Preventive Conservation: Continuously Defining Itself at the Crossroads of Theory and Practice

Abstract

This article discusses the ongoing maturation of the practice of preventive conservation in the US, from something focused on exacting, singular “best practices” to a context guided practice that identifies success when our work supports the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of people, institutions, towns, countries, and the world. It uses the lens of the last 15 years of preventive conservation curriculum at the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), to illustrate a stark contrast between 2009 and 2022. It uses the lens of work done primarily within the framework of AIC to illustrate the stark contrast was achieved by the slow, deliberate, continuous work of many. It offers the perspective that this shift does not require practitioners to disavow and contradict the careful, intentional, purposeful work of the past. Instead, it asks them to see the shift as an outcome of the constant effort to redefine conservation at the intersection of theory and practice.

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