Newsletter Issue Number:
AICCM National Newsletter No 133 March 2016
Author:
Division Presidents

ACT Division

ACT Division has recently lost its Secretary (Kasi Albert) and Treasurer (Jane Wild). Thanks to them for their sterling work at getting our procedures and paperwork in order! Our new secretary is UC student Anna Kalloudis.

Other committee members are:

Danica Auld (UC), Hakim Rahim (UC), Karen Wilcox (AWM) Natalie Ison (NMA) and Nick Zihrul (AWM)

We have had our first council meeting for the year and are currently exploring meeting ideas including a visit to local printery Megalo and the railway museum. We have also approached Calligrapher Gemma Black about giving us a talk later in the year.

Also coming up is Heritage week and this year we are involved in an event at the Canberra Museum and Gallery. It will comprise a Conservation Clinic type event jointly sponsored by the UC, AICCM and CMAG. Members from various conservation disciplines will be recruited to man the clinic during its run.

Ian Batterham, ACT Division President


NSW Division

NSW division currently have a general committee of 11 members including office bearers unchanged from last year. Our committee members are drawn from; State Library of NSW, Sydney Living Museums, International Conservation Services, and the Australian Museum. One member has moved to New Zealand but would like to remain on the Conference organizing committee. Kasi Albert has recently moved to Sydney and has expressed an interest to join the committee. The Committee has requested Kasi assist with Conference planning due to her past experience with the South Australian AICCM conference.
The NSW Division held our first planning meeting for 2016 on Monday 8 February. A rough outline of events for the year was discussed and delegated. Our first event will be a Risk management/Preventive discussion from Sarah-Jane, drawing on her trip to Beijing. We hope to have a Conference highlights from the Tasmanian Conference. A number of other events are already in the planning stage.

The 2017 National Conference is to be in NSW and planning is underway.  A number of venues have already been put forward and divided up for investigation. The United Nations Year is “Sustainable Tourism for Development” in 2017. The NSW Division welcomes suggestions for a theme.

Sheldon Teare, NSW Division President


SA/NT Division

In October the Division held a Chinwag where Jo Dawe presented an overview of the Conservation of Plastics workshop undertaken with Yvonnne Shashoua in

Brisbane. Another Chinwag held held in November was presented by Dr Ian MacLeod, on the topic ‘Mystery of Australian Shipwrecks: Patterns of Decay on Artefacts’ . For the first time we were able to link up via video to our NT colleagues. Future Chinwags planned for 2016 include an  Andrew Bearman workshop on making Tintypes and Kristin Phillips talking about Attingham Summer School 2015

The division has a relationship with Museums Australia and have regular

joint networking breakfasts. Kristin Phillips is to do a workshop in April for MA members on Insects and Textiles: Fatal Attraction.

The winner of the SA/NT Division conference competition enabling a member

to travel to the National Conference went to Northern Territory member Lisa

Nolan.

Kristin Phillips, SA/NT Division President


Tasmania Division

Tasmanian members met on 4th December for the 2015 Annual General Meeting. We debriefed on the AICCM National Conference and discussed potential ideas for meetings in 2016. In addition, nominations were heard and the following members were elected for the 2016 committee:

President – Amy Bartlett (Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery), Secretary – Stephanie McDonald (Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office), Treasurer – Nikki King Smith (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) and Public Officer – Erica Burgess (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery)

It is anticipated that the next division meeting will be held in Hobart in March / April 2016 with details to be confirmed.

Amy Bartlett, Tasmania Division President


Victoria Division

The Victorian committee for 2016 consists of Susie Collis (President), Elizabeth McCartney (Treasurer), Charlotte Walker (secretary), and Alex Ellem, Lauren Keating, Helen Gill, Sarah Brown, Albertine Hamilton and Marika Kocsis as ordinary members – Irene Finkelde is an additional ordinary member representing the University of Melbourne student group.

The division has been approached by a number of internationally based materials conservation and heritage conservation professionals, who would like to tap into the AICCM membership in order to give lectures and workshops. These types of approaches and how we respond to them will be discussed at the division planning meeting, with respect to other events and activities that the division was hoping to promote this year.

Susie Collis, Victoria Division President


WA Division

The WA Division will hold their AGM at the Fremantle Maritime Museum in the Kailis Board room on the 11th March 2016. Stephanie Baily, who now operates as a private Paper Conservator after leaving AGWA in late January, is going to give a talk about her recent trip to Japan. The responses to her demonstration of the Japanese Christmas wrappings at the Christmas party last year were so popular so we had to ask her to do a longer presentation to us all about her actual workshop she attended. We will also get to sample some lovely WA wine and cheese and enjoy watching the sun setting over the harbour from Ian’s magnificent boardroom.

The division are hosting an evening out with Nancy Wade from Shepard Conservation, London. Nancy is a paintings conservator and will be in Perth some work for the Kerry Stokes Collection. We thought it was a good opportunity to extend our hand of welcome and hear about the private sector in London.

In light of the recent bushfire activity in WA the committee are planning a meeting to make sure our responses are coordinated among our institutions and the AICCM. Organisations and councils often approach the State Library of Western Australia directly and we need to discuss how to support this.

While our committee is strong and active we are hoping to get a few new faces to become involved this year.

There are a number of new graduates working in WA and we have been actively encouraging them to join the AICCM, join the committee and enjoy the professional and social benefits that membership can provide. We will see if there is a change of guard with the upcoming AGM!

Kate Woollett, WA Division President