Prepping for the American Institute for Conservation / Canadian Association for Conservation Meeting in Montreal

Posted on by May 13, 2018

Preservation professionals are getting ready for the joint American Institute for Conservation/ Canadian Association for Conservation’s joint meeting in Montreal, May 13-18. I like to use the term “preservation professionals” rather than conservators. Many of us work closely together to support each other’s goals for protection of cultural heritage. This year’s theme of Emergency! Preparing for Disasters and Confronting the Unexpected in Conservation has great capacity for a great range of cultural heritage professionals, including registrars, collection managers, facilities managers, scientists, technicians, as well as conservators.

As Chair of AIC’s Collection Care Network, we’ve been focusing on building bridges between all people involved in caring for collections. Our pre-session meeting “Sharing the Care: Collaborative Preservation Approaches” is a new joint session held between AIC CCN and the International Association of Museum Facility Administrators. This exciting session has four focus areas: collaboration in risk management, emergency preparedness, environmental guidelines, and selecting fire suppression systems. Working together with our facilities colleagues is crucial to building good working partnerships and the session is structured with several interactive opportunities, as well as the ever-important reception at the end of Day 1.

I’m speaking bright and early on Monday morning at 8:30am. Grab your coffee and come hear my session “Lighting a Fire: Initiating an Emergency Management Program at your Institution.” Getting an emergency program going and maintaining momentum can be the most difficult part of preparedness work. I’m discussing my experience at AIC-CAC’s Annual Meeting at Montreal. I’ll discuss creating a vision, recruiting allies, educating administrators, connecting with your community, asking for that budget line, and more.

And join the Collection Care Network for a great group of talks ranging from risk assessment, HVAC, vibrations from sound in exhibition design, archives management, preventive conservation, and much more.

See you in Montreal!

Posted in Collection Care, Emergency Preparedness, Museum Monday, Museum Studies, Museums, Libraries, and Archives Tagged , , , , , , , , , , permalink

About Becky Fifield

Becky Fifield is a cultural heritage professional with 25 years experience in institutions large and small. She is currently Head of Collection Management for the Special Collections of the New York Public Library. An advocate for preventive conservation, Ms. Fifield is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation, Chair of the AIC Collection Care Network, and former Chair of Alliance for Response NYC. She is also a scholar of 18th century female unfree labor and dress. There's a bit of pun in the title The Still Room, delineating a quiet space brimming with the ingredients of memory, where consideration, analysis, and wordcraft can take place. Ms. Fifield’s interests include museum practice, dress history, historic preservation, transit, social and women’s history, food, current events, geneaology, roadtrips, and considerations on general sense of place. Becky and her husband, Dr. V, live in the Hudson Valley.

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