“Neutrality” and Censorship as Barriers to Practice in Conservation
Over the past decade, many discussions and case studies in conservation have demonstrated that conservation and conservators are not neutral or objective. These conversations call for a shift from an object-based to a people-based approach. Yet many conservators and cultural heritage institutions continue to cling to outdated models that perpetuate the status quo. Cultural heritage has never existed in a vacuum—it is inherently tied to people. As such, global politics directly affect cultural heritage, its preservation, and the wellbeing of its stewards. Speaking out for humanity and the preservation of life and culture, and against genocide and injustice, is increasingly met with censorship, suspensions, firings, and threats to safety. Relatedly, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts in educational and professional institutions are being dismantled. Federal workers face public vilification and job insecurity. Immigration policies create barriers to employment and limit access to professional development opportunities, including attending conferences like this one. Cultural heritage workers must navigate and innovate within this political terrain. This call for papers seeks diverse perspectives on how global politics impact our field—including professional advancement, education, diversity, and mental health—and on the tools, coalitions, and strategies we are using to confront these challenges.
AI and Conservation: Current Uses and Future Directions
Although the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is over fifty years old, advancing technology only recently has made it a nearly inescapable part of our everyday lives. Yet within our AIC/CAC communities, we have not begun to discuss its impact on the many facets of our work, including but not limited to: documentation, treatment, research and scholarship, building community. We know cultural heritage practitioners have begun to create AI models to restore artworks and reveal hidden elements. How else are practitioners using AI in their cultural heritage work? What ethical frameworks exist to guide our engagement? How has AI enhanced our work? What challenges does it pose for us to tackle? On a human level, what emotions does AI raise for you?
As we gather together in Montreal and online to consider "Conservation at the Intersection of Innovation and Tradition," this general session will bring together cultural heritage practitioners and researchers who have been engaging with these questions for a series of brief talks followed by discussion. The goal of the session will be to leave with an understanding of how AI is currently being used and thought about across the AIC/CAC communities and future directions for exploration.
Topics may include:
- Case studies of using AI for daily work, such as writing, documentation, and searching for information
- Case studies of using AI (machine learning, deep learning or LLMs) for conservation treatment or conservation science
- Ethical frameworks or philosophical questions for applying AI to cultural heritage work
- Results from current AI+cultural heritage surveys
Please feel free to reach out to us with potential ideas or questions!
- Chongwen Liu, PhD Candidate, UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage
- Eliza Spaulding, Helen H. Glaser Senior Paper Conservator, Weissman Preservation Center, Harvard Library
Challenges in the Care and Preservation of Conservators
Conservators have amazing skills in the care of cultural heritage. But how does this translate into the care of ourselves? Our physical and mental well-being are greatly impacted by our work. This impact manifests in different ways over our career. From trauma exposure, disaster response, pregnancy, depression, existing health conditions, and burnout, we feel our work in every part of our bodies. At any moment, these experiences can either exacerbate existing health conditions or turn into temporary or permanent disabilities. The variabilities in mental and physical disabilities are much like the variabilities in art - the possibilities are endless.
The goal of this session is to foster discourse on the mental and physical challenges conservators face and give space to share our experiences. An introduction will provide a framework to ground the session by highlighting how widely encompassing disability and its challenges are, a commonly accepted definition of Ableism, an understanding of disability inclusion and how it relates to DEI, and the state of ever evolving legal protections. The session will conclude with a look at the ways we can go beyond just ergonomics by utilizing available tools, apps, flexible working styles, and occupational therapy to improve working conditions, as well as how mindfulness can be applied to better support our bodies and minds. The themes of this session will continue in a separate, collaborative luncheon with the Sustainability Committee on the many facets of mindful practice in coping with disability, guilt, trauma, burnout, and much more.
The Health & Safety Network welcome abstracts that focus on our stories centering around mental and physical health in conservation. Topics can range from the mental stress of graduate school and starting a career, working with visible and invisible disabilities, the impact of disaster salvage on heritage responders, and what we need to do to progress towards a more inclusive and supportive community.
The organizers of this panel are permanently, either physically or neurologically, disabled and will openly discuss their personal disabilities during the session. We understand this is a sensitive topic and are happy to discuss with potential presenters how we can best represent their experiences comfortably and confidentially.
Challenges to Specializations and Cross-Collaborative Approaches to Integrative Conservation Practice
In some countries, conservation training emphasizes broad material knowledge and greater fluidity across specialties. In contrast, the current model in the United States and Canada promotes deep specialization in singular material types, resulting in highly defined but often narrowly focused skill sets. This approach is reflected in conservation lab spaces, academic programs, professional development opportunities, and publications, where cross-specialty collaboration is limited.
