who are not attending the AIC meeting. While this idea was well received, it also seemed overly ambitious for the first year of this event. Rose suggested surveying participants in this year’s portfolio session to see how it could grow in the future. Paper survey, or possibly collect email addresses and encourage people to complete an online survey (email would make it possible to follow up with them). Keep it straightforward this year, see how it’s received, then build upon it next year if there is a good response. Ryan added that there are a number of Student AIC member registrations already in, so student attendance is expected to be good. Exhibit hall is not open to the public, so it’s difficult to have people coming who are not registered for the annual meeting. Could consider a one-day exhibit hall pass or other special registration category if the portfolio session is opened to the public in the future.

f. Portfolio Session Outreach – Will be posted on Facebook. Rose suggested emailing Student members of AIC to notify them, which Ryan said could be done.

g. Poster – Amy is working on this, but requested file specifications before going further with the design. Printing will be done by AIC, with Amy delivering the file to Morgan for production. Ryan emailed Morgan to ask that she send Amy electronic file specs and delivery requirements.

h. Flier – Amy will add Carrie Roberts and Stephanie Porto. Karen’s position of AIC Board liaison may be transitioned by the time of the meeting, so indicate that position generically on the flier. Amy will send flier with all revisions except the new Flickr page URL to Ryan and Rose. Final approval next call for 4/1 deadline. [Correction of previous minutes – flier is single-sided color, not double-sided.]

IV. Outreach (Heather)

a. Blog – Jason Church willing to write a post – Heather says it can be challenging to identify writers. Heather will follow up with Jason to give him the green light.

b. Webinar – can work with Jason to stage webinars from Louisiana. Possible topics include how to build a portfolio. Ask portfolio presenters at the AIC meeting about participating in a webinar.

c. Flickr – ECPN images will be moved onto the AIC Flickr page. Jason needs to move his images. Ryan handled permissions. Rose to follow up with Ryan. Rose or Ryan to provide new URL to Amy to use on the flier.

d. AIC News – article about mentoring program (Heather) – Jane is writing it with her. Lisa provided a guideline of 500-1000 words. Will include a general introduction to the program, specifics on how the program works, and then will discuss Heather and Jane’s personal experiences. Heather will send the draft to Lisa and Morgan.

V. Communications (Amy)

a. AIC News – article about ECPN at the AIC annual meeting was approved on the previous call and Ryan forwarded it on by the 2/1 deadline for the next issue.

b. Wikis – Amy to follow up with Rachael Perkins Arenstein on ECPN contributions to the SG Wikis. Rose did the Wiki training if anyone has questions.

c. JAIC Peer Reviewers – Amy confirmed that Michele Derrick had enough volunteers and that she did not want to solicit more until there was a need. Rose proposed offering ECPN assistance with book reviews. Ryan indicated that there is one book reviewer at present, so this may be an opportunity area for ECPN. Amy to ask Michele.

d. Position descriptions – Rose sent Communications position description to coordinators and requested that the coordinators develop and maintain descriptions, as this helps with evaluating progress, formalizing committee structure and workflow, and facilitates transitions.

e. Repository/archive for ECPN documents – for Katie and Jason’s notes, proposals, posters, other committee documents. Ryan reported that AIC is exploring various platforms (ie, Dropbox, Big Tent, Yahoo! Group, etc.) and will determine which will be used by all specialty groups and committees. Ryan to advise, then committee members (current and former) can provide the documents to populate it.

VI. Education & Training (Carrie)

a. Recent E&T conference call – discussed ideas ECPN has for possible workshops to develop as part of AIC, including starting a private practice (with Kirsten Travers), grant writing, and publishing (how to publish in JAIC, blogs, other journals, etc.) Setting up a private practice is a workshop that would translate well into a Webinar – Heather will follow up with Jason. Carrie has sent ideas to Stephanie Lussier. Webinars are more permanent so it is ideal to create webinars along with workshops.

b. Research Database – CoOL doesn’t have capacity and isn’t searchable – Rose suggested discussing with Walter Henry. U. of Texas database may be transitioned to AIC, which would also provide a possible platform for the research database, and it contains research already. Concern that it’s pre-populated with the research of just one program. Do not want to give the impression of skewing emphasis within the database to one training program. All programs will help with vetting, so all must be on board with how new information is brought into it. Start with the idea of populating it with research from ANAGPIC.
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~anagpic/studentpapers.htm

VII. ECPN at AAM

a. Rose unable to attend AAM. For the future, this is an opportunity for networking and identifying areas for collaboration.

