Equity & Inclusion in Conservation
One way to describe the current field of conservation is 85% white, 77% female,1 71% able-bodied,2 and 75% university educated.3 These conservators define themselves as people who: “Saves our cultural heritage physically. They are unique in the wider preservation field for the particular expert hands-on technical and decision-making skills they bring to preserving and caring for and our tangible history.”4 My scholarship is helping to develop an understanding of who holds the power and privilege needed to uphold this status quo in the field, who and what has been excluded from the field, and what it will take to shape the field to include the excluded. I invite you to explore some of my work below and connect.
Sources
1. American Institute for Conservation. “2019 AIC Membership Satisfaction: Survey Results.” AIC (2019). https://www.culturalheritage.org/docs/default-source/publications/reports/summary-of-2019-survey-of-membershipsatisfaction.pdf?sfvrsn=44410b20_4.
2. AIC Equity and Inclusion Committee. “2021 AIC Accessibility Survey: Survey Results” (unpublished manuscript, September 1, 2021).
3. AIC Membership Designation Working Group. “2018 AIC Member Designation Survey: Preliminary Report.” AIC (May 15, 2018). https://www.culturalheritage.org/docs/default-source/publications/reports/member-designationsurvey—preliminary-reportb3996e46946d640d929bff00002fd16b.pdf?sfvrsn=c6f40a20_6.
4. American Institute for Conservation. “What is Conservation?” AIC: About Conservation. Accessed September 1, 2021. https://www.culturalheritage.org/about-conservation/what-is-conservation.
Image credit: Evan Krape
Morrigan Kelley, wearing a HoloLens, and Margalit Schindler at Rockwood Museum during a test run of the HoloLens.
Publications
Leveraging Systems Thinking to Dismantle Systemic Racism in Conservation
With Anisha Gupta
Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, 2024
Leadership: the Act of Making Way for Others
With Anisha Gupta
Studies in Conservation, 2022
A Silent Roundtable Discussion on Disability and Inclusion in Art Conservation
With Sally Gunhee Kim and Sarah Scaturro
VoCA Journal, Issue 10
Cripping Conservation of Cultural Heritage
With Sally Gunhee Kim
RACAR, Issue 49.2 coming soon
Presentations
Leadership: the Act of Making Way for Others
IIC 29th Biennial Congress 2022
Conservation and Change: Response, Adaptation and Leadership
Closed captioning & transcript available on video.
Inclusive Conservation Practice Research Groups
In order to understand barriers and implement change in a community, the community must have opportunities to engage in respectful, open, and dissenting discussion. These discussions need to include people within the community, those who are currently marginalized by the community, and people from well outside the community who can bring fresh eyes to the situation at hand. I have envisioned, organized, and co-facilitated four of these groups since 2019.
Image credit: Evan Krape
Joelle at Rockwood Museum during a test run of the HoloLens.
Developing New Methodologies for Cultural Heritage Conservation
A Center for Material Culture Studies Working Group. A multi-disciplinary investigation into what conservation can do to preserve cultural heritage beyond the physical.
October 2022 – May 2023
A platform to facilitate thinking and conversation around two primary questions: Who is a Conservator? What is Conservation? May 2021 – February 2023
with Natalya Swanson
Advancing Equity and Inclusion in Conservation
A 14-month collaboration exploring the question: How do we include the excluded in conservation?
April 2020 – May 2021
with Anisha Gupta
Cross-disciplinary Meetings on Bringing New Approaches to the Conservation of Cultural Heritage
Three half-day discussions exploring new perspectives on current conservation practice. Involved professors from 21 UD departments and 9 institutions/organizations outside of UD.
July – September 2022.
with Dr Rosie Grayburn and William Donnelly
Testing the HoloLens for Use in Art Conservation
A tool with potential to expand the reach of faculty with limited mobility, improve the teaching of fine motor skills in distance learning courses, and reduce the financial and environmental impact of courier trips and preventive conservation surveys.
March 2022 – January 2023.
with Eric Cantrell, Morigan Kelley, Tim Leefeldt, & Margalit Schindler
Summarized by NBC10 news: VR headsets allow UD professor to see through the eyes of her students.