Finding common ground and inherent differences: Artist and community engagement in cultural material and contemporary art conservation

Comparisons are often made between the conservation of cultural material collections, often described as ethnographic, and contemporary art collections, and indeed there are significant parallels. The stewardship of both of these types of collections can challenge traditional tenets of conservation, requiring conservators to ask themselves ‘What are we preserving?’ as preservation extends beyond the physical. The work must be placed in a broader conceptual context and the conservator must seek out those who are deemed to have the most authority – whether it is the artist, the artist's assistants and estate or the source community – to establish this context. Engagement with constituents creates valuable reciprocal relationships, which can benefit the artist, community, and museum. The relationships and the parallel practice of two seemingly disparate fields are examined using examples from the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and the Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG). Conservators at NMAI, a living culture museum containing archeological, historic, and contemporary art collections, are in the unique position of working with community stakeholders with direct ties to historic collections and contemporary artists whose work is actively acquired by the museum. Conservators at YUAG, an encyclopedic museum with a pedagogical directive, are attempting to establish a more rigorous program of artist engagement to direct preservation and understanding of contemporary art collections.