Elizabeth Salmon joined #TeamBACC in late 2023 as the organization's inaugural preventive conservator. Since this is a new specialty area for BACC, we sat down with Elizabeth to get her insight on what preventive conservation entails and how it can benefit all collection types. BACC: How do you define preventive conservation? Elizabeth: The goal of Preventive Conservation is to slow the natural rate of deterioration and keep art and cultural materials in their present condition for as long as possible. Rather than looking at singular objects, Preventive Conservation looks at the museum environment as a whole to anticipate agents of deterioration and strategize how to reduce or eliminate them. It takes a lot of knowledge about materials and how they age but also requires us to understand environmental factors, pollutants, pests, and how to prepare for natural disasters. Preventive Conservation is a more cost-effective and ethical way to preserve cultural heritage - since you’re limiting damage and degradation, you’re reducing the need for changes or repairs in the future! B: What was your pathway to preventive conservation? E: When I first started working in museums it became clear to me pretty quickly that Preventive Conservation is a much more accessible route to preserve cultural heritage. There are so many factors that influence where resources are directed for conservation treatment, and relying on interventive treatment alone doesn’t necessarily mean that diverse cultural heritage is preserved equitably. Early in my career, I trained at a museum in India that uses leaves that naturally repel insects to protect their collections from insect damage. Since the leaves are collected locally from abundant trees, it’s a very cost-effective and environmentally sustainable way to preserve collections. Seeing this made me excited to research more sustainable ways to preserve cultural heritage that are equitable and accessible to a broader range of cultural institutions and that became the inspiration for my PhD research. Since then, I’ve made it a point to continue my training at museums large and small and have seen that there are always passive ways to better preserve the collection. To me, the most sustainable and equitable options for preserving more cultural heritage well into the future all fall under Preventive Conservation, so focusing there was a clear cut decision for me. B: What are some of the biggest preventive conservation challenges in the western region? E: When I consult with collections stewards, I always stress that there are certain factors related to the preservation of your art and cultural items that matter every single day. These include moderating the environment (i.e. reducing fluctuations in temperature and humidity), regular housekeeping, and monitoring for pests. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to be actively working on negating these factors everyday, but you can and should have plans in place to make sure that there are no days where they are forgotten or ignored. For example, you can always collect environmental data, have a regular cleaning schedule for your space, and passively monitor for pests. These factors are all interrelated, and forgetting to maintain one can put you in an uphill battle in the other areas. That said, there are also challenges unique to the western region, such as earthquakes, wildfires, and (increasingly) flooding. It can be extremely overwhelming to consider all of the potential threats to your art and cultural collections - I am here to help direct your efforts to areas where small improvements can make a big difference in the future of your collection. That includes working with you to focus collections care efforts in a way that is manageable and sustainable for you or your institution. B: How can BACC members and clients benefit from your skills? E: My goal in Preventive Conservation is to meet institutions where they are and work with them to make the most of their time and resources when it comes to preserving their collections. I’ve trained at museums large and small with varying degrees of available resources, so I have lots of ideas about how to work with individuals and collecting institutions in their space to develop a collections care plan that works for them. I can advise on improving storage spaces on a budget, thinking through potential hazards when exhibition planning, and work with you to develop an emergency preparedness or integrated pest management plan. I also specialize in all of the not-so-fun aspects of stewarding art and cultural collections, like addressing pest issues and mold mitigation. My hope is to help you avoid it so you never have to see it! B: What excites you most about being part of Team BACC? E: My approach to conservation has always been rooted in the belief that conservators aren’t the one-and-only voice that matters when it comes to preserving cultural heritage. We have certain knowledge and skills related to materials and how they age, but knowledge from many different and diverse sources is needed to preserve cultural heritage. At BACC, we agree that our efforts to preserve cultural heritage are enriched by knowledge from diverse origins and community involvement and empowerment. I’m incredibly excited to be a part of a team that values collaboration and centers community-building in their mission! Elizabeth is fourth-generation San Diegan and a PhD Candidate in the UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. To learn more, check out her bio