However, the complex, multi-material nature of many objects routinely challenges this model. These objects can be both daunting and frequent in conservation practice, as they can require a range of skills. Museums commonly house a diverse array of materials, and libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions are increasingly evolving in a similar direction. These complexities highlight the need for greater collaboration across specialties—opportunities that allow conservators to broaden their skillsets and provide more informed, holistic care for collections.
This session invites presentations that explore integrative approaches to conservation, with a particular focus on cross-specialty collaboration in treatment, training, and research. We welcome case studies, institutional models, and critical reflections that address the limitations of our current specialization framework, and propose strategies to foster more connected and adaptable conservation practices.
Colonization and Broader Values that Inform the Management of Zoological Collections
The creation of zoological collections featuring stuffed animals is closely associated with the colonial period. Historically, taxidermy, particularly of game animals, was primarily intended to showcase and promote species from various "exotic" colonies as trophies for colonizers. Over time, these collections have also been utilized by the scientific community as evidence of the biodiversity within the world's fauna and ecosystems. They provided visibility for these animals to the general public, often displayed in dioramas representing their natural habitats.
Today, the rapid advancements in audiovisual and digital information, along with improved transportation, have made knowledge about ecosystems and their biological communities accessible to both scientists and the general public. Furthermore, societal values have shifted, leading us to view ourselves not as separate from nature but as an integral part of it. This change has fostered a growing recognition of animal rights and their essential role in contemporary societies. It's worth noting that taxidermy, particularly of small animals, remains a traditional practice in some South American communities, contributing to local livelihoods within the broader context of domestic tourism.
Given these developments, it is essential to reflect on the role of conservation, as well as the display and interpretation of stuffed animals in natural history museums. We must revisit ethical and moral issues in a manner akin to those raised regarding the conservation and management of human remains. Additionally, spirit collections are a significant aspect of zoological collections, offering valuable insights for bioscientists. However, the focus of relevant research has shifted from a macro level—such as biometrics and description—to micro and nano levels, including genetics and molecular biology. Consequently, conservation planning for these collections has increasingly aimed at preserving the biomolecules of biological specimens. These considerations indicate a pressing need to review not only the techniques used for conservation but also the broader values that inform the management of zoological collections.
Community Consensus: Understanding and Implementing Fire Safety
Fire has a devastating effect on cultural heritage collections. Our mandate to protect historic sites and collections complicates management of prevention and response. Preventing fire requires collaboration among a wide range of collection care professionals, first responders, and code enforcers. We employ services of outside contractors and consultants who must follow state, local, and national regulations. This session will focus on best practice for fire prevention, minimizing damage if the worst occurs, triage and recovery efforts. We welcome submissions on the following topics:
- Fire and building code
- suppression and detection systems
- operational fire safety practices
- minimizing wildfire threats
- preparedness and recovery
- case studies of fire and response.
Contemporary Art: Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone - Electronic Media and Paintings
We welcome submissions related to dismantling disciplinary boundaries. For the first part of this two-block session, these topics may include: approaches and case studies of working with outside experts, vendors, fabricators, contractors and how that knowledge/relationship impacted the understanding and/or long-term care of an artwork; stepping outside of your comfort zone in terms of caring for artworks with challenging/unfamiliar technology or materials; and cross-disciplinary and cross-departmental collaborations in the treatment, display and/or documentation of contemporary art/electronic media.
The second block of this session will highlight how conservators navigate new materials and ethical considerations often at play with contemporary art, specifically when dealing with paintings. Topics may include novel approaches to the cleaning and stabilization of complex painted surfaces, collaborations with living artists and their estates to preserve intent and materiality, and interdisciplinary case studies.
Coping with Loss in Conservation and Collection Care
Loss is inevitable. From autocatalytic deterioration, to installations intended to return to the earth, to obsolete technologies - inherent loss bridges all specialties in cultural heritage preservation. Efforts towards mindfulness of environmental, personal, and institutional sustainability remind us that maintaining perpetual condition has lasting effects that can be opposed to the ethics of our broader work and artists’ vision. Over-packed storage, questionable provenance, and federal guidelines drive repatriation and deaccession efforts; collections and archives are impacted by disassociation, myopic perspectives, and barriers to accessibility; our training, support, and community relationships are often enabled and maintained by tenuous funding, term-limited contracts, and institutional priorities.
