AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

As museums across the country are redefining and diversifying their collections, curators and conservators are increasingly seeking new approaches to forging cultural relationships and community building aiming to decentralize Western perspectives and foreground Indigenous and community voices. Much like textiles, Indigenous or community-centered cultural materials have been marginalized, undervalued, and misrepresented within museum collections and the broader art historical narrative. Textiles are often deeply embedded in sacred spaces and communal practices, serving as repositories of spirituality, identity, and memory. These parallels position textile conservators to approach cultural collaboration with a unique understanding, compassion, and respect that can influence the wider conservation practices.  

Traditional museum practices present that the care of an object is commonly predicated on its “value and significance” in the greater art historical narrative. This approach requires a fundamental shift when considering community-centered cultural material, where significance is deeply tied to cultural and spiritual identity. Such a transformation involves not only revising traditional conservation methodologies but also rethinking institutional language and everyday interactions with these objects. Therefore, fostering a deeper connection with communities that created these artworks is essential to long-term preservation strategies. 

Textile conservators, through their specialized skills and historical perspective, are uniquely equipped to lead institutions in integrating Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into conservation and museum practices. By foregrounding cultural knowledge keepers as experts and decolonizing institutional language and procedures, textile conservators can help ensure that the conservation efforts respect and honor cultural practice. This includes recognizing contributions of the “nameless” artists or “Once Known Weavers” and “Once Known Artists”, whose historical significance has been obscured over time.  

This presentation explores the distinct role of textile conservators in fostering community relationships and reshaping institutional practices. It argues that textile conservation, with its long history of collaboration and sensitivity to cultural context, offers broader lessons for the conservation profession as a whole. By embracing cultural perspectives and incorporating them into conservation protocols, textile conservators can help museums establish deeper connections with communities and create more inclusive narratives. 

Drawing on examples from the work being undertaken at the Toledo Museum of Art, this presentation will demonstrate how these strategies are being implemented to build meaningful connections with Indigenous communities. Through collaborative efforts, we are amplifying community voices, enhancing transparency, and creating a greater sense of belonging within the institution. This presentation invites the broader conservation community to reflect on how these practices can reshape the future of conservation, ensuring that cultural preservation is as much about people and relationships as it is about objects.