Newsletter the AMERICAN INSTITUTE for CONSERVATION of HISTORIC and ARTISTIC WORKS
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Newsletter THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR CONSERVATION OF HISTORIC AND ARTISTIC WORKS Volume 12, Number 1 January 1987 Anne Webster, Assistant to the AIC Executive Director, FAIC NEWS has joined the FAIC staff as Production Editor, and will be responsible for the production of the LITTLE SERIES, and Who Were They, Those People in Fredericksburg, and Tips on other FAIC publications. Insuring Your Collection are the first of FAIC's LITTLE SERIES publications, which are geared to attract the atten- FAIC is gathering conservation literature to be sent as tion and interest of the layman, and to win friends for art donations to the UNESCO-ICOM Documentation Centre in conservation. France. Please send any donations to FAIC, 3545 Williams- The first publication, Who Were They, Those People in burg Lane, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008, c/o Deborah Fredericksburg, is an intriguing account of the discovery and Page. rescue of two genre paintings dating from the period of the War Between the States. Its coherent treatment explana- tions are intended to whet the appetite of interested non- conservators to learn more about the fascinating field of art AIC NEWS conservation. The public may purchase this publication for $4.00 per copy; AIC members for $3.00 per copy. Both FROM THE PRESIDENT prices include postage. The AIC Board met on December 5-6 at the Klingle Man- Tips on Insuring Your Collection is the newly published sion. The agenda was a full one and reflected the many FAIC brochure giving up-to-date information for collectors. issues the Board must address. I will report here on some Tips is available to non-members for 50tf per copy, 35<i per activities which the members of AIC may find of interest. copy for orders of 12 or more. For AIC members Tips costs 40<f each, 25<i each for orders of 12 or more (all prices include I am very pleased to announce that two Honorary postage). Space has been left on the back page of the bro- Members have been selected for 1987. Anne Clapp and chure should a firm or individual wish to distribute it and Larry Majewski will be honored for their contributions to include its name. the field of conservation at the Annual Meeting in Van- couver, B.C. These publications may also be obtained as tokens of appreciation for donations to the new FAIC outreach pro- As part of its responsibility for keeping AICs organiza- gram, FRIENDS OF FAIC. FRIENDS was recently created tion current, the Board approved amendments to articles 5 as an effort to reach the general public; to interest and and 6 of the AIC Articles of Incorporation. These changes educate people about the field of conservation, and in turn will make the Articles of Incorporation consistent with the in the activities and goals of FAIC. More LITTLE SERIES Bylaws amendment approved by the membership this year, publications are on the way and will be announced in the giving PA's full voting rights. Newsletter. The Board is concerned not only with the internal affairs of AIC, but also with the interaction of AIC with other organizations and the public. The Board wishes to broaden TABLE OF CONTENTS interest in AIC while enhancing its influence in order to further its goals. We have established liaisons with various FAIC NEWS 1 groups and are in the process of establishing others. AIC AIC NEWS 1 sponsored a session at this year's AAM meeting and is SPECIALTY GROUP NEWS 4 sponsoring a session on Museum Storage, organized by LEGISLATIVE ISSUES 6 Paul Himmelstein and Barbara Appelbaum, at the AAM GUEST EDITOR 7 meeting next year in San Francisco. AIC literature is being MATERIALS 7 disseminated at various meetings and conferences. Along RESEARCH UPDATE 8 with other organizations AIC has co-sponsored events such NEWS IN GENERAL 9 as the Statue of Liberty Symposium held in New York in PEOPLE 10 October. AIC has responded with assistance in legislative LETTERS 11 CONFERENCES, COURSES, SEMINARS 13 matters as well. AIC lent its support to the Louisiana State GRANTS & INTERNSHIPS 14 Museums when that state's legislature threatened to cut the NOTICES 14 budget so severely that a number of museums would have POSITIONS AVAILABLE 15 been shut down completely and all climate control systems would have been turned off. At the present time the Cana- dian Conservation Institute (CCI) is being threatened with resource. It is for this reason that we are making every effort cutbacks in staff and funding. The AIC Board has written in to retain current members, to reinstate former or lapsed support of CCI to the Canadian Minister of Communica- members who wish to participate, and to attract new Asso- tions. ciate and Institutional members. We need the help of AIC was invited to testify at a hearing for