The IIC 2010Annual General Meeting Talk

The 2010 Annual General Meeting Talk was held in the Hochhauser Auditorium in the Sackler Centre at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London SW7, on Thursday 28th January 2010 at 6.15 pm; this was a new departure for IIC and contributed to the growing Dialogues for the New Century series.

Anna Somers Cocks, founder and Editorial Director of the Art Newspaper, interviewed Samuel Jones of the Demos think-tank and co-author of the very influential publication "It's a Material World: Caring for the Public Realm". They explored why conservation should matter. Is there a crisis in Conservation? Is the profession losing support? What can be done? The event focused on how conservation can and should position itself as an essential element for the health of all societies, worldwide. This was a most thought-provoking evening and a transcript of this has been added to IIC’s Dialogues for the New Century page.

Downloads of It’s a Material World: Caring for the Public Realm can be found at: www.demos.co.uk/publications/materialworld and the Art Newspaper may be found at: www.theartnewspaper.com

IIC President Jerry Podany wrote:

“In his recent article Stewarding the Future the historian Prof. David Lowenthal wrote that intergenerational equity “is not merely just, it also helps to promote social stability and political well being in the present” (in the American CRM Journal of Heritage Stewardship for Summer 2005). He goes on to say that in most societies future stewardship has lost ground in the past half century. “It is a shift from permanence to transience which was well underway a generation ago”.

“We live our days for ourselves not for our predecessors or posterity” as Christopher Larch wrote in The Culture of Narcissism who goes on to say that narcissism is typical of a “society which has lost interest in the future”.

If these two authors are correct it has significant insinuations for preservation of cultural material, which is often described as saving the past for the future. If we are not interested in the future, then we are not interested in passing anything of value to the future, and are therefore not interested in the past (or preservation). Conservation and preservation suggests at least an attempt at permanence, not transience. Living in the present leaves little room, or resource, for consideration of heritage preservation. Indeed, if these two authors have correctly described our present concerns there should be no surprise that heritage conservation is losing ground and support.

This, of course, has significant implications. Prof. Lowenthal has noted that “social structure requires enduring communities, entities that outlast individual life spans and attach us to the heritage of our forbearers and to the legacy we leave our descendants”. He notes that this concept is all around us and quotes Emile Durkheim “We speak a language we did not create; we use instruments we did not invent; we claim rights we did not establish. Each generation inherits a legacy of knowledge that it did not itself amass. We owe these varied benefits of civilization to society” and we respect them because they add quality and value to our lives. And perhaps each of us knows instinctively that by working toward the future we become part of the past … and by respecting and recognizing the past we assure our place in a continuum, a collective identity that goes beyond nationalism. Heritage conservation is a formalized and essential part of recognizing and assuring the continued valuing of the past.

So how does one reconcile these two general views? Given that each dramatically impacts upon conservation? One says we no longer care about anything but the immediate future. The other places the value of the past and the future as central to a healthy present. Perhaps it is not one or the other. Perhaps we are, as a whole, fluctuating between the two. And perhaps the applicability of heritage conservation is the key to recognizing its importance and central role in our lives.”

Sponsorship

We are delighted to acknowledge the support of Archetype Publications, Conservation by Design, Victoria and Albert Museum and International Academic Projects Ltd which enabled this event to take place.