How do we, as caretakers, cope with these inevitabilities? When is lost information, insight, or connection to context catastrophic, and when should we choose to accept significant alterations? When we can no longer prevent physical loss, how do we thoughtfully prepare items and their networks for the next stage? Once a piece of cultural heritage is considered lost, what happens to the people committed to its care? After extensive training on the prevention of loss, what does a shift to caretaking during loss look like? What role does personal loss play in our professional lives?
In this session, we invite colleagues to submit abstracts discussing personal, community, and institutional responses to recognizing, accepting, and coping with all elements of loss - sharing cross-disciplinary support and wisdom on approaching these realities that touch us all.
Creating Multiple, Amazing Conservation Education Pathways
Of course we can, but can we? Conservators are problem solvers. Without a doubt, we can create multiple, amazing conservation education pathways: Pathways that don’t require a graduate degree. Pathways that allow people to learn without leaving their hometown. Pathways that allow people to add a few more skills to many that already have from years as an artist. Pathways that… Doubt comes in when considering the conservation field evolving into a space that welcomes and celebrates the people who come to conservation in all these ways. What does our field look like when it is a community that continues to celebrate and include the graduate school, three-legged stool trained conservator, and the conservation scientist as well as all of those trained in these new ways? This session invites visionary papers on both changes. Papers that share ideas about new education pathways that can be developed and/or papers that share a vision of how we get to a field where no one feels like a second-class citizen. Bring your vision. Let’s inspire each other.
Cross-Specialty Conversations About Mold: "Culturing" a Community of Practice
Mold affects nearly all cultural heritage collections regardless of climate, geography, or resources. Outbreaks threaten the integrity of collections and can jeopardize the health and safety of everyone who interacts with them. Although important research and new resources have emerged since Mary-Lou Florian’s influential publication nearly twenty years ago, knowledge and techniques for mold prevention, detection, and remediation remain fragmented across specialties.
Building on momentum from the 2025 AIC Annual Meeting Library and Archives Conservation Discussion Group, this session seeks to bridge this gap by encouraging cross-specialty conversations about mold in heritage collections. Participants across disciplines are invited to share techniques, case studies, and emerging protocols, highlighting both unique challenges and shared concerns.
With mold risks increasing due to climate change, resulting in more frequent water events and sustained high humidity, understanding a wide range of approaches is increasingly significant. The session hopes to feature lightning-round talks presenting current research, practical strategies, and ongoing challenges, followed by a moderated panel discussion to highlight common themes, engage with the audience, identify future directions, and collaborative solutions.
Fire-Retardant Coatings and Artworks
This cross-disciplinary panel will explore the application of fire-retardant coatings on artworks—both as part of their original fabrication and as post-production treatments. Drawing on perspectives from industry, science, and conservation, the session will examine the material impact of these coatings and their long-term implications for the preservation, analysis, and treatment of diverse types of art.
Conservators working with built heritage, textiles, sculpture, wood, film, and other materials are invited to share their experiences and insights. The session organizers weclome submissions of any length on fire retardant coatings to create a well-rounded discussion representing a wide range of expertise and perspectives.
Key topics may include:
- The rationale for applying fire-retardant coatings (e.g., compliance with building codes, exhibition requirements, or artist intent)
- Whether these coatings require different preventive conservation strategies
- Methods for identifying and analyzing fire-retardant materials in artworks
- Case studies involving deterioration, conservation challenges, or unexpected material interactions
- Practical and ethical decision-making in treating fire-retardant-coated works
We would like to feature talks and flash presentations from those in the fire protection industry, scientists, and conservators with hands-on experience with artworks that have an intumescent or fire-retardant coating. The goal is to share strategies for assessment, documentation, and treatment, and to encourage collaboration across disciplines in addressing this relevant and frequently under-discussed issue within the conservation field.
Laser Cleaning Applications for Conservation
For over fifty years, laser technology has been essential in conservation, providing a safe and precise method for cleaning a wide variety of surfaces without compromising their integrity. While initial applications focused on stone and metal, today lasers are increasingly applied to diverse materials, including painted surfaces, textiles, and organic substrates.
Following the success of a workshop at the 2024 AIC Annual Meeting and an engaging session in 2025, it is clear that the conservation community has a growing interest in this evolving technology. The newly formed Laser Discussion Group highlights the demand for a broader platform to share knowledge, address questions, and evaluate both the advantages and limitations of laser cleaning in conservation practices.
