Creating a national outreach through local connections: The American Institute for Conservation’s K-12 Education Outreach Working Group (original) (raw)
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From One Student to Many: Multi-level Approaches to Conservation Outreach in the K-12 Arena
Many conservators have been involved with students and teachers in their local school systems for years, but it is only recently that our professional dialogue has extended to include this form of outreach. The increased funding for and public interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education makes this a particularly fruitful time for these initiatives, as conservation is an ideal framework for teaching applied science concepts to a wide range of age groups. There are a number of points in the educational system at which conservators can connect with these audiences. Mentoring projects are attractive ways to reach individual students; these are generally at the high school level, and allow an in-depth exploration of particular conservation-related topics. This type of outreach is a significant time commitment, but allows for a deep connection to be made. Classes offered through museum education departments, such as those developed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, extend to a larger audience, though they generally reach only a self-selected group of museum-familiar students. A class requires a significant start-up effort to develop, but is then readily reproducible. Stepping out of the studio or museum lab to work within the public and private school systems allows conservators to introduce conservation concepts to an even wider audience, one usually less familiar with the field. Teacher workshops, classroom visits, and even integrated curriculum development offer this sort of opportunity. Finally, initiating projects at an organizational level – working with school administrations and educators’ associations – has the potential to reach the broadest demographic. This paper addresses some of the educational outreach efforts made by the authors and concludes with a discussion of the recent development of a K-12 Educational Outreach committee within AIC, which aims to support and develop conservation outreach projects at all of these various levels.
Connecting to Conservation at the Kelsey Museum
In recent years, the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum of Archaeology has begun to focus more effort on presenting the ancient world and the work of Kelsey Museum scholars to audiences outside the academic community. The Museum's conservators created a website and blog to engage varied audiences in the Museum's archaeological conservation efforts. An exhibition, held in 2012 and 2013, further educated visitors about conservation. Both the blog and the exhibition attempt to make conservation comprehensible to general audiences by involving them in, and entertaining them with, the everyday experiences of conservators. This paper discusses the educational theories that underlie conservation outreach at the Kelsey Museum, as well as the planning and implementation of the blog and the exhibition. Finally, it provides thoughts on future directions for integrating conservation more fully into the Museum's exhibitions and media.
CEPS Journal, 2020
• In Slovenia, teachers of the school subject visual arts (implemented at the primary level by primary school teachers and at secondary level by fine visual arts teachers) play a significant role in planning and implementing visual arts tasks with preservation concepts. With these activities, they can raise awareness of cultural heritage meaning, strengthening the nation's cultural identity. Pupils should develop into active and responsible citizens who are able to understand heritage problems in general and express their sensitivity and respect for their cultural heritage and its preservation. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the teachers' preconceptions about the preservation of architecture in the Slovenian countryside and the implementation of heritage preservation concepts in visual arts teaching. Altogether, 125 teachers from Slovenia participated in this study. The research revealed the teachers' preconceptions regarding some problems in the Slovenian countryside, as well as sufficient awareness of the importance of the implementation in heritage preservation concepts in visual arts activities, according to contemporary professional guidelines. Teach-ers' preconceptions reveal a lack of some basic knowledge of preservation concepts, which lead us to compare the results with the current guidelines. It can be concluded that greater emphasis should be placed on developing training programmes for teachers with specific preservation concepts and didactic materials for students in the field of preservation education with the aim of developing the students' positive and responsible attitudes to those problems. More heritage preservation education content should be incorporated into pre-and in-service teachers' education, and teachers should develop competences to implement these topics into their teaching.
Innovations in Teaching & Learning Conference Proceedings, 2015
The Smithsonian-Mason Semester for Conservation Studies is the cornerstone of an innovative partnership between George Mason University and the Smithsonian Institution, established to educate future conservation practitioners in an experiential framework. This 16-credit residential program addresses complex conservation imperatives within diverse disciplines, including the biological, physical, and social sciences. We aim to teach conservation as conservation is practiced, engaging students in real-world experiences. The semester is rooted in an integrative teaching design, focusing on dialogue and problem-solving using case studies in immersive field and laboratory experiences. Students learn from a large number of conservation practitioners and professionals, often up to 50 in one semester, enabling a collaborative atmosphere in which students develop a professional network. Class sizes are kept deliberately small so that students may engage in intensive mentoring with faculty. Si...
Heritage Preservation Education for the General Public – The role of Hands-on Education
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Heritage education for the general public by conservation experts is the key to success in preserving the world cultural heritage. An extended State-of-the-Art Review on educational activities for the general public on conserva-tion of cultural heritage (CCH) was undertaken in 2009, as part of the European Project ELAICH (Educational Linkage Approach In Cultural Heritage). Its re-sults have not yet been published. This article revisits some selected data from the conclusions of the Review, drawn up by the leading partner of the project, with a glimpse into some present aspects of heritage education, concentrating specifically on educating the general public in CCH.
North American Graduate-level Education in Preventive Conservation
Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, 2005
Preventive conservation is a concept widely accepted by most disciplines involved in preservation of cultural property. It also has become a component in curricula of graduate training programs for museum and conservation professionals. Prevailing course content focuses on environment, storage and exhibits, understanding of materials in collections, handling and examination, program development, emergency management, collection and object condition documentation, and health and safety. Recommendations relevant to both museum studies and conservation programs to improve preventive conservation training include: regular and ongoing collaboration among training programs to develop syllabi, development of comprehensive texts, use of alumnae surveys to evaluate the efficacy of the training, and support for this training among all programs that prepare conservators and other future museum professionals. The evolution of the teaching of preventive conservation reflects a fundamental change...
Conservation outreach materials for a tribal museum withot conservators
To emphasize conservation outreach alongside traditional museum practice, current graduate students should be taught the finer points of communicating conservation to engage local communities in preserving cultural heritage. UCLA/Getty Master's Program graduate students meet this goal as part of an ongoing collaboration with the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, a tribal museum in southern California. In 2011, in addition to preparing conservation analysis, documentation and treatment records, each Master's student was tasked with preparing two exhibition labels. Topics included technical analysis to aid cultural attribution, reshaping methods for baskets performed with guidance from a tribal consultant, and mold removal and prevention. Following an enthusiastic reception by the ACCM, an online exhibition was developed. Locating conservation outreach materials within a tribal museum benefits the museum, its community, and other centers curating Native American collections. Involving graduate students in this outreach process sets the stage for the future provision of community services.