VIII. ECPN and ECC at ANAGPIC (Ryan, Stephanie)

a. Ryan can possibly set up the poster, since Stephanie cannot come to the conference. Stephanie advised via email that there may be a Queens student who can present, and an ECC representative. Rose sent Ryan her talk from last year. Ryan will be delivering remarks and may co-present with the representative from Canada, per Stephanie’s email.

IX. Publications Committee Update (Amy)

a. Amy participated in the January conference call, which centered around electronic publishing. Specialty groups each have their own processes. Each group is providing information on how they handle electronic publishing now (ie, post prints) and this will be used to develop a best-practices document. Considerable discussion on PDF vs. XML. PDF is faster, simpler, and less expensive, but XML is more versatile, and easier to migrate in the future.

b. The Architectural Specialty Group is looking to update its Wikipedia entry with volunteer help, possibly from ECPN. Ryan can provide them with a list cross-referencing architectural conservation and ECPN. Amy posted to listserv. Can also post to Facebook page and encourage ASG to reach out to the conservation graduate programs directly. Amy will circle back with Jenn Capetto of ASG.

Next conference call will be March 17, 2011 (St. Patrick’s Day) at 1PM ET.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Brost

10 Tips for Becoming a Conservator

2011-03-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

Tip #10: Make sacrifices

"People make a great mistake in thinking that my art has come easily to me but nobody has devoted so much time and thought to music as I." -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

This one I saved for last because it’s sometimes the hardest to hear; when a great opportunity arises, you should take advantage of it, even if it means making some sacrifices. This is certainly true of any goal we set in life, but seems particularly applicable to this stage of becoming a conservator. As I look back over the other 9 tips, two fundamental sacrifices stand out to me: time—to visit conservators, read online resources, attend events, and create a bibliography—and money—to join professional organizations, fulfill the pre-requisites required for application to the programs, and, again, to attend events.

I’m not suggesting that you go without sleep in order to read every conservation blog, or accumulate credit card debt so you’re able to join every organization. Just do the best you can with the resources at hand. If an amazing internship opens up in another city, consider commuting as a possibility. If the only experience you can find is unpaid, take it and maybe a paid position will open up in the future. If an interesting and instructive conference is about to take place and you can’t afford it, ask about volunteer opportunities in order to waive the registration fee. It’s true that the more sacrifices you make the more you’ll reap the benefits, but the main point, no matter what the situation, is to be determined to make it work.

If you chose conservation as a career, you must have a passion for art, or science, or both! You're giving a lot, but what you're getting in return is a job that you love--and, in my opinion, that's worth the effort. There are some great things about being pre-program, like having the opportunity to work with a variety of materials, or take classes in all the areas that interest you. So, when this process becomes stressful and/or you need some motivation to keep at it, remind yourself to enjoy each and every step. Believe it or not, these few years will fly by and before you know it, you'll be a conservator! Good luck!

Was there something I missed? Please feel free to post an additional tip to the blog as Tip #11 (nobody said there had to be 10!).

Education and Training Committee seeks a new student member

2011-03-02T17:25:00.000-08:00

The Education and Training Committee Seeks a New Student Member
1-Year Term, beginning May/June 2011 (at AIC), submission deadline: March 15, 2011

The Education and Training Committee (ETC) works in conjunction with the AIC Board Director of Professional Education and the Director of Institutional Advancement in developing short and long-term goals and program content; assists with planning workshops and reviewing professional development award applications and proposals from the membership as needed; develops and implements strategies to increase student interaction within AIC, in conjunction with students, staff, membership committee, training programs, and the AIC board; reviews and updates training related publications.

The ETC communicates primarily via email correspondence and occasional conference calls. The committee meets in-person annually at the AIC meeting.

Please submit a brief statement of interest and your resume to Stephanie Lussier, Chair, AIC-ETC, (stephaniemlussier [at] gmail [dot] com) by March 15, 2011.
Questions about committee activities can be directed to Stephanie, or ETC's current student member: Kirsten Travers (kirstenetravers [at] gmail [dot] com)

Interviewing for Graduate Programs

2011-02-23T10:45:00.000-08:00

I still remember the nerves, excitement, and stress of interviewing for graduate school last spring, and as interview time rolls around again I’ll share some advice and relate my experience at Buffalo State College.

This will sound obvious, but re-read the requirements the school has given you and be sure you have everything they want! If you aren’t sure exactly what the school would like you to bring, ask them. I called and emailed all three departments with questions on their requirements- and they were all slightly different.

