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The multi-facetted and heterogeneous challenges of contemporary art conservation have lead to a trend in diversity of practices. Through networking (via the INCCA network) it is possible for professionals to share their knowledge and together create new knowledge which can then be ‘fed’ back into the network.
The aim of this activity within PRACTICs was stimulate dialogue between the existing members of the INCCA network and ‘newcomers’ (in particular from Central and Eastern Europe, Portugal, Italy and Scandinavia). But also to provide an opportunity for already established groups in INCCA such as INCCA North America to meet and discuss future plans. In addition, this activity aimed to provide better access and visibility to educational programmes in contemporary art conservation.
Results:
- Establishment of a new INCCA regional group: INCCA Central and Eastern Europe.
Initiation of the INCCA CEE group took place on Monday, March 2nd, 2009. This region is complex due not only to distance but also to language barriers. Setting up this regional group has meant a more cohesive approach to projects and ensuring that conservators in the region no longer feel isolated.
Group coordinator is Iwona Szmelter, Head of the Painting and Modern Art Preservation Laboratory Faculty of Conservation-Restoration of Works of Art, Academy of Fine Arts (AFA) in Warsaw, Poland. Group vice coordinator is Monika Jadzinska, assistant to professor Szmelter and conservator. For more information see: http://www.incca.org/incca-cee
- Establishment of the INCCA Education Network; a network for education professionals and students in contemporary art conservation
In this relatively new field in conservation, conservators deal with ever changing art practices and as a result the traditional conservation paradigm has shifted. As the need for new methodologies and conservation strategies become clear, the role of the conservator is constantly changing. These changes in practice have a direct effect on the education and training needs of conservators. How this broad and distinctive discipline is addressed in training varies around the world.
The INCCA Education network was founded as a platform for education professionals and students to inform and to facilitate exchange and debate for the betterment of the field on contemporary art conservation. The group was established as part of the international research project PRACTICs (2009-2011) and was officially launched in Amsterdam during international symposium Contemporary Art: Who Cares?, June 2010. For more information see: http://www.incca.org/incca-education-network
- Diverse networking sessions during the international symposium Contemporary Art: Who Cares?
On Day 2 of the symposium, participants were able to choose between seven networking sessions.
1. INCCA Central and Eastern Europe
2. INCCA Education
3. INCCA Italy
4. INCCA North America
5. INCCA Scandinavia
6. INCCA Spanish speaking countries
7. PhD and Postdoctoral Researchers network
This kind of session was quite new for symposium participants, but they proved to be very fruitful. Each session was different depending on the status of the group. Some organisers used the session to discuss future plans (such as INCCA Scandinavia) and others were organised to discuss the possibility of creating new groups (INCCA Spanish speaking and PhD and Postdoctoral Researchers network.
Since the symposium in June 2010, there has been an enormous increase in INCCA membership, in Europe but also internationally and in particular in Latin America. In June 2010 there were close to 440 INCCA members and at the time of writing a year later this number has increased to over 660.
The symposium provided excellent conditions for networking and since then a number of new INCCA groups have been formed in addition to those described above.
- INCCA-f: for French speaking INCCA members. Plans for this group were in place for some time, however they became concrete when the project coordinator (and INCCA Central Coordinator) was able to meet the INCCA-f coordinators during the symposium. http://www.incca.org/incca-f
- INCCA Ibero America: for Spanish and Portuguese speaking INCCA members. This group is still in the process of development. Two meetings have already taken place to discuss how this group will be organised and the future plans of participating countries in this group. Meeting 1 took place in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, December 2011. Meeting 2: Mexico City, Mexico, June 2011.
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Network growth
