2013 AICCM National Conference - Call for Papers

Posted on Fri, 02/15/2013 - 13:14

AICCM (Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials) National Conference

‘Contexts for Conservation’ 
The Science Exchange, Adelaide, SA 
23rd, 24th and 25th October 

The 2013 AICCM National Conference will provide the conservation profession with an opportunity to explore the roles of conservation and conservators within a variety of wider contexts. An interdisciplinary approach will be taken in considering the activities, ideas and challenges of the conservation profession in the present and into the future. 

The scope will encompass the many varied connections and relationships conservators encounter in their work, from close working relationships with curators and collection managers in cultural institutions, private citizens caring for their own collections to their much broader involvement with national and international cultural and heritage issues. Some of the proposed contexts include:

- The creators - working with artists and craftspeople

- The collaborators – curators, collection managers and the cultural organisations

- The places - heritage places and buildings and the professionals who manage them (relationships with heritage organisations)

- The community – supporting the preservation of cultural identity (disaster response, conservation education and local engagement)

- The Government; local and national - policy and planning for culture and heritage (National Cultural Policy)

- The World – the place of Australia in the international profession (especially within the South-east Asian region)

- The frameworks – philosophy, ethics and ways of contributing to cultural thinking

- The digital – digital conservation and conservation/preservation of the digital

- The commercial – conservation funding and philanthropy


The National Conference will be a forum for showcasing innovation in the ways in which conservators already work within these larger frameworks, as well as highlighting the importance of increasingly flexible, cohesive and contemporary methods of meeting future challenges of engaging in wider contexts.

Presentations and activities will encompass a broad range of collaborations and contexts for conservation and will focus on building partnerships and engaging the profession within a wider culture and heritage perspective. Sessions on conservation research, practice and treatment will also be presented, with an emphasis on the ways these core activities connect with wider issues and contexts.

The organising committee now welcomes abstracts (maximum 300 words) for papers on these themes. Abstracts will be accepted until Friday the 12th of April 2013.

To submit an abstract, or for further information, please contact: 

Kasi Albert 
Preventive Conservator, Artlab Australia 
Mobile: (+61) 0408340894 
Email: national.conference@aiccm.org.au