Folks, The response to my original announcement of a reunion of graduates of the Smithsonian Institution's Furniture Conservation Training Program (FCTP) was met by numerous requests for inclusion from others. Cesar Pineiro, a graduate of FCTP, and I, the founding Director of the program, have decided to open the project now named Helping Puerto Rican Heritage to all graduates of recognized advanced degree conservation programs, as well as American Institute for Conservation Professional Associates and Fellows. Due to space constraints in some of the locations, only 50 participants can be accommodated. Our efforts will be focused on two general directions, educational opportunities in conservation in Puerto Rico, and offering advice on collections preservation and care to museums and historic sites. The format will follow what was proposed for the FCTP reunion, but we request that conservators in many different disciplines participate. These activities are the following.
1) Tours of conservation facilities and projects in the general San Juan area. Field trips to outlying areas such as Ponce are anticipated. 2) Speaking to students at the University of Puerto Rico and others who are interested in conservation as a career. Cesar and I for years have been considering developing a graduate conservation training program in PR possibly modeled after the FCTP but with a broader group of specialties. The FCTP program design was based upon part-time study in two-week intensive courses with extensive reading and homework, followed by a 1-year internship in a conservation studio. This allowed students who could not commit to full-time study due to family or financial constraints to get world-class conservation training. Our concept has been to draw students from other areas of the Caribbean as well as Central and South America. This meeting with potential students is not to develop a program, but as a first step in building interest in a future program, including getting academic institutional buy-in. 3) Holding a seminar for staff of museums and historic sites on preservation and care issues, grant funding for collections care, capacity building, planning, and other aspects of collections stewardship, as well as emergency preparedness and disaster response for cultural heritage organizations. Hopefully, this will be partially facilitated by staff of major granting agencies (very good initial response has been received), with participation by conservators in attendance. 4) Hold a day-long practicum at a specific museum/historic site in need, modeled after the AIC Angels projects. This will consist of working on an achievable project at a not-for-profit on a specific need of theirs that can be substantially accomplished in one day. Depending upon the specialties of the participants, it could be at several different locations. 5) Time for socializing, receptions, going to the beach, and other team-building activities. Due to academic schedules, we are planning on meeting in late January or early February, 2019 in the San Juan metro area. Helping Puerto Rican Heritage probably will be 4-5 days in duration and we hope to keep costs to a minimum. Cesar and I are donating our organizing time, and we anticipate in-kind contributions of meeting space. The primary anticipated cost at this time is transportation on field trips, but there is a possibility this could be donated. Of course, participants would be responsible for their own travel, lodging and meal costs to/in Puerto Rico. At the moment, we have the following institutional participants in Helping Puerto Rican Heritage: University of Puerto Rico (www.upr.edu); San Juan National Historic Site (www.nps.gov/saju); Luis Munoz Marin Foundation. We request that seriously interested participants email me at [email protected] to reserve a space. We want to get an accurate count of participants so we can plan accordingly. Once we have tentative numbers and specialties, we can determine specific dates and an itinerary. Thanks so much! Marc A Williams, President, American Conservation Consortium, Ltd. MS in Art Conservation, Winterthur Museum Program Former Chief Wooden Objects Conservator and Founding Director of FCTP, Smithsonian Institution Fellow, AIC Cesar Pineiro, proprietor, Fine Arts International FCTP graduate, Smithsonian Institution, MA, Antioch University Professional Associate, AIC ****** Unsubscribe by sending a message to [email protected] Searchable archives: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/
