AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

This year, the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) developed and piloted an in-school educational program for students in grades 6-12 in the Philadelphia school district titled “Art Conservation in the Classroom: Science, History, and Creativity”.  Through outreach visits to classrooms, and pre- and post-visit lesson plans that teachers can adapt to their curricula, this program introduces students to the fields of cultural heritage conservation and preservation, applies transferrable skills from these fields to other areas in their lives, and empowers them to care for the meaningful heirlooms in their families and communities. 

This program has arisen from the regular meeting of a CCAHA staff committee devoted to the development of K-12 educational programming.  This committee was formed in response to the goals of FAIC’s Held in Trust report about the need to build awareness among young people, particularly from BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, lower income, and disabled communities about the conservation field and the careers within it. In addition to making students aware of conservation as a possible career path, Art Conservation in the Classroom also aims to demonstrate how conservation links to other subjects such as chemistry, biology, art, and history.  By utilizing original artworks and historical documents from CCAHA’s study collection, the program also reinforces the importance of primary sources, what can be learned from physical examination of them, and the need to care for them for future generations.   

Recognizing the importance of co-creating these lessons with teachers who hold the expertise in their student’s needs, we kicked off the program with an Educator Open House designed to introduce educators to the kinds of things that we could do in their classrooms with the idea of sparking a conversation about how to adapt these ideas to their curricula. Following this, lesson plans will be developed in conjunction with a paid advisory committee composed of local teachers as well as education/writing consultant Lori Litchman, who is herself a former high school teacher.

In this presentation, CCAHA Education Program Manager, Greg Stuart, will share lessons learned from this program in the midst of its first year with an eye towards how you can implement K-12 programming at your own institution. 

 “Art Conservation in the Classroom: Science, History, and Creativity” is generously supported by the FAIC’s Holly Maxson Conservation Grant.