In this Issue

• Lead Articles: SC & PCN, and RATS
• From the Vice President
• Association and Foundation News
• Health & Safety News
• In Memoriam
• Committee Reports
• Annual Meeting: Meet the Exhibitors

SC & PCN 

Managing Museum Environments: Reconsiderations, Reflections, and Resources

Sponsored by the Sustainability Committee in collaboration with the Preventive Care Network

The climate crisis is here; evidence has irrefutably shown that carbon emissions from fossil fuels are at its heart. In 2023, the United States Energy Information Administration estimated that the energy use from buildings accounted for about 37% of total emissions, and cultural institutions are no exception. Energy used to heat, cool, de/humidify, and light buildings is one of the biggest environmental impacts of the cultural heritage sector. With this energy use multiplied across an estimated thirty-five thousand museums in the US, the cultural sector’s carbon impact is significant (2014 IMLS data). Results from the Carbon Inventory Project (CIP) released in 2023 are staggering; the collective greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the 2022 energy consumption of the 80 CIP participants were more than 187,000 metric tons CO₂e. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of over 41,000 gasoline-powered passenger cars.

read the full SC and PCN article here >>

RATS

The Great Conference Migration: Scientists and Conservators

By Anikó Bezur for the Research and Technical Studies Group (RATS)

The 53rd AIC Annual Meeting is approaching, and this year’s theme, “What’s Your Story? The Power of Collaborations and Connections,” resonates strongly with the Research and Technical Studies (RATS)specialty group. Core to our group’s mission is to support those involved in research efforts in the field, promote the advancement of scientific research, and foster effective interaction and communication between conservators and scientists across all disciplines relevant to heritage preservation.

RATS is excited to collaborate this year with the Book and Paper Group (BPG), the Photographic Materials Group (PMG), the Imaging Working Group (IWG), the Preventive Care Network (PCN), and the Microfading Tester International Discussion Group (MFT-IDG), to offer joint sessions on imaging, lightfastness testing, and illumination policies, plus a luncheon introducing participants to the foundations of spectral imaging of cultural heritage objects. Other programs highlighting collaborations between conservators and scientists include two RATS sessions, a series of talks about BEVA adhesives organized by the Paintings Specialty Group (PSG), and presentations involving scientific studies of degradation and treatment methods, as well as technical studies in other specialty group sessions. See the program for the 2025 AIC Annual Meeting for more details.

read the full RATS article here >>

From the Vice President

By the time this issue of AIC News goes to press, the annual meeting will only be weeks away. The theme of this year’s meeting, “What’s Your Story? The Power of Collaborations and Connections,” was chosen because:

• For the 2024 meeting, this theme received almost as many votes from the membership as the winning theme.
• The theme coordinates with the work that FAIC is undertaking with Resnicow & Associates by bringing more public awareness to the field of conservation and its importance in preserving and helping tell stories of human endeavors.
• Collaboration and connections are particularly salient to the meeting’s location in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Here is part of my story of this city. In 1999, as a young chemistry graduate student, I attended my first professional conference in Minneapolis. I heard talks from esteemed researchers whose work I admired (truthfully, geeked out over), presented my first academic poster, met graduate students from other labs, and (needless to say) beer drinking and dancing occurred. I had no idea then what the future would hold—that I would change career paths into conservation science and become the vice president of an organization I’d not yet heard of. This is the start of my Minneapolis story; the rest, as Natasha Bedingfield would say, “is yet unwritten.” I look forward to a continuation of it at the annual meeting, and know it will be richer and more interesting thanks to meeting my friends and colleagues there.

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