By Joelle D. J. Wickens, April 11, 2022
With this post, I bring this blog series to a close. To get my head in a place where I was ready to write, I just re-read the whole series, from beginning to end, and I dug into the statistics I can get from Google analytics on who is visiting the site. My first takeaway? Read More >
By Rebecca (Becca) Napolitano, April 4, 2022
When Jeremy Linden ended his blog post with the sentiment that to be successful in cross disciplinary work “we have to step beyond our range of comfort,” it got me thinking. I had never really given too much thought to the relationship between ranges of comfort, vulnerability, and interdisciplinary collaboration. In reality though, they are Read More >
By Becky Fifield, March 28, 2022
Think about a conference you attended where everyone was feeling good about collaboration. Who was at that conference? Can we call it collaboration if we are still sitting across the table from the same people year after year, looking for answers within our own professional “best practices” and history? It has become almost reflexive to Read More >
By Jeremy Linden, March 21, 2022
At the risk of poking too many bears, I’ll offer an observation for consideration – the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) does not own the concept of “preventive conservation” (nor, for that matter, does it own the concept of “cultural heritage” which the web address might imply, but that’s a discussion for another day). The Read More >
By Julia Campbell-Such, March 14, 2022
In 1921 Kwakwaka‘wakw Chief Dan Cranmer hosted one of the largest potlatch ceremonies ever held at the village of ʼMimkwa̱mlis. Over 300 people attended, but this potlatch was held in secret because, from 1885 to 1951, it was illegal to hold a potlatch in Canada under the Indian Act. When Canadian officials learned that the ceremony Read More >
By Joelle D. J. Wickens, March 7, 2022
If we are following the wrong rules, and we want to change them, how do we do it? For a while now, I’ve been asking myself this question in earnest with respect to one particular thing. I’ve come to a couple conclusions that I think we can apply to many different situations. First, rules usually Read More >
By Anisha Gupta, February 28, 2022
The conservation field consists of many rules. Some are written down in manuals and codes of ethics, others are passed down in workplaces and classrooms. These are rules like: you must have extensive training to be called a conservator, you should feel lucky to have your job, and you must be neutral and unbiased. But Read More >
By Rebecca Kaczkowski, February 21, 2022
The term “best practice” irritates me. I identify as a white, middle-class woman and mid-career conservator. Intrinsic and assumed aspects of identity inform my observations of our field of heritage preservation. Counter to my training and role in an academic setting, I offer here personal, heuristic observations that may inflict unintentional harm. It is my Read More >
By Anna Rose Keefe, February 14, 2022
I enjoy rules. Navigating conservation work during a pandemic has been difficult, and when I’m unsure about the stability of my position and/or this field, I like to reassure myself that I am in the correct place, at the assigned time, doing the work with which I have been tasked. Having a set of guidelines Read More >
By Joelle D. J. Wickens, February 7, 2022
Let’s assume at least some of us are working from a foundation of fear. Let’s also assume we don’t want to be working from that foundation. What are we going to do about it? I don’t really know, but I have some thoughts about what we can try. First, anyone up for letting go of Read More >
By Natalya Swanson, January 31, 2022
I want to tell you a story about a friend and colleague, an excellent conservator, who attempted to negotiate and was told they were too “inflexible” for the job. The offer, which was already well below their worth, was rescinded. I want to tell you the situational details that resulted in them being jobless: the Read More >
By Sarah Scaturro, January 24, 2022
In 1981, the Vice-President of the American Institute for Conservation told a group of textile conservators in New York that she felt “the role of textile conservators has been somewhat problematic in AIC…[with] textile conservators not as respected as they should be by other conservators,” a reality that was caused by “a lack of knowledge Read More >
By Joelle D. J. Wickens, January 17, 2022
Like a well-trained academic, I did a little research before I sat down to write this, my first blog post. (Well, very little research, so maybe I’m not so well-trained!) I learned a blog is often created with a particular goal in mind. I definitely have that. I want this blog to pull readers and Read More >