The culmination of ICOM-CC’s three-year cycle of collaboration and research, the Conference offers technical sessions of the twenty-one specialist Working Groups, keynote speeches, behind the scenes visits to local conservation laboratories and sites of historic interest, cultural and social events as well as numerous opportunities to meet and forge ties with colleagues from every region of the world. Twenty-seven years after its memorable 8th Triennial Conference in Sydney, ICOM-CC is pleased to return to the Australian continent, this time to Melbourne.
Each Triennial Conference is a joint initiative of ICOM-CC and partners in the host country. The Australian National Organizing Committee for the 17th Triennial Conference is comprised of the The Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation of the University of Melbourne and The Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM), Australia’s leaders in conservation training and practice. Together, we are working to provide an invigorating, productive, and exceptional Australian experience in September 2014.
Support for the selection and publication of papers and posters in our publication, ICOM-CC Triennial Conference Preprints, has been provided by the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation has provided support for travel grants for cultural heritage professionals from economically challenged and emerging countries.
An article in Heritage & Society
from April 2011, written by Rosabelle Boswell and entitled 'Challenges to
Sustaining Intangible Cultural Heritage' addresses the issues facing the
conservators that take on this task.
"The 2003 UNESCO
Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
(ICH)...refers to the role of intangible cultural heritage in in maintaining
diversity, sociality, and understanding. It also notes the interdependence of
tangible and intangible heritage and the role of the youth and indigenous
people in heritage maintenance."
In this paper Boswell
specifically addresses the difficulties of preserving ICH in Africa due to what
she calls the "persistent social stratification and inequality"
across the continent. She notes that ICH is "(1) dynamic (2) borne by
different people and (3) part of living culture. In safeguarding and ultimately
preserving ICH one risks ossifying culture, elevating 'specialist' holders of knowledge
in the society and neglecting the role played by other 'managers' of
heritage."
In the article, Boswell
references countries in the Indian Ocean Region, namely Zanzibar, Mauritius and
Madagascar, but it seems the issues addressed - such as "commercialization,
the potential ossification of culture via preservation and the issues of
ambivalent heritage"- have a broader relevance to ICH across the globe.
I have chosen to feature an organisation that is nurturing and encouraging an interest in archaeology amongst the UK's young people - the Young Archaeologists' Club (YAC), the only UK-wide club for young people up to the age of 17 interested in archaeology.
The club is run by Council for British Archaeology (CBA), an educational charity working for over 65 years to promote ‘Archaeology for All’. YAC’s vision is for all young people to have opportunities to be inspired and excited by archaeology, and to empower them to help shape its future.
The Young Archaeologists’ Club was started 40 years ago in August 1972 by Dr Kate Pretty. Its name back then was Young Rescue and it was the junior branch of RESCUE, the British Archaeological Trust. Initially it was just going to be based in Cambridge but after publicity in The Times it was launched as a national club.
Dig deep for YAC!
The CBA, like many organisations and charities, is facing a challenging financial future. The withdrawal of its main source of public funding has had a major impact on the organisation’s finances. The YAC Branches offer a fantastic range of opportunities for young people to get into archaeology. In 2013 there were 60 Branches in the YAC network, run by some 560 volunteers. Over the year, volunteers delivered 588 activity sessions which provided some 7, 800 opportunities for young people.
The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) is a non-profit organization that supports and encourages the study of the cultures and history of the Near East, from the earliest times to the present. ASOR is apolitical and has no religious affiliation.
The 2014 ASOR Annual Meeting will be held in San Diego, CA, from November 19th to 22nd at The Westin San Diego hotel.
The Annual Meeting brings together ASOR's vibrant academic community to present their current findings and discuss their research. The conference attracts over 1,000 scholars and enthusiasts of archaeology, linguistics, geography, epigraphy, anthropology, and other fields related to the study of the ancient Near East.
Scholarships and Prizes for the Annual Meeting
Because the ASOR Annual Meeting is one of most important ways to involve students and junior scholars in the field, ASOR, in cooperation with several foundations and generous donors, provides a number of different scholarships.
Student Travel Grants: Up to ten (10) grants of $250 each are made available to students enrolled at ASOR-member schools.
Foundation for Biblical Archaeology Scholarship: Through a generous gift of The Foundation for Biblical Archaeology (TFBA), ASOR will offer up to six (6) scholarships of $700 each for students to attend the Annual Meeting and provide work to support the meeting.
The 17th Triennial Conference of the International Council of Museums Committee for Conservation (ICOM-CC) will attract leading international keynote speakers and up to 800 delegates, including conservators, scientists, historians and art historians, curators, librarians, archivists, students, collection managers and directors from the world’s leading cultural institutions and the private sector.
