AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting – “Exhibiting ourselves: presenting conservation” Session

Exhibits are one (powerful) tool for displaying the range of conservation activities and engaging with the public.  Exhibiting Ourselves: presenting conservation will explore issues related to the development and implementation of conservation in exhibitions as well as issues related to conservation outreach through exhibitions. This interactive session will feature audience participation in addition to presentations by the following speakers:

Tom Learner, Rachel Rivenc and Emma Richardson will present the various objects, hands-on didactics, video, online and published materials used to tell the technical story behind De Wain Valentine’s sculpture Gray Column in the exhibition From Start to Finish. This exhibition was organized by the Getty Conservation Institute to raise public awareness of the technical studies and conservation decisions that conservators routinely make with modern and contemporary art.

Christopher McAfee will share the outreach activities of the conservation team in the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, including signage, small exhibits highlighting preservation principles, public tours and videos.

Irene Peters will describe the benefits and challenges of working in a visible conservation lab and the solutions created at the Musical Instrument Museum to provide interpretation when the conservators are busy in other areas of the museum.

Cynthia Albertson and Anny Aviram will explore the efforts to include conservation-related content in the exhibition Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art , as well as the various materials produced to accompany it, including audio and iPad application guides, website highlights, and materials for museum educators and family programs.

Sanchita Balachandran will examine the ways in which the conservation process has become an important part of the narrative of the new Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum. This narrative includes creating and maintaining a traditional museum display, encouraging and enabling physical use of objects for study, and providing public access to the “behind the scenes” functions and discoveries typically made by conservators.

Come join us Friday May 11th in the San Miguel room at 9:30 am! Be prepared to cogitate, contibute and converse!