Outreach and Advocacy

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Introduction to Outreach and Advocacy

Outreach and advocacy are one of the most important ongoing contributions from active professionals in the field of conservation. Whether it is educating the public on conservation activities, sharing resources and developments with allied professionals, or working to share and network with our peers and colleagues, conservation professionals are natural and vital advocates for objects, collections and our shared cultural heritage. For more specific information on examples of outreach taking place in the field, please see ECPN's Poster Creative Endeavors and Expressive Ideas: Emerging Conservators Engaging through Outreach and Public Scholarship: Outreach and Public Scholarship Poster .

ECPN's Webinar "Get Involved! Education, Outreach, and Advocacy"

Get Involved! Education, Outreach, and Advocacy with Theresa Myers, Richard McCoy, and Sarah Barack took place on April 23, 2014. In this webinar, panelists share their personal experiences reaching out to various audiences to advocate for the field of art conservation.

Ruth Seyler, AIC’s Membership and Meetings Director, begins the webinar with an overview of AIC’s outreach and advocacy initiatives and ways in which members can get involved. AIC provides support and coordination for member’s outreach activities including various brochures and grants.

Theresa Myers, a conservator with a private practice in Maine, recounts her rewarding experience participating in the American Alliance of Museums’ (AAM) Museums Advocacy Day, a two-day event in which advocates participate in issue briefings followed by meetings on Capitol Hill.

Conservation and Preservation Consultant Richard McCoy discusses the importance of community engagement and shares the online resources he has developed. Projects such as the Public Art Archive, WikiProject Public Art, and WikiProject Collection Care aim to improve public awareness and stewardship of works of art and encourage community involvement.

Sarah Barack, Conservator and Adjunct Faculty Member at the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Art, NYU, describes her activities as the co-chair of AIC’s K-12 Outreach Working Group. She offers valuable advice for reaching students and teachers locally as well as through national organizations.

Resources for Outreach

Download the current ECPN flier to share at your regional events!

Public Relations Toolkit

Please see the PR Toolkit wiki page.

Social Media

The internet is a useful public interface to connect to the wider networks, advocate for the field, and promote your own interests and projects. With the wide variety of platforms that are available, there are many tools to help make your content accessible. If you’re just getting started, take a look at this blog post on web-based media platforms.

By participating on these platforms, it can open conversations with people who may be interested in the field, your work, or even who you would be interested to make professional connections to. In contributing to an online professional presence, it tells the story of the conservation field and our engagement to the wider world.

ECPN Interview Series: Creative Endeavors and Expressive Ideas: Emerging Conservators Engaging through Outreach and Public Scholarship

• Series Introduction
• Emerging Conservators Connect via Social Media
• Emerging Conservators in the Blogosphere
• Outreach to Allied Professionals
• Private Practices Build Preservation Awareness and Opportunities
• Outreach in the Galleries

For thoughts about blogging:

• Tips on writing a blog post
• Blogging also helps your colleagues who cannot make it to conferences!

Other platforms:

• Picture/video-sharing: Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr…
• Video: YouTube, Vine…
• Formal and informal networks: LinkdIn, Facebook, Google+...

While contributing to any platform, please make sure to consider the copyrights and permissions for material you would like to post.

See ECPN's Conservation on Social Media wiki page for links to examples of instagram accounts, Facebook Groups, blog posts, Twitter accounts, and more that highlight the activities of emerging conservation professionals.