Programme

Icon Chair of Trustees, Emma Chaplin, and CEO Emma Jhita will open this year’s event and set the tone for an inspiring two days.

This session will explore the different ways conservation practice can be used to engage and develop audiences.

Keynote speaker: Bernard Donoghue OBE, Director and CEO, Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA)

Speakers:

• Natalie Brown – A five-year review of collection care audience development at The National Archives
• Flavia Ravaioli – Practice-based research and engagement in conservation
• Tze Ching Wong (Hazel) – 3D virtual conservation  - a new pathway for audiences to engage in conservation decision-making
• Ayesha Fuentes – Please touch the art: Handling, access and creative reactivation as strategies for knowledge exchange and dynamic preservation 

This session will explore the different forms that resilience and sustainability can look like for the conservation sector.

Keynote speaker: Dr Sarah Posey, Director Cultural Property, Arts Council England

Panel discussion with panellists:

• Lorraine Finch ACR
• Daniel Miles
• Dr Helen Wilson ACR

... and more to be announced!

This session will outline what partnership working can bring to conservation practice and what conservators can bring to a collaborative project.

Keynote speaker: Nadine Thiel, Stadt Koln
 

Speakers:

• Angela Middleton & Carola Del Mese – In at the deep end: The Rooswijk project - An international, collaborative project
• Kirsten Ramsay & Penny Fisher – Conservation of The Bicycle Wall Mural: An unlikely partnership, saving an iconic example of The Milton Keynes Public Art Project
• Rebecca Tehrani & Alison Heritage - The ICCROM Heritage Samples Archives Initiative: Promoting the sustainable use of non-renewable knowledge resources.

The perfect opportunity to network, reflect on the day, and enjoy drinks and nibbles on the Royal Geographical Society garden terrace. It will also be the chance for you to chat with our exhibitors and sponsors in an informal setting and take part in our informal networking opportunity. Further special guest speakers to be announced soon. 

Join us as our conference Chair sets the scene for day two of Icon24.

In this session we will explore how conservation can be a vehicle to connect with under-represented voices and subjects with communities.

Keynote speaker: Robin Dhar BA Hons, DipArch, RIBA, RMaPS, Director, Donald Insall Associates

Speakers:

• Amanda Sutherland ACR & Paul Rash – The conservation of the Hawker Hawk Mk50 aircraft: G-HAWK/ZA101 
• Anisha Parmar & Melangell Penrhys - Who Cares Now and Who Wears Now? Bringing Cultural Care into a Colonial Collection.
• Jessica Stitt ACR & Gabriella Misuriello - The Churches Conservation Trust strategy: Sustainability through community engagement

Keynote speaker: Emma Callaghan

Presentation title: The Cultural Heritage Conservator Apprenticeship: A force for change in the conservation sector?              

Discussion panel – this session will explore the ways to support training and development, the commitment needed from employers, the value that trainees offer and an assessment of the reality of work-based training in the UK and internationally.

Panellists:

• Emma Callaghan
• Catherine Cartmell
• Phil Pollard
• Diane Gwilt
• Gail Birkin
• Özge Nur Yıldırım

This session will demonstrate the power of conservation for change both within the sector and beyond.

Speakers:

• Stephanie de Roemer - Conservators as agents for change: facilitating growth and impact across society
• Kerith Schrager & Kate Fugett - Conservation as a Means of Community Engagement and Healing through Visible Preservation Practices in Difficult Heritage Collections
• Charles Wellingham & Dr Daniel Winder - Stanley Halls: A case study of conservation and social impact

Jane Henderson ACR, Lizzie Neville ACR and Lori Wong ACR

Drawing Icon24 to a close, the final thought provoking session will be delivered by three leading voices in the conservation profession sharing their personal takes on how the conservation sector has adapted to change and how it can remain resilient as future challenges arise.

The session will give delegates the opportunity to think about the role of professional conservators in leading the development of standards of practice across the heritage sector; as agents for change working to address some of the biggest challenges impacting all of society, and the role of conservation in defining place and engaging communities.  

Join Icon’s Chair of Trustees, Emma Chaplin as she brings Icon24 to a close with reflections on the two days and what is coming next across the conservation sector and beyond.