PANEL Wednesday 19 May 2021: Current Challenges in Conservation
In light of the events of the past year, from the global pandemic to the impacts of climate change which have amplified the short- and long-term risks to the preservation of cultural heritage, the conservation sector is in a unique position to contribute to the dialogue on these important issues.
This one-hour panel discussion will highlight these topics in the context of accessibility, communication, and sustainability and discuss approaches to address these challenges. With Dr. Zhao’s keynote lecture as the jumping-off point each panelist will give a brief introduction to seed ideas for the conversation that follows. Delegate participation is encouraged via the Q&A function of the virtual meeting platform.
This panel session is a starting point for active engagement with ICOM-CC members and delegates on these topics, presenting pragmatic examples of ways that ICOM-CC can facilitate, support, and advocate for the field. Various post-conference activities are planned to continue these discussions.
Keynote date: Wednesday 19 May, 15:00 (UTC+8)
Prof. Dr. Zhao Feng:
Zhao Feng is the director of the China National Silk Museum (NSM) in Hangzhou and the president of the International Association for Study of the Silk Road Textiles (IASSRT).
During his career at the NSM since 1991, he studied the history of textiles at the China Textile University (Donghua University nowdays) in Shanghai and got his PhD in 1997. He got the fellowship and did researches at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from the Nov 1997 to Oct 1998, at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto for two months in 1999, and at the British Museum in London for half year in 2006. In 2000, he founded and became the director of the Chinese Center for Textile Identification and Conservation, which is now the Key Scientific Research Base of Textile Conservation of State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China. In 2015, he founded the IASSRT, International Association for Study of the Silk Road Textiles, and became the president. In 2019, he became the dean of the International Silk Institute, under the Zhejiang University of Sci-Tech. Since 1992, he has published more than 10 academic books and 100 research articles, including The General History of Chinese Silk, editor in chief, first National Publication Award, 2007; Chinese Silks, editor in chief for the Chinese version, the R.L Shep Ethnic Textiles Book Award for 2012; and A Comprehensive Research on Textiles from Dunhuang in UK’s collections, French and Russian collections, 2007-now.
Anna Buelow, PhD:
Originally trained as a paper conservator at the University of Applied Arts in Berne (Switzerland) and Queens University Kingston (Canada), Anna Buelow has worked in the field of preventive conservation since 1999, starting with a doctorate at De Montfort University in Leicester (UK), where she focused on preserving collections within historic buildings, and continuing on at The National Archives (UK) as Head of Preservation. It was there that she first developed her expertise in collection risk management, an approach that has guided her practice ever since. She has worked at the British Museum as Head of Conservation between 2013 and 2019, before taking up a role as Head of Collection Management at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (Netherlands). In recent years, her interest has developed further towards managing value, an approach that allows to balance risks with opportunities for heritage collections.
Simon Cane, MA, ACR, FIIC:
Simon is an accredited conservator and currently leads University College London (UCL) Culture, a multifaceted department that uses cultural assets in the form of historic and contemporary collections, performance spaces, public art and know-how to engage and connect UCL with the world. His career spans the museums sector starting as a trained conservator before diversifying into other roles across a range of institutions including museums in York, Manchester and Birmingham before moving to UCL. He was previously Chair of the Board of Trustees at ICON (Institute of Conservation) and has sat on numerous boards and committees. He was the joint winner, with colleague Mary Brooks, of the Keck Award for Communicating Conservation in 1994 for the ground breaking Stop the Rot exhibition and also The American Archaeological Institute Award for Conservation Management in 2013 and the ICON Conservation Award in 2015 both for his ground breaking work on the conservation and communication of the Staffordshire Hoard project. He studied at Lincoln and Southampton, and retains active research interests in conservation practice, most recently engaging with research around the conservation of contemporary art, iconoclasm, replication and the role of the conservator in the acquisition of performance choreography.
Terry Little:
Terry Little is a Senior Adjunct Lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies. For the past 13 years he has also been based in Nairobi serving as Advisor to TARA (former COO), the Trust for African Rock Art. In that capacity he was responsible for the development of community projects, museum exhibitions, and other outreach activities in Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. Previously he has been a lecturer in communications and marketing of cultural heritage at the University of Cassino (Italy) and at the Venaria Reale/University of Torino (Italy) as well as a program officer and manager of the office of communications and information at ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Restoration and Preservation of Cultural Property, Rome) and as a consultant to a variety of arts, cultural, and educational organizations including as interim cultural specialist at the UNESCO Bureau for East Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. He is founding member of the Rock Art Network, spearheaded by the Getty Conservation Institute, and current ICOM-CC Working Group Coordinator for Murals, Stone and Rock Art.
Qinglin Ma, PhD:
Qinglin Ma earned his BSc (1986), MSc (1997) and PhD (2000) in chemistry from the Lanzhou University, China. He is a senior professor at the Institute of Cultural Heritage, Shandong University, since 2018. He worked at the Gansu Provincial Museum from 1986 to 2004 as head of the conservation laboratory and later became the deputy director. He was a visiting scientist in conservation at the Getty Conservation Institute Museum Research Laboratory in 2001, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Zurich in 2003, and visiting professor at the ETH and University of Zurich in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2014. He was a senior scientist and deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage (CACH) in Beijing from 2004 to 2018. He was assumed as vice Chair of the Chinese Museum Association-Conservation Committee (CMA-CC) Directory Board since 2008, and ICOM-CC directory board member in 2020.
He have repaired more than 1000 pieces of artifacts, published more than 180 academic papers including 30 cited by Scientific Citation Index, published 5 books, 5 translation books, among them 5 books were awarded. He has organized numerous scientific research projects. His is interested in the scientific research of ancient metals, ceramics, pigments, wall-paintings and digital recovery of relics. He is also an active peer reviewer for “Studies in Conservation”, “Heritage Science”, “Microscopy and Microanalysis”, editorial committee of the "Heritage Science" and "Sciences of Conservation and Archaeology".