I made myself a checklist ahead of time and when I was packing for the trip to be sure I didn’t leave anything out. It also made me feel more relaxed knowing that I was prepared. I interviewed at WUDPAC, NYU, and Buffalo, and by the end of March I was so sleep deprived and anxious I might have forgotten my own head :)

I decided to buy two large hard-sided art portfolios with shoulder straps to help transport the 2-D art I was bringing to the interview. The documentation from my pre-program conservation experience went into a three ring binder. I was lucky enough to be able to meet with WUDPAC graduates Kristin deGhetaldi and Brian Baade who kindly showed me examples of their portfolios and gave me a mock interview.

I also arranged to practice my Powerpoint presentation ahead of time in front of the wonderful scientists and conservators at the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute. They provided a lot of helpful feedback, caught my mistakes, and built my confidence speaking about conservation in front of a room full of people. I picked out an interview outfit ahead of time (slacks and a top) and asked for feedback on that too! I wanted something I would feel comfortable in but that looked professional and wouldn’t wrinkle.

Because I was bringing art (including breakables) and a heavy binder along with my clothes and overnight kit, I decided to drive to Buffalo (from Silver Spring, Maryland) rather than fly. I arrived the afternoon before my interview and had time to see a little of the city by car. I had arranged ahead of time to my first year student host, Gwenanne Edwards, at her apartment near campus, where I left my bags before we headed off to a potluck dinner hosted by another first year student.

Despite being nervous and not knowing anyone, the dinner was actually fun, with lots of great food. I got to chat with many of the first and second year students, and asked a lot of questions about the program, the professors, living in Buffalo, and for last-minute interview advice. It was interesting to hear what other people, including fellow interviewees, had done already, and find out where the students were going for summer internships. Everyone was very friendly and informative.

My interview was the next morning, and Gwenanne took me to school with plenty of time to spare. She gave me a tour and I took a color blindness test and had my picture taken. Finally it was my turn to interview, and we carried my portfolios, binder, bag and box into a conference room where the committee was waiting. All of the artwork was put out on a table, someone helped me load my Powerpoint presentation (saved on my flash drive), and I passed around the treatment binder.

Basically, the presentation outlined the projects I included in the binder. I was frequently interrupted with questions, which I did my best to answer. I wasn’t reading a formal script, but I did have a typed outline which helped me get back on track when I was distracted by questions.

Everyone got up to look at my art portfolio, and I answered questions about specific items. I also had a “cheat sheet” of the history, materials and techniques of my artworks in case I got flustered and forgot something (it came in handy when I was asked about the ingredients of the glaze on a ceramic pot). Then we sat back down and chatted about the program; I asked a few more questions, talked about my background and interests, someone asked how I felt about snow- it was very relaxed, and I felt that the committee was interested and welcoming. With the interview over, we packed everything up again and Gwenanne helped me load the portfolios back into my car for the drive home. As soon as I got back I sent a thank you to the committee, and to my student host, and settled in to wait for a decision.

Asking questions is a recurring theme in this blog, and I’ll repeat the advice- ask questions! I’ve found that conservators are friendly and helpful, and like to share what they know. Rose Daly also wrote a post about interviewing here and you can ask other current and former students about their experiences. Personally I owe a great deal to all the people who contributed their knowledge and advice to help me show the committee what I’d done and what I knew.

Good luck!

January Meeting Minutes

2011-02-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

ECPN MEETING MINUTES

January 20, 2011

Conference Call Attendees:
Carrie Roberts

Amber Kerr-Allison

Rose Daly

Ryan Winfield

Stephanie Porto

Ruth Seyler

Amy Brost

I. ECPN December meeting minutes approved

II. Discussion on this call included the following clarification on committee process: Draft materials generated by members should go concurrently to the chair and AIC contact (Rose and Ryan) prior to distribution to the full committee. The committee should work through the AIC contact (Ryan) for communications with other staff at AIC.

III. ANAGPIC (Rose)

a. Canadian Association of Conservators (CAC) Emerging Conservation Committee (ECC) will be able to have a poster at ANAGPIC, per Stephanie Porto, but she will not be attending. May have someone from the Queens program set it up, or perhaps the ECPN representative can set it up if in Delaware soon enough.

b. 5-minute talk about ECPN. Preferred attendees are either current students or recent graduates. Determined that Ryan Winfield may be able to represent ECPN and deliver the 5-minute talk. Ryan to explore whether or not he can attend. Rose to provide Ryan with her talk from last year. Emphasize the chance to attend the ECPN Business Meeting at AIC.

c. Ensure that CAC-ECC poster and ECPN posters show that the groups are aware of each other and are collaborating on behalf of emerging conservators across North America.

d. Last year, many attendees expressed interest to Rose about the Mentoring Program in particular.

