AIC's 53rd Annual Meeting

We truly are in an inside out moment, where the core of who we are and what we do matters as leaders, individuals, and collectives. The field of cultural heritage is–and has been–experiencing a profound reckoning regarding whose culture is preserved and why, while addressing the existential threat posed by the climate crisis and major losses to federal funding. Facing these challenges requires resilience and the skills to navigate the tensions between the histories we inherited, current field needs, and uncertain futures–no leadership training program currently exists that directly speaks to the work we do.  

The Conservation Leadership Collective (CLC), comprising national, regional, institutional and independent partners, began out of the desire to build a new conservation leadership program for the field with a foundation of cultural equity. Americans for the Arts defines cultural equity as "Embodying the values, policies, and practices that ensure that all people — including but not limited to those who have been historically underrepresented based on race/ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion — are represented” in the development of policy and fair distribution of programmatic, financial, and informational resources.

This matters because our decisions regarding collections are not theoretical. Our training, to preserve cultural heritage (artifacts), which focuses on “maintaining in an original or existing state” has also preserved systems of inequity. Efforts to expand the field will fail without creating conditions for inclusive cultures of belonging and attentiveness to the six conditions of systems change: policies, practices, resource flows, relationships & connections, power dynamics, and mental models (belief systems).

This work is for anyone, no matter what age or positional authority, who wants to further their leadership skills within their community and/or organization. Leadership takes many forms: management positions, organizational advocacy, committee work, and self-leadership (by example). The goal of this collaboration is to shift the field of cultural heritage preservation at a national level towards ensuring the legacies of many instead of a few and catalyzing responsive succession planning. The newly forming Conservation Leadership Collective is laying the groundwork for training + practice, and most importantly building community. This session previews the earliest stages of growing this initiative with opportunities to get involved in the future.

Imagine, what could conservation leadership training for our field look like? What are the characteristics of great leaders? What does it mean to lead with a foundation of cultural equity? And why does this matter? We need your imagination and action. This work is for conservators and allied professionals who have identified a need to shift the field and desire to be part of the collaborative efforts to impact systems change.