This proposed session aims to provide that platform by exploring the questions: How can lasers advance cleaning practices across conservation specialties, and what research is still needed to support their responsible and effective use? To address these questions, the session will welcome contributions from all conservation specialties. By showcasing case studies, research findings, and practical applications, this session seeks to broaden access to knowledge, foster interdisciplinary dialogue, and empower conservators to consider the laser cleaning applications in their practice.
Lead: A Collection Component - Hazard, Handling, Access, and Remediation
Lead, a well-known toxin, is a common component in many collection items such as metal sculptures, stained glass, painting grounds, components in military and industrial equipment, painted surfaces, archaeological collections, and others. While our understanding of the breadth of lead in cultural heritage items is growing, actual exposure risks are dependent on the task performed, the condition of the object, and site environmental conditions. Collection care professionals who work with and handle items containing lead often work within the constraints of local and federal law to reduce the potential for exposure and ensure safe environmental conditions.
This joint session between the Preventive Care Network and the Objects Specialty Group will acquaint participants with the range of collections containing lead as an intrinsic component and will facilitate discussions among conservators about hazard, handling, access, and remediation. Panelists will present brief case studies (7 minutes each) to provide examples of risk management, exposure assessments, and handling protocols used to control risks associated with lead exposure. Discussion will follow the presentations.
Examples include:
- Health and safety review
- Stained glass
- Painting grounds
- Painted surfaces and removal (architectural)
- Painted surfaces and removal (object)
- Archaeological objects
- Military and industrial equipment components
Looking Back to Move Forward: Revisiting and Rethinking Past Treatments
Every conservation treatment is shaped by the knowledge, tools, and materials available at the time. As techniques evolve and scientific understanding deepens, treatments once considered best practice can reveal unexpected strengths or unanticipated vulnerabilities when revisited decades later. This session will explore the lessons learned from re-examining past conservation interventions and biases, focusing on how they have aged, how they influence an object’s current condition, and how contemporary approaches might yield different outcomes.
We invite presentations that analyze case studies across a range of materials and contexts, whether a treatment has held up remarkably well or presented new challenges over time. Topics may include changes in material behavior, the long-term stability of adhesives and fills, the effects of environmental conditions, and the role of improved imaging or analytical technologies in reassessing earlier work. Speakers may also address the ethical dimensions of altering or reversing older treatments and the decision-making processes that balance historical preservation with current best practices.
By critically reflecting on our professional past, this session aims to strengthen our collective ability to innovate responsibly, integrating the wisdom of tradition with the possibilities of new technologies to ensure the long-term care of cultural heritage.
More than Two Hands: Storage Solutions
Storage of oversized, flexible, or unusually shaped items requires vision and creativity for successful realization. Special considerations such as culturally specific requirements, health and safety concerns, and the ability to safely access individual items often provide parameters that guide decision-making in devising effective storage solutions.
For this session, we are soliciting submissions that present storage solutions for oversized textiles and other objects that span large surfaces, three-dimensional objects that do not fit neatly into traditional storage drawers or cabinets, and flexible items that require support or unique solutions to allow safe handling. We hope these presentations will address solutions that have stood the test of time and collection use, as well as those that were carefully designed but resulted in unexpectedly difficult collection use situations. This cross-specialty session will encourage an exchange of ideas about storage solutions for diverse items such as oversized paintings, textiles mounted for exhibition, garments, woven plant materials, large items that cannot be safely flexed, and others.
National Heritage Responders: Communication, Connection, and Collaboration in Disaster Recovery
The National Heritage Responders (NHR) are a volunteer group of preservation professionals trained in cultural heritage disaster response and recovery. Active since 2007, responders monitor a 24/7 hotline, support on-site and virtual deployments to disaster-impacted areas, and promote outreach to communities in need. These volunteers represent a wide range of speciality backgrounds, geographic locations, and previous experiences.
Through this session, we seek to chronicle recent NHR work and demonstrate how the recovery of cultural heritage can shift depending on the affected community, extent and type of damage, and funding available. As volunteers external to these communities, NHRs focus on preserving physical collections and the built environment while recognizing that local bandwidth, priorities, and relationships may take precedence over what are considered “best practices” in our field. We invite panelists to discuss flexibility and collaboration in disaster recovery zones and consider how these efforts will evolve in a future without reliable government assistance. We hope to feature NHR involvement in the following: fire recovery; flooding and hurricane response; virtual deployments and hotline assistance; and reciprocal relationships with Heritage Emergency and Response Training (HEART) and Alliance for Response (AFR) groups.
Power, Authority, and Control: Aligning practice and policy with the evolving care of cultural heritage
Hosted by the Canadian Association for Conservation’s Reconciliation Working Group, this panel session brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural heritage practitioners to share collaborative projects that have led to meaningful change in procedures and policy development in conservation practice across Canada.