here. The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced the funding of the California Inclusive Preservation Program, an initiative of the Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC), the only nonprofit regional conservation center in the western region. The $345,224 award is one of nine granted under the NEH’s Preservation and Access Education and Training Program, and is welcomed news for the San Diego based nonprofit, which is committed to shifting the way regional conservation centers engage with collections and communities. As part of this shift, BACC has launched the California Inclusive Preservation Program which fulfills its vision of supporting training and education opportunities for stewards of cultural heritage in the state, focusing on rural, BIPOC, and veteran collections. The California Inclusive Preservation Program (CIPP) will work with community and institutional partners to grow collections care knowledge and access throughout California through collaborative and accessible preservation training. It will provide virtual and in-person learning opportunities that are responsive to the needs of California’s humanities collections, serve communities and collections historically excluded from preservation services, and create a network of collections caretakers that will continue to sustain and broaden the scope of this necessary work. Humanities collections within the state are incredibly diverse, and the need for preservation training among collections staff is ongoing. CIPP will work to eliminate barriers to access for some of the state’s most vulnerable institutions and collections and support heritage caregivers that reflect the diversity of California’s collections. The vision of CIPP is supported by a network of institutional partners throughout the state that will be essential in program delivery: Turtle Bay Exploration Park and Museum, Redding, CA; Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA; Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Arts and Culture at Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA; and Santa Barbara Historical Museum, Santa Barbara, CA. The project is being funded, in part, by NEH’s special initiative, American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future due to its ability to emphasize the role of the humanities in tackling contemporary social challenges. BACC Executive Director Leticia Gomez Franco notes, “Accessible training opportunities are essential for the long-term preservation of California’s collections. The state’s humanities collections are key in telling the stories and uplifting the voices of those who have historically been silenced. The lack of access to conservation services and inclusive preservation knowledge puts many of these collections and the intangible values they embody for their communities at risk. The California Inclusive Preservation Program is a testament to BACC’s unwavering commitment to democratize conservation knowledge and resources and center community. I am honored that in its winning year, it was additionally identified with aligning with NEH’s American Tapestries, an initiative that attests to the need for addressing equity and inclusion in our nation’s cultural heritage investments.” About Balboa Art Conservation Center The Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC) provides art conservation and cultural preservation services for cultural institutions and the general public. The San Diego-based nonprofit is one of only nine regional nonprofit art conservation organizations in the country and the only one in the western region. Founded in 1975, BACC provides art conservation and cultural preservation services to cultural institutions and the general public, focusing on the care of works of art, cultural objects, and historic artifacts, technical imaging, and analysis while also providing educational opportunities for emerging conservators. Learn more at bacc.org. About National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States. The Endowment awards grants to top-rated proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers. As one of the few nonprofit regional conservation centers in the United States, and the only such center in the western region, the Balboa Art Conservation Center is undergoing transformational change as it shifts into a radically inclusive and accessible art conservation organization. The BACC Board helps nourish this shift while ensuring the organization's vision for inclusion has long-term systemic impact. The BACC Board of Trustees is led by Board President Dana Springs and boasts a board membership that is 50% BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). In addition to its racial diversity, BACC board members are located throughout BACC’s service area, including Seattle, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego. They bring a range and depth of expertise in community organizing, arts management and advocacy, fundraising, conservation, education, and financial management. Their diverse perspectives and skills are essential as BACC seeks to fulfill its vision for equity and healing within our own structure and workplace, as well as the communities we serve. Throughout 2023, we are highlighting each of our Board Members to better understand what excites them about being a part of the BACC Team at this transformative time. Whitney Drechsler (she/her/hers) is Director of Estate & Tax Solutions, LourdMurray. After receiving her law degree and working for several years as a practicing attorney, she transferred