a bill on visual members themselves to accomplish these objectives. At the artists' rights. Among other things, the bill would protect office, AIC staff member Jim Mclntyre is doing an outstand- artists' works from intentional alterations. Since conserva- ing job implementing our computerized membership sys- tion treatment could be considered as an intentional alter- tem. The system enables us to maintain current records, ation, Gil Brown testified and recommended a change in the and to track membership enrollment trends. wording of the bill so that conservation treatment would be As many of you know, our organization has long needed exempt. Attorney Ned Sack kindly offered to advise AIC in attractive, up-to-date information and publications bro- this matter. chures. These are two items which are crucial for success- Much of the work of AIC is carried out in the committees. fully marketing the AIC/FAIC. Anne Webster, AIC staff, The Board generally assigns charges to the committees to and Deborah Page, FAIC staff, recently completed produc- study issues, to gather information, or to carry out specific tion work on a general information brochure describing the tasks. I would like to bring the AIC membership up-to-date goals and activities of both AIC and FAIC, and a publica- on committee activities by highlighting one committee in tions brochure containing an order form and brief descrip- each issue of the Newsletter. The Membership Committee tion of items currently available for purchase through the will be first. The members of this committee are Jacqueline office. Anne and Deborah have done an excellent job, and I Olin, Chair; Susanne Sack; Inge-Lise Eckmann, Don Ether- believe you will be pleased as I am with the finished prod- ington; Debbie Hess Norris; and Carolyn Rose. The com- uct. A supply of both brochures is on hand at the office. mittee continues to review applications for Fellows and All of the staff of AIC and FAIC would like to take this Professional Associates, as well as to reevaluate criteria for opportunity to thank you, the members, for your continu- these categories. The Board and the Membership Commit- ing support of our work at the Klingle office. We wish all of tee have developed new guidelines which will provide for you the very best for a healthy and successful year in rotation of the members of the committee. No member 1987,-Gil Brown should serve more than six years on the committee, and a member may be Chair of the committee for a maximum of three years. The next Newsletter will contain a statement by FROM THE PROGRAM CHAIR the Board on the meaning of the membership categories. 1987 AIC MEETING This statement is in response to a request by Virginia Greene made at the last Annual Meeting. Preparations for the AIC meeting in Vancouver, British The next Board meeting will be in mid-March. If you have Columbia are well underway. Over thirty abstracts for talks items of business for the agenda, please send them either to were sent in but due to time constraints, we will have time me or to the national office.-Terry Drayman Weisser for only twelve or thirteen presentations. The Wooden Arti- facts/Textiles Specialty Group general session "up-date" will present an additional six talks relating to these two FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR specialties. A list of speakers and titles of talks will be included in the special mailing that will be sent to you in We are pleased to report that our proposal for an archives February. If the abstracts are any indication, the talks will be feasibility study has been accepted, and a grant for $7,327 diverse, informative and of interest to the general member- awarded by the National Historical Publications and ship. I would like to thank the Chairs of all the specialty Records Commission. The Getty Conservation Institute will groups for participating in the selection process and doing match the funds received from NHPRC, making a total of so in an effective and timely manner. $14,654 from outside sources to conduct the study. The While the meeting will be a time for professional wheel- project will get underway early in 1987. Its purpose is to ing and dealing and catching up on new materials/tech- determine the feasibility of establishing an archives to serve niques in the field, it is also a time for seeing old friends and as a repository for the records of conservators engaged in having a good time. You will have ample time in the eve- private work, and of those practicing in smaller museums nings to make the most of Vancouver's diversity. The Hotel and private galleries lacking adequate records systems. Vancouver should afford the more athletic of you an oppor- Task force members, whose names will be announced in the tunity to keep in shape with its pool, jacuzzi, exercise and March Newsletter, will study the legal, technical, and logisti- games room.