In May 2024, INCCA partnered again with AIC’s Contemporary Art Network (CAN!) to organize our annual Speed Mentoring Session at the AIC Meeting, this time in Salt Lake City, Utah. The sessions created the chance for emerging conservators and those just entering contemporary art conservation to network through short (10 minutes) one-on-one conversations with established professionals in the field, without all the usual distractions associated with conferences. For the first time at an AIC venue, we had every session booked up before the conference began, with almost 30 mentees signing up, and this was undoubtedly boosted by a very efficient liaison between CAN! and AIC's Emerging Conservation Professionals Network.
This year’s amazing mentors were: Alexandra Nichols, Conservator (Time-Based Media at Tate), Margo Delidow (Cy Twombly Conservator for the Whitney Museum of American Art and co-owner and partner at Whryta Contemporary Art Conservation), Jessica Pace (Preventive Conservator at New York University Libraries), Samantha Owens (Associate Conservator at Glenstone Museum), Michele Marincola (Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of Conservation and Co-Chair of the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU), Per Knutås (Head of Conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), Cass Fino-Radin (art conservator, entrepreneur, and founder of Small Data Industries), Abed Haddad (Assistant Conservation Scientist at the Museum of Modern Art, New York), and Rachel Rivenc (Head of Conservation and Preservation at the Getty Research Institute).
In addition to the speed mentoring event, we were also able to facilitate a number of emerging professionals to participate in brief speed-round style interviews on their experiences entering the field with mentor Cass Fino-Radin, for the C Word - The Conservator's Podcast.
Thank you to everyone who participated, and see you in Minnesota in May 2025!