her skills to the realm of finance where she has been since 2015. In her current role at LourdMurray, an independent financial advisory firm in California and Louisiana, she leads the Estate and Tax Planning group where she can provide education and advice to both clients and colleagues. In this role she provides comprehensive wealth planning to artists, athletes, entertainers, business owners and families, with an emphasis on tax and estate planning and strategy. Philanthropy and charitable planning are an integral part of her life and career. In addition to donating her time, she helps guide non-profit organizations with investment management, corporate governance, planned giving and family legacy. She holds a bachelor of Business Administration, Legal Studies, with a minor in Art History, from the University of Miami, Florida. She received her JD with a focus on Art, Intellectual Property and Contract Law, from Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and followed it with an LLM in International Tax and Financial Services. Whitney also holds the Certified Financial Planner® designation. Whitney will be pursuing her Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy(R) designation in 2024. Whitney lives in San Diego with her dog and boyfriend, and enjoys outdoor adventures, live music, world travel, golf, and sports. BACC: How does your professional, community, and/or cultural work inform your role as a BACC Board Member? Whitney: Since I was in college, I have taken an interest in both business and organizational administration, and the arts. The intersection of these disciplines has always fascinated me and driven many of my career and personal choices. I have tried to stay connected to arts communities, both locally and beyond, and my work on the board is a direct example of this. I have worked with various types of nonprofits for most of my education and professional career. Additionally, having a background in estate planning and finance allows me to be a trusted advisor to BACC for investment management, financial reviews and audits, and developing planned giving initiatives. As I pursue a further designation as a Certified Advisor in Philanthropy, I help to further guide the community, BACC, and my clients in effective charitable giving, and charitable organization management. B: What excites you most about being on the BACC Board? W: I enjoy giving back and I consider philanthropy to be an integral component in my life. I also think the vast world of “the Arts” is fascinating in so many ways. BACC combines science and art in ways I never knew was possible before my involvement with the organization and that is very exciting to me. It is exciting to be a part of this organization because I find the work of BACC crucial to cultural preservation and our conservators do it at the highest level of care and professionalism. B: If you could have one artwork or artifact (personal or otherwise) conserved by the BACC team, what would it be and why? W: My grandfather was an artist in several different mediums. His watercolor paintings and bronze sculptures are my favorites. It is hard to choose one but as a general matter I would choose one of my grandfather’s works. As one of the few nonprofit regional conservation centers in the United States, and the only such center in the western region, the Balboa Art Conservation Center is undergoing transformational change as it shifts into a radically inclusive and accessible art conservation organization. The BACC Board helps nourish this shift while ensuring the organization's vision for inclusion has long-term systemic impact. The BACC Board of Trustees is led by Board President Dana Springs and boasts a board membership that is 50% BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). In addition to its racial diversity, BACC board members are located throughout BACC’s service area, including Seattle, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego. They bring a range and depth of expertise in community organizing, arts management and advocacy, fundraising, conservation, education, and financial management. Their diverse perspectives and skills are essential as BACC seeks to fulfill its vision for equity and healing within our own structure and workplace, as well as the communities we serve. Throughout 2023, we are highlighting each of our Board Members to better understand what excites them about being a part of the BACC Team at this transformative time. Kristin Beattie works for the University of California Irvine, where she supports management in successfully navigating labor and employment issues. Previously, Beattie served as an employment/labor advisory attorney at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, and before that, as a Senior Deputy City Attorney for the City of San Diego for over a decade. Across all endeavors, Beattie focuses on stakeholder partnerships, innovative and strategic problem solving, justice, equity, and ethics. She works creatively and collaboratively with management to achieve their priorities and recommends strategies for minimizing risk. In addition to her involvement with BACC, she volunteers her time to support Lawyers Club of San Diego and Riverview International Academy – and during the summer, enjoys visiting the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts where her aunt is a long-time juried exhibitor. She earned her Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Stanford University, with a minor in Race and Ethnicity. BACC: How does your professional, community, and/or