Hello BPG members:
Thank you for all your great abstract submissions for the 2019 annual meeting. We have had a great response with more than 58 abstracts. In my last column, I introduced how the BPG executive committee and I are very interested in exploring more ways to offer support to our membership, including new approaches for reaching out to conservators in private practice, and encouraging abstract submissions for our AIC publication and presentation venues. This year, we included a conservator in private practice as part of the BPG abstract submission review panel for the 2019 AIC Annual Meeting, and we have begun to track submissions from private conservators with this year’s total at 14%. We continue to look for ways to be more representative of our membership.
In my next column I plan to address membership designation. As part of my column I will time how long it takes to go through the steps to apply for PA status and talk about why I think it’s important to apply for such status. I encourage you to contact me to share ideas of what BPG as a group can do to support its members at: bpg dot jodie dot utter at gmail dot com.
2019 AIC Annual Meeting
Program Chair Jennifer Hunt Johnson, and Assistant Program Chair Eliza Spaulding, along with other members of the BPG abstract review committee, have been reviewing abstracts and are excited by the range of topics explored. They also have investigated different reception venues and look forward to announcing our reception location soon. As always, please contact them with thoughts on what programming you would like to see at the 2019 AIC Annual Meeting and beyond. They can be reached at: jenhunt101 at gmail dot com and elizaspaulding at gmail dot com.
Publications
The BPG Wiki reformatting project is complete! All of the wiki pages have been reformatted in order to standardize appearance, remove numbering, and allow for future growth. The BPG Wiki Coordinators would like to thank the following volunteers: Jennifer Evers, Sharon Fickeissen, Jill Iacchei, Clare Manias, Michelle Hamill, and Rebecca Smyrl who made this effort possible.
This process took a little over two years. Many issues were resolved along the way such as:
- Where to put treatment procedures that have fallen out of common practice (see "Historical Techniques and Materials" section at the bottom of each page)
- How to reduce numbering but differentiate between sections
- How to include internal and external links and references
- How to thank new and old contributors without top-loading the page.
Each page contains a link at the bottom to a PDF of the original printed Paper Conservation Catalog chapter. Reformatting did not involve changing the text of the chapters.
Updating information will be the new focus, which will be done through compiler groups that oversee content development. Look for more detailed information about these projects on the Book and Paper Group Online Community or get in touch by emailing bookandpapergroup dot wiki at gmail dot com.
Education and Program Chair
We are looking for a paper conservator to serve as volunteer-at-large for the Education & Programs Committee. It is a 2 year, renewable term position.
The EPC is reviewing and updating our web presence to make it easier to submit ideas, become a host institution, or submit to be a workshop presenter. If anyone is interested in applying to create a new workshop, the Education & Programs Committee members are here to help. In addition, we are looking for institutions with funding and space for educational programs that would like to partner with BPG. We already have educational programs that could potentially be the right fit.
Upcoming programs
Gels in Paper Conservation will be held in 2019 at the Getty Institute in Los Angeles, CA. Dates TBD.
—Jodie Utter, BPG Chair (2018-2020), bpg dot jodie dot utter at gmail dot com