IV. ECPN Flickr Page

a. Rose asked about combining the main AIC and ECPN Flickr pages. Amy recalled that she and Heather agreed it was a good idea. Rose to ask Jason about how this transition could be accomplished.

b. Can continue to promote ECPN Flickr page in the meantime, and then announce the changeover when it occurs at a future date. Can subsequently promote and encourage ECPN members to submit to the AIC Flickr page.

c. Based on outcome of conversation between Rose and Jason, determine whether ECPN Flickr info should be removed from the flier.

V. AIC Meeting

a. Poster (Amy) – Amy to begin working on a design with what she has so far. Anyone who hasn’t sent her a few bullets about their initiatives is asked to do so.

b. Flier (Amy) – Committee process is to send designs to Ryan who will forward to Morgan. Amy to make corrections from Ryan and send back to him. The flier will be set up as a color, 2-sided 8.5x11 sheet that Ryan can provide to the printer to print with the materials for the AIC conference bag. Amy can provide a digital print-ready file to any specifications. Ryan to advise.

c. PDF Flier (Amy) – Amy will have a PDF of the flier that can be used for outreach to undergraduates who might explore a career in conservation. Discuss distribution with Heather on a future call.

d. Angels Project (Ryan/Ruth) – Site has been selected but not announced because the host agreement has not been signed. Project will take place on Saturday following the end of the conference. Announcement from AIC to come.

e. Business Meeting room (Ruth) – Ruth has already reserved. Group agreed only water was needed in the room, no food order. Rose to provide list of any A/V needs.

f. Dinner (Heather) – Group is assuming no reservations will be needed at McGillin’s Olde Ale House, and that dinner will be drop-in style. Heather to confirm on a future call.

g. Portfolio Review (Amber) – Two of the four U.S. programs are on board, and Amber is following up with the other two. Determined that the session can be held in one of the smaller rooms, which will be quieter than the exhibit hall, offer more space to spread out portfolio materials and gather around tables, and will still be in a high-traffic area. Ryan suggested there could be a sign outside the door, and the door could be propped open throughout the session to encourage foot traffic. Date will stay firm at Thursday afternoon, June 2.

h. Article for AIC News (Amy) – Group approved the final, 1/20/11 version of the news article about ECPN activities at the AIC meeting. Ryan to forward on to the appropriate party before the deadline of 2/1. Carrie was not able to review it because she is not on the distlist yet, but Rose forwarded it to her. She did not want to delay group approval for her comments but will review it.

VI. Student Research Database (Carrie)

a. Very supportive response to hosting it on CoOL, an AIC-sponsored platform. Carrie has spoken with Meg Craft, Karen Pavelka, Rachael Perkins Arenstein, Stephanie Porto, Lorrie Dong, and they are all supportive. Carrie is proceeding with development of a formal proposal based on some overview documents she has already prepared. May also develop a grant application to advance this project.

b. Stephanie Porto offered support of the RATS group based on the fact that student research would fall within the RATS committee charge.

VII. Wikis (Amy)

a. ECPN to promote Wiki contributions as discussed on a prior call. Awaiting response from Rachael Perkins Arenstein to a few outstanding questions regarding the process for the Wiki updates and what specialty groups wish to encourage contributions from emerging conservators.

b. Stephanie added that Rachael is doing trainings on Wiki software for those interested in becoming editors. Stephanie to forward the information to Rose.

VIII. Mentoring Program (Ryan)

a. The mentoring program is proceeding – no updates at this time.

IX. Education and Training Site (Amber/Carrie)

a. Also working with Stephanie on this. Review of the web page is in progress. Determining needed updates and reorganization of information. They will have a call to discuss sometime in early February.

X. Social Media Tutorial (Rose/Karen)

a. Rose will reach out to a contact at UT to advance this idea.

XI. AAM 2011

a. Rose may not be able to attend, but feels it would be a good opportunity to reach out to the Emerging Museum Professionals Network. She offered to assist anyone who would like to apply to attend. Ideal for those working in museum settings to see if their institutions would be supportive of their attendance.

Next conference call 1 PM EST, Thursday, February 17, 2011.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Brost