As December arrives a collective sigh goes up from conservation studios everywhere as we contemplate another year (almost) over and the incredible work we have achieved during the past 12 months… and confront the reality that there are only three more weeks to tie loose ends together and finish all those tasks on the ‘to-do’ list (eek!). Since this is the final President’s Report of the year I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many individuals and groups that have helped to make 2016 such a successful one for the AICCM.
For those who have read the 2015-2016 AICCM Annual Report, delivered at the 2016 Annual General Meeting (held at the National Portrait Gallery on Friday 28th October), you’ll see that 2016 has turned out a bumper crop of events. These were well supported, with over 490 people attending these events.
A big thank you to those who have helped to make these events possible. Firstly I would like to recognise the generous support of the Australian Decorative Fine Arts Society (ADFAS) through the Patricia Robertson fund and the Gordon Darling Foundation. ADFAS’ support of the AICCM has included a number of student awards and bursaries over the last several years. In 2015, this was revised with funding directed towards workshops and international conference attendance. In 2016, funding from the ADFAS Patricia Robertson fund and the Gordon Darling Foundation, also a long term supporter of AICCM events, helped to bring the low-cost, accessible, 3D imaging technique of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) to the heritage and conservation community here in Australia. This was an exceptional AICCM event given its ability to draw attendance from across the heritage community including archaeologists and collection managers. This is a critical step in the AICCM strengthening its profile within the industry as source of collections care and preservation information, training and technologies.
Many other institutions have also provided in-kind support including: Museum Victoria, Queensland Museum, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Whiteman Park, Museum of Art and Applied Sciences, the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, the National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria and National Gallery of Australia. The AICCM recognises that without their in-kind support that includes not only provision of venue but in many cases staffing hours, our registration fees would be much higher.
Thank you too, to the many individuals and conservation businesses who offer their time and staff to assist with the planning and delivery of these symposia and workshops. As anyone who has been involved with hosting an event understands it involves a cast of many— far too many were involved in the seven events held over 2016 to list here but they are mentioned in the AICCM 2015-16 Annual Report and again in the SIG and Events Coordinator update in this eNews.
With regards to the Bulletin, the transition to Taylor and Francis and the continued commitment of Bulletin editor, Nicole Tse and her editorial team, has helped us to deliver a more consistent bi-annual publication schedule. It has also ensured that the research published by our members in the publication is readily accessible by our peers around the world.
We’re proud of our achievements year and look forward to building on them to deliver a number of new projects in 2017. Some, such as the Emerging Conservators Group and the partner project with the GCCMC ‘The National Project’ are mentioned in the AICCM 2015-2016 Annual Report and again in this edition of eNews. Others are in the formative stages but no less exciting.
MaryJo Lelyveld
AICCM National President