AIC's 43rd Annual Meeting

Conservation departments in cultural institutions have traditionally established their priorities based on the use, value, and conservation needs of the collections. Within this framework, conservators’ roles have been fairly well-defined: a balance between treatments that are high priority, due to condition and/or value, with exhibit-driven workflows (for museums), and research/access-driven workflows (for libraries and archival repositories).

In recent years, conservators and allied professionals have seen a significant shift in the type of work that they do. Increasingly, the field is guided by digitization-driven workflows. The rapid growth in digitization priorities has coincided with budget cuts and staff reductions in many cultural institutions.  As a result, new approaches have been developed to deal with the imbalance created by increased work and reduced resources, such as ”stabilization” or “fit for purpose”.

What compromises are inherent in these shifting priorities and changing roles for conservators?  Are we becoming generalists, and if so are we losing specialized skills? What is the value of accrued knowledge of complex treatment? How do we retain our skills and expertise while expanding our roles to serve new institutional goals? By meeting the ever-growing demand for digital/public access, are we preserving collections in cultural institutions optimally?

The presenters will explore the conservator’s relationship to the object in light of shifting and expanding institutional goals.