Through sharing both successful outcomes and ongoing challenges, panelists will highlight the central role of collaboration, care for both people and collections, and the importance of sustained relationship-building. The discussion will explore how the work of conservators and allied professionals can be guided and transformed by principles that support Indigenous justice, sovereignty, and self-determination.
Shifting Perspectives on Damage, Change, and Value
What counts as damage in cultural heritage and who gets to decide? This session explores boundaries between material change, damage, and value, revealing how museum policies can shift from the reduction of risk for material loss at all costs to the creation of value through increasing object access, visibility, and connection.
The conservation field often frames change as inherently negative. While scientific tools like acoustic emission monitoring and the microfading tester offer ever more precise ways to detect material change, recognizing that damage is a value-based judgment, rather than an objective outcome, becomes even more critical. Material change does not necessarily equate to loss; its meaning depends on cultural and historical contexts. Focusing on display and exhibitions, this session considers how conservation strategies—such as lighting guidelines, environmental parameters, and loan conditions—can be reframed as tools for sustainable and inclusive practice, drawing upon the varied perspectives on access, significance, and value from communities including Indigenous groups and museum professionals (conservators, curators, educators, lighting and exhibition designers).
By critically examining concepts like acceptable change, noticeable difference, and object lifetime, we aim to broaden the focus from “what we might lose” to include “what we have to gain.” In doing so, we reimagine conservation as being accountable not only to the mission of the institution, but also to the cultural meaning of the object and its connection to communities.
Small Tips, Big Helps: General Tips Session
Do you have a favorite tool, a clever mount-making technique, or a treatment solution that others might benefit from, even outside your specialty?
We are inviting submissions for short tips to be presented during a new general session designed to share practical, adaptable ideas across the full spectrum of conservation practice. This session will highlight quick, useful insights that can be applied by professionals working in all specialties. Contributions might include:
- A go-to tool, material, or hack that has transformed your workflow
- A treatment or preventive case study with cross specialty relevance
- A practical lesson learned through experience
We welcome submissions from professionals at all career stages and from all specialties. Whether you are a student, a seasoned conservator, or work in allied fields, this is an opportunity to share your creativity and problem-solving approaches with the broader community. Favorite tips from past specialty group tip sessions are also invited to submit. Submissions should be concise (up to 7 minutes) and geared towards practical takeaways.
- “My Tool Wishlist” – inexpensive or unexpected tools/supplies from outside the field that have become indispensable.
- “Clever Workflow Planning” – small hacks that save time or improve efficiency in treatment or preventive workflows.
- “Lab Hacks” – modifications or space/time saving workarounds in the lab.
- “Thinking Small” – miniature solutions that solve big problems.
- “Upcycled Materials” – reusing or re-purposing materials in creative ways.
- “From the Hardware Store” – supplies that weren’t designed for conservation but work perfectly.
- “Unexpected Inspirations” – techniques borrowed from crafts, trades, cooking, etc. that translate to conservation.
- “Digital Shortcuts” – software, apps, or tech hacks that improve documentation, project tracking, or collaboration.
- “Quick Fixes” – fast, reliable solutions for common recurring problems.
- “Across the Bench” – tools or treatments learned from one specialty adapted successfully to another.
- “Workspace Zen” – tricks for organizing benches, carts, or shared spaces for smoother work.
To Sample or Not to Sample: Navigating Ethics, Context, and Scientific Needs in Conservation
Scientific analysis is central to understanding and preserving cultural heritage, yet conservation professionals often find themselves with a dilemma when selecting study methods, particularly when weighing the value of non-invasive techniques against the need for micro-sampling. This session invites participants to engage in dialogue across specialties about how we choose, justify, and communicate technical approaches around sampling of an object.
Topics may include:
- Case studies where sampling made a big difference—or where restraint proved more powerful.
- The role of context sampling decisions, including scientific goals, institutional capacity, community priorities, and ethical frameworks.
- Ethical decision-making: Who decides when to sample? What does consent look like in community-driven projects?
- Approaches to working with sacred, contested, or community-held heritage. What does ethical stewardship look like in these cases?
- Sample curation: ownership and storage of samples, navigating consent, access, long-term use, and disposal of materials from culturally significant objects.
- Rethinking terminology in conservation science: Are terms like non-invasive, minimally invasive, or micro-invasive accurate, or potentially misleading? How re-examining our vocabulary might clarify methodologies and promote collaborations?