AIC's 53rd Annual Meeting

Registration required - add this session to your Annual Meeting registration
Free; maximum 50 registrants

In mentorship, storytelling is used as a means for relating to others to understand experiences and relationship building. Humans use storytelling to engage, teach lessons and share impact to influence change in hopes to relate and resonate with their audience. In a mentor/mentee relationship there is specific care that mentors must exercise to include the many identities a mentee can wear that influences how conservation professionals navigate complex career paths.

This interactive workshop will explore how mentors and mentees can interrogate the stories they tell themselves that interrupt building connections across differences and learn to ask questions that support growth and resilience in the workplace. This workshop will support mentors and mentees in communicating what stories they may be telling themselves about supporting and receiving support from those with different identities, how to interrupt those stories and how to co-create between mentor and mentee to develop relationships that are impactful and inspiring, with the goal of creating psychological safety and dignity within the profession to usher in a more racially diverse group of people.

Mentorship is an integral part of career growth, development, and retention. This workshop is part of FAIC’s Inclusive Mentorship series, which is organized by AIC's Education and Training Committee, and aims to create foundational opportunities to develop and inspire inclusive mentors and culture change. Culture change is a critical undertaking for organizations seeking to thrive in an ever-evolving world.

• $132 registration fee
• maximum 40 registrants
• Adding this event to your schedule does not guarantee you a space. You must add it to your registration via the above "Add to Registration" button.
  
  

This workshop is primarily targeted towards private practice conservators and provides training on courier activities to those who may not have supplied these services in the past, or have not done so recently. The workshop is based on the Courier Training Program Framework, developed by several European registrars groups to promote best practices in the museum and gallery sector. This curriculum – adapted for a US-audience – provides participants with a comprehensive courier manual including training presentations, real-world scenario exercises, and practical checklists.

Through the combination of a taught syllabus, tabletop exercises, group discussion, Q&A period, a bibliography of online resources and take-home worksheets, participants will learn:

• The responsibilities of working as a contract courier
• Best practices and responsibilities for local travel with a loan
• On-site expectations of the borrower and lender for unpacking/packing and installation/de-installation
• How to establish trust with the lender
• Considerations for determining courier fees
• The tools and equipment needed as a courier
• Questions to ask the lender and borrower
• Courier-specific contract and insurance needs
• How to market courier services

• $29 registration fee - fee covers coordination of the tour
• Adding this event to your schedule does not guarantee you a space. You must add it to your registration via the above "Add to Registration" button.
  
  

Join us for this two hour walking tour that will take you to the Mississippi River Waterfront area. The falls has been a place of profound spiritual and cultural significance for Dakota and other Indigenous people for countless generations, yet most people even those raised in Minnesota know nothing of this long history.

The Owámniyomni Okhódayapi organization (formerly Friends of the Falls) will lead this tour of the Falls abd the Upper Lock - along the way you will learn about the Dakota lifeways, the significance of the River, and the Mní Sóta Dakota Tribes’ vision for cultural and environmental restoration.

The tour will start from the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. 100% of this tour fee goes to support the Owámniyomni Okhódayap organization.

In this session, members of the core group of the AIC Ethics Core Documents Review Task Force will present the process followed to revise the AIC Code of Ethics, Guidelines for Practice, and Commentaries, and will host a discussion on this process. The core group was initially tasked with identifying areas in the core ethics documents that needed updating and forming subgroups to address these areas. Presenters will explain how we identified the subjects for updates, selected the subgroup topics, and chose subgroup members. The presentation will detail how subgroups approached their revisions, how feedback from the subgroups was incorporated into the first draft of the new AIC ethics core documents, and the subsequent process of gathering feedback from AIC membership. The session will consist of a presentation and ample time for questions and discussion.

This event is free and open to all attendees

• $39 registration fee

• maximum 50 registrants
• Adding this event to your schedule does not guarantee you a space. You must add it to your registration via the above "Add to Registration" button.

The Paintings Specialty Group (PSG) is excited to offer Easel Exchange again at the upcoming annual meeting in Minneapolis! Due to the popularity of the event, they are expanding this year’s Easel Exchange to 50 participants—sign up soon to reserve your spot!

Last year, PSG hosted the first Easel Exchange, a lunchtime session that allowed conservators to informally present complex decision-making strategies for ongoing treatments, gain feedback on current practices, and generate ideas on paths forward. To continue this brainstorming and sharing of ideas amongst paintings conservators at different stages of their careers, PSG is excited to offer Easel Exchange again in 2025 in an expanded pre-session format, allowing for more paintings conservators to participate, for expanded topics, and for additional time to rotate tables.

Prior to the pre-session, participants will receive an email link through which they can submit a brief description of an ongoing treatment/treatment case study which they will then share informally with a smaller group the day of. These case studies will then by divided into different tables which could include the following topics (dependent on submission content):

• Cleaning Considerations
• New Conservation Materials
• Aesthetic Integration & Inpainting
• Structural Treatments
• Varnishing Strategies
• Conservation Outreach
• Contemporary Art & Modern Materials
• Ethics & Interfacing with Stakeholders

Participants will also be asked to rank the following topics; this will be used to pre-assign tables and table rotation prior to the event. For questions or more information, please contact Julianna Ly (JLy@clevelandart.org) or Fiona Rutka (fiona.rutka@pch.gc.ca).

We’re looking forward to brainstorming treatment strategies with you!

This session aims to bring together individuals interested in publishing their original research in the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC). It offers a valuable opportunity for potential authors, existing and aspiring reviewers, editors, and members of the journal's managing team to engage in an open dialogue about the entire publishing process. Topics will include best practices for preparing and structuring manuscripts, insights into the peer review and publishing process, and guidance on becoming a reviewer for books and article submissions. Attendees will gain practical advice on how to successfully navigate the journey from manuscript preparation to publication. The session will also provide a platform for participants to raise any specific questions or concerns they may have, fostering a collaborative environment that supports the advancement of high-quality research within the field of conservation.

Our poster session is listed in its own program so you can easily browse the abstracts. Review at the 2025 AIC Poster Program.