AIC 2012 Conference: A Great Success

05/21/2012

By Camille Myers Breeze

On May 8th, 2012, Camille headed off to Albuquerque, NM, for the 40th Annual Meeting

of the American Institute for Conservation. Located along the historic Route 66,

Albuquerque was the site of reunions with old friends and gathering of new knowledge.

Historic Route 66 in Albuquerque, NM

The first thing Camille did upon arrival was hang the poster that she and Kate Smith co-

authored, entitled "Crossing the Boundaries Between Conservation Disciplines in the

Treatment of Asian Thangkas." This poster was a summary of our 2.5 -year thangka

project for the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College and our first opportunity to present

our work to our other conservators. Judging by the verbal feedback and how quickly our

handouts disappeared, our poster was very well received!

Camille Myers Breeze at the 40th Annual AIC Conference

If you would like to read this poster, it is available in jpeg form in the Resources section

of the MTS website.

Visitors to our poster were able to view a short video about the thangka conservation

project by scanning the QR code on our handout. This handout is also available on the

MTS website.

View from the Stone House, Cibola National Forest, Sandia Mountains,

Albuquerque, NM

Camille volunteered to live blog four sessions of the AIC Texti le Specialty Group talks

for the AIC Blog (www.conservators-converse.org/). Shortcuts to her posts can be found

here:

“Recovery and Conservation of the Textile Collections at the National Museum of

Music” (Cuba) by Alina Vazquez de Arazoza

“Repair of 20th-Century Leavers Lace” by Annie-Beth Ellington

“The Creation, Implementation and Safety of Digitally Printed Fabrics in Textile

Conservation—Where Are We in 2012?” by Miriam Murphy

“A Successful Treatment Method for Reducing Dye Bleed on a 19th-Century Sampler”

by Katherine Sahmel and Laura Mina

Camille participating in the Great Debate at AIC

The biggest surprise of the conference came when Camille was invited to substitute for

colleague Chris Stavroudis in the first ever Great Debate! Organized by Richard McCoy

of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Great Debate pitted teams of three conservators

against each other to argue a topic relating to art conservation. Camille's teammates

were Vanessa Muros, Staff Research Associate at the UCLA/Getty Conservation

Program (and former student of Camille's in Peru,) and Kristin Adsit, IFA-NYU fourth-

year intern from Indianapolis Museum of Art.

The best part about the Great Debate was giving conservators a chance to break out of

our shells by acting loud and silly in front of our peers. Oh, and Camille's team won our

debate! The debates were videotaped and will appear soon on YouTube.