AIC's 53rd Annual Meeting

This year, we piloted a new program at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts, titled Our Stuff, Our Stories, which functions as a community-driven preservation pop-up. Designed to launch in full as part of the Philadelphia 250th commemoration of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, we seek to reach communities who have been left out of the promises of the Declaration, and indeed, they are often the same people for whom preservation of cultural heritage can feel out of reach.

In developing this program which offers a mix of preservation services, conservation consultation, digitization, and oral storytelling, we wanted to create something flexible and adaptable to the needs of the community organizations involved. To do so, we presented this program as a menu of options of what we might do, not what we should do, thereby taking a backseat to each organization’s goals and priorities to function more in a support role. While each iteration of Our Stuff, Our Stories will look unique, we will offer lessons learned so far, as well as tips on community-driven programming and how you can create something similar at your organization.