Socratic dialogue on professionalization in conservation

Socratic Dialogue
AIC Annual Meeting
Miami, Florida
Wednesday 13 May 2015
4:30 PM

Conservation practice has long been fraught with debate and
controversy about conservation ethics and treatment decisions.
Should one remove an old varnish, how should one retouch a painting,
can one replace equipment in an installation, how far can one go in
digitalizing historic books?  These questions have been the cause of
often heated discussions among conservators, as well as between
cultural heritage professionals in general.  As conservation
practice becomes increasingly professionalized, the question of
certification and peer-reviewed status has also become a sensitive
issue.  What does it mean to be a professionally recognized
conservator, what is quality in conservation, how does one measure
that quality and who decides, what is the value of a professional
conservator?  Behind the ensuing debate lies a complex background of
vested interests, pre-conceived notions, and just plain irritations
between the participants.

In 2011, the so-called Socratic method was successfully introduced
in the Netherlands to help soften and break down these boundaries.
Since then, Socratic dialogues have been conducted on various
controversial issues in conservation for a number of museums and
conservation groups in the Netherlands (RCE), at AIC annual meetings
(2013 and 2014), and at the ICOM-CC triennial meeting in 2014.

At the upcoming AIC conference 2015, in Miami, Florida, you are once
again invited to participate in a Socratic dialogue looking at the
issue of certification, value and quality in conservation.  The
Socratic dialogue is a structured form of dialogue in which all
participants actively contribute.  The purpose of the dialogue is
not to solve the question at hand and convince each other that a
particular solution is the best one.  The objective of a Socratic
dialogue is to investigate each other's experience and opinions
related to the issue, and to try to determine the essence behind it.
What is it that conservators and other cultural heritage
professionals are concerned about when they argue about issues of
ethics, certification, value and quality?  The Socratic dialogue
helps participants understand what is behind these concepts, and why
they and their discussion partners think the way they do.  It helps
to create free space and soften the boundaries for more fruitful
discussion.

Dr. W. (Bill) Wei
Senior conservation scientist
Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed
Hobbemastraat 22
NL-1071 ZC Amsterdam
The Netherlands
+31 6 5273 2101


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:46
                    Distributed: Sunday, May 3, 2015
                       Message Id: cdl-28-46-006
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