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ICOM Conservation Conference, Melb.

Next month (on 15-19 September) Melbourne is hosting the ICOM-CC (International Council of Museums – Conservation Committee) 17th Triennial Conference, which is the largest meeting of conservators and those interested in conservation in the world, with delegates from 51 countries.

The theme of the conference is Building Strong Culture through Conservation, a theme reflected in the two keynote plenary sessions and in the papers presented throughout the conference. The keynote presentations address communities and cultural preservation, new challenges in Chinese archaeology, disaster recovery of Church heritage after the earthquakes and typhoon in the Philippines, and threats to coastal heritage sites from climate change. There are also breakfast sessions on Indigenous conservation in Australia and New Zealand, the Conference Welcome Reception, Cultural Event and Dinner.

The conference program is available here.

The theme of the conference is Building Strong Culture through Conservation, a theme reflected in the two keynote plenary sessions and in the papers presented throughout the conference.

In the opening plenary session ‘Comprehensive Conservation’, Lyndel V Prott, Prof. Ma Xiaolin and Dr Shao Anding explore how professionals work together as ‘wardens of conservation’ (a phrase taken from the Athens Charter of 1933).

In the Wednesday plenary session ‘Conservation, communities and risk’ Fr. Ted Torralba and Mr. Jeremy Barns discuss community resilience and rebuilding after recent earthquakes and typhoon in Bohol in the Philippines and Dr. Jane Harrington, from Port Arthur Historic Site reports on recent climate change studies and the risks to coastal heritage sites. This will be followed by a paper on the multi-team response to sites and collections damaged by the tsunami in japan and a panel discussion on the latest in ‘Environmental standards for exhibition and storage in museums’.

On Friday afternoon Dr. Ian Macleod will present the ICOM-CC Triennial Lecture ‘Innovative Australian conservators strengthen culture’. The Working Group sessions present a rich variety of papers covering issues raised by modern materials, post-trauma reconstruction, environmental monitoring, capacity building and technical issues in conservation covering everything from ancient metals to legal issues in bioart. The Conference also has some great social events including the Welcome Reception, the Conference Dinner and the Cultural Night, featuring artists from Balgo and Warmun.

For further information please contact: [email protected].