cultural work inform your role as a BACC Board Member? Kristin: Long before I began serving the public at the city, county, and state levels, I started work at my family’s small business. There, business development through community engagement, compliance, creative problem solving, and thoughtful growth were markers of success. The lessons of those formative years in business inform my approach to supporting and advising BACC leadership as the organization moves into a new era, burgeoning with opportunity and potential. B: What excites you most about being on the BACC Board? K: For me, the most exciting part of being a BACC Board member is to be part of a team supporting the organization as it builds a sustainable approach to organizational management, develops a more diverse pipeline to conservation as a profession, and stretches to become an integral resource to an ever-broadening community across our region. B: If you could have one artwork or artifact (personal or otherwise) conserved by the BACC team, what would it be and why? K: This is a wonderful and difficult question because my family is full of artists and I would hope to have their works last for many generations to come. My mother’s ceramics? My aunt’s watercolor quilts? My uncle’s color pencil and crayon drawings? My late grandmother’s crayon drawing on a paper napkin ring from one of our many Sunday lunches? The next generation’s art? Perhaps the answer is that I would like us all to know more about conserving art and artifacts – everything has a story to tell, and I’m honored to be a part of BACC’s role in keeping those stories alive. SAN DIEGO, Calif. —December 5, 2023--Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC), the only nonprofit regional conservation center in the western region, has been selected as a grant recipient by Prebys Foundation, San Diego County’s largest independent private foundation.
The $225,000 in grant funding will support BACC’s efforts to develop partnerships with under-resourced collecting entities and artists, ensuring that relevant and inclusive preservation services are accessible to a wider, diverse audience. In an ongoing effort to break existing barriers of access to conservation services, BACC conservators will collaborate with collections caretakers in San Diego and assist them in assessing and understanding their collections’ preservation needs. BACC conservators will provide resources and training on emergency preparedness and response, integrated pest management, best storage and handling practices, and conservation prioritization. “Our communities are better thanks to the work of Balboa Art Conservation Center,” said Grant Oliphant, CEO of Prebys Foundation. “This is why we are proud to invest $225,000 to their work advancing our shared vision for a vibrant and thriving region. We encourage others to support, learn more, and celebrate their work.” This work is crucial as BACC seeks to be a model for inclusive conservation practice and a champion for increased accessibility and equity within the field of art conservation. All of BACC’s conservators are exceptionally trained in their areas of specialty, providing expertise that is unparalleled within the San Diego region and services that are unavailable throughout the majority of the American west. BACC is also the only publicly accessible conservation facility in the American west as well as the only resource for advanced examination and analytical techniques essential to understanding an object’s structure, material, and history, such as X-radiography, infrared reflectography, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. BACC Executive Director Leticia Gomez Franco explains, “Access to collections care capacity building, emergency preparedness, conservation service, and knowledge sharing through partnerships is essential in cultural preservation. This support from Prebys Foundation is crucial in democratizing historically institutionalized services and knowledge so that they are available and responsive to the many communities that make up San Diego’s collective cultural heritage.” About Balboa Art Conservation Center The Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC) provides art conservation and cultural preservation services for cultural institutions and the general public. The San Diego-based nonprofit is one of only nine regional nonprofit art conservation organizations in the country and the only one in the western region. Founded in 1975, BACC provides art conservation and cultural preservation services to cultural institutions and the general public, focusing on the care of works of art, cultural objects, and historic artifacts, technical imaging, and analysis while also providing educational opportunities for emerging conservators. Learn more at bacc.org. About Prebys Foundation Prebys Foundation is the largest independent private foundation in San Diego County and works to create an inclusive, equitable, and dynamic future for all San Diegans. The foundation advances excellence and shared opportunity through investments in groundbreaking institutions, ideas, and people to ensure more San Diegans are financially secure, healthy, empowered, and connected. The foundation invests in four program areas: visual and performing arts, medical research, healthcare, and youth access, and pays attention to the impact of its work on climate, the region’s character as a border region, and a robust democracy. For more information, visit prebysfdn.org. |
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