IIC AGM and Annual Talk: Conservation Matters

The 2010 Annual General Meeting of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works will be 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 5.30 pm. Members will have been sent their ballot / proxy forms with the December News in Conservation – for more on the December issue itself, see below.

After the formal business is concluded, at about 6.15 pm, the meeting will be opened to the public and a new type of event for IIC will be held; Anna Somers Cocks, founder and Editorial Director of the Art Newspaper, will interview 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 will explore why conservation should matter. Is there a crisis in Conservation? Is the profession losing support? What can be done? The event will focus on how conservation can and should position itself as an essential element for the health of all societies, worldwide. Join us for what promises to be a most thought-provoking evening.

More information about this event …
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

News in Conservation, December 2009

The December issue of News in Conservation has been published, and is available as a free PDF for members.

This issue includes the full announcement of the 2010 Annual General Meeting, an interview with Alison Richmond and Alison Bracker, editors of the new book Conservation Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths and article on the latest work on ancient Egyptian funerary portraits at the British Museum, plus full members' news and much more.

News in Conservation was launched in 2007. PDFs of back issues are available to members. If you are not a member you can download a limited number of past editions.

Before the unthinkable ...happens again

A full transcript of the second in IIC's groundbreaking series of Round Tables 'Dialogues for the New Century: Round Table discussions on the conservation of cultural heritage in a changing world' is available for download here (PDF; 735KB). More information about the event can be found in the IIC newsblog.

Gabo Trust / IIC Travelling Scholarship

The Gabo Trust and the IIC are pleased to announce the first call for applications for the 2010 Travelling Scholarships. Applications are invited from Individual Members and Fellows of IIC who are conservators practising in either the public or private sector.

The Travelling Scholarship is a bursary to allow individuals who are current paid-up members of IIC to take a study-focused tour anywhere in the world, with the aim of carrying out research on the conservation of sculpture and meeting and seeing the work of other conservators, and learning about their differing approaches, ethics, materials and methods.

More details can be found here.

New membership year 2009-10

The new subscription year began on 1 July 2009. Renewal forms were sent out to members with the June issue of News in Conservation. If members log in to the site they can then renew for the 2009 - 2010 membership year here.

The rates for 2009 - 2010 are as follows:

• Individual member: £49
• Student member: £19
• Fellow: £70
• Institutional member: £170

IIC Istanbul Congress 2010: Conservation and the Eastern Mediterranean

The twenty-third IIC Congress will take place 20 - 24th September in the spectacular and historic city of Istanbul, the European Cultural Capital for 2010. You can find more information on the web-page for the Congress.

Reviews in Conservation Number 9, 2008

The latest volume is now published of the only peer-reviewed journal devoted to the international literature of conservation. Each article provides comprehensive coverage of the publications within a particular area of conservation. The current issue of 88 pages brings together reviews and syntheses of the latest literature on topics of relevance to a wide range of practicing conservators and scientists. The current issue contains the following reviews:

• Weighted silk: history, analysis and conservation
• The uses of cyclododecane in conservation
• Techniques for monitoring moisture in walls
• Unstable historic glass: symptoms, causes, mechanisms and conservation
• The chemistry of sodium dithionite and its use in conservation
• Identification of selected vegetable textile fibres

News in Conservation, June 2009

The June issue of News in Conservation has been published, and is available as a free PDF for members.

This issue includes an article about the recent earthquakes in Abruzzo, an article on the Enhanced Digital unwrapping for Conservation and Exploration project at the University of Kentucky, USA - as well as full members' news and much more.

News in Conservation was launched in 2007. PDFs of back issues are available to members, but the first issue is freely downloadable from this link.