INCCA / CAN! Speed Mentoring session

Inspired by and modelled after speed-dating, this session creates the chance to have short (10 mins) sessions of one-on-one time with recognized professionals in the field, without all the normal distractions associated with conferences. Although developed as an in-person event, the program has also worked well in the virtual world.

Your session is an opportunity to ask your mentor anything you want! You can talk about them, about you, about the field in general, or about anything else. You will be in a private break-out room, so nobody will interrupt you, and our impressive group of mentors are eager to listen, discuss and advise. At the end of your session, you will be brought back into the main Zoom room, where there will be an opportunity to meet the other mentees, or ask questions to the organizers from CAN! and INCCA.  

If you are interested in reserving your time with any of the following mentors, please send an email to J. Luca Ackerman - luca.ackerman@gmail.com. You may give a first and a second preference in case your first choice is already booked.  Requests will be dealt with on a first-come first-served basis.

Speed Mentors - 2021 AIC/SPNHC Joint Virtual Annual Meeting

Kenza Dufourmantelle is Director of Research, Conservation and Scientific Services at the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI), overseeing all of CCI’s work in those areas, including research into contemporary art. She holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from McGill University and an M.Sc. in Science and Conservation of Materials of Cultural Heritage from the University of Bologna, and obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Perugia. Her thesis was on non-invasive methodologies applied to the study of 20th-century synthetic painting materials. From 2006 to 2009, Kenza worked on several conservation projects as part of the MoLab (mobile laboratory) team, based in Perugia. She was then was a post-doc at CCI before managing the Conservation Science Division of Parks Canada until her move back to CCI in 2017.

Per Knutås is Head of Conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Prior to this, he served as Chief Conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), establishing the June and Simon K.C. Li Center for Chinese Paintings Conservation, which is the first post graduate training center for the discipline. He also served as Chief Conservator for the Cincinnati Art Museum from 2009 to 2012.  He has a Paintings Conservation degree from the School of Conservation at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen, with a focus on modern and contemporary paintings. Knutås has also worked at the Moderna Museet and the Swedish National Heritage Board, both in Stockholm, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Rosa Lowinger is president of RLA Conservation, a firm with offices in Miami and Los Angeles specializing in sculpture, architectural finishes and contemporary art.  She's a graduate of NYU's conservation program and, after fellowships at the Penn Museum and LACMA, has been in private practice for the last 30 years. A Fellow of AIC and APT,  she researched the history of vandalism as the 2009 Rome Prize Fellow in conservation, and has served as consultant to the Getty Conservation Institute’s Painted Outdoor Sculpture Initiative.  She is on the boards of a number of organizations, including the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami Library, and is dedicated to fostering diversity, inclusion, and opportunity in our field. Her articles and essays about culture can be found at www.rosalowinger.com.

Ana Lizeth Mata Delgado (Lizeth) is the academic coordinator of the Bachelor's Degree in Restoration at ENCRyM (Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía) in Mexico City. She sits on the Steering Committee of INCCA, and was a co-founder of the Spanish Group of IIC. She has a bachelor’s degree in restoration, and a master’s degree in art history with specialization in contemporary art. Lizeth organized the Contemporary Art Conservation course (2008 and 2010) with MoMA, NY, and has published widely on the conservation of modern and contemporary art, with a particular focus on graffiti and urban art. She has organized many international meetings, including Street Art and Graffiti Conservation (in 2013, 2016, 2018); and the Living Matter symposium (2019) with MUAC-UNAM and the Getty Conservation Institute.

Mareike Opeña is an Associate Conservator at Contemporary Conservation Ltd. in New York. She graduated from the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences, Germany in 2009 with a Diploma thesis on physical properties of polymeric films, and a Master’s thesis on the conservation of Atrabiliarios by Doris Salcedo in 2017. Since joining Contemporary Conservation in 2010, she has specialized in materials such as intestines, rose petals, leafing pigments, and matte spray-painted or monochrome surfaces. Mareike is a co-founding member of CAN! and served as Program Chair for AIC’s Annual Meeting in 2019.  Since 2019 she is researching contemporary art conservation in private practice as an external PhD candidate under supervision of  Dr. Vivian van Saaze, at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, NL. 

Annette S. Ortiz Miranda is a researcher/conservation scientist at SMK – Centre for Art Technological Studies and Conservation (CATS), in Copenhagen. Her focus is on the identification and characterization of artists’ materials and techniques as well as understanding their degradation patterns. She has a PhD in chemistry, and a Masters in conservation from the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. Before joining CATS, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University’s Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts in Chicago, where she studied lead soaps in modern paintings. Annette is also a scientific consultant with museums and cultural institutions in the Caribbean, is an active member of STEM careers mentoring programs, and is part of the world’s largest virtual collection of profiles of Latina scientists by the “If Then She Can” organization.

Rachel Rivenc is Head of Conservation and Preservation at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Prior to this she worked at the Getty Conservation Institute where she researched the materials and processes used by contemporary artists and the conservation challenges that they pose, and developed the series of Artists Dialogues videos. Rachel has also taught paintings conservation at the University of Malta and worked as a conservator in private practice in France, Spain and the UK. She was the coordinator for the Modern Materials and Contemporary Art working group of ICOM-CC for 6 years and sits on the steering committee of the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (INCCA). Rachel holds a master's degree in paintings conservation and a PhD in Cultural History of Contemporary Societies

Asti Sherring is a paper, photographs and time-based art conservator. She has a Bachelor of Media Arts from Sydney University and a Masters of Materials Conservation from Melbourne University. She was senior time-based art conservator at The Art Gallery of New South Wales between 2015 - 2020. This position was the first of its kind in Australia and aimed to develop time-based art conservation across Australasia. She has worked at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the 20th and 21st Biennale of Sydney, University of Newcastle, National Archives of Australia, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.  Asti is currently undertaking postgraduate research at the University of Canberra, exploring contemporary conservation theories and practices surrounding the preservation of works that are virtual, ephemeral, immersive, participatory, and technology-based in nature.

Frederick Wallace is Chief Conservator and Director of Conservation at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) - Newfields, in Indianapolis, Indiana. For three years prior to joining the IMA staff, Fred was Director and Owner of Infinity Art Conservation Enterprises (IACE), a full-time conservation private practice he established in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. During his past employment, Fred also earned appointment to the position of Chief Conservator at the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio and The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. He completed his formal academic conservation training in the early 1990s, after graduating with a Master's degree from the Art Conservation Program of the State University of New York College at Buffalo.

Joelle Wickens is the Associate Director of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC). Her responsibilities focus on curriculum oversight and support of student and faculty learning and teaching, with recent efforts focusing on strengthening modern and contemporary art conservation training, and the creation of a preventive conservation major. Her scholarship focuses on the teaching and practice of preventive conservation, particularly the role leadership skills and social justice play in the successful implementation of preventive conservation plans. She currently co-leads, Advancing Equity and Inclusion in Conservation. In 2011, she co-founded AIC’s Collection Care Network. She holds a PhD and an MA (Distinction) from the Textile Conservation Centre, University of Southampton, UK, and a B.A. in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania.