Midwest Regional Conservation Guild

Midwest Regional Conservation Guild

Predecessor	Indianapolis Museum of Art and Cleveland Museum of Art
Established	1980 (1980)
Type	Professional conservation association
Region served	Midwestern United States
Membership	over 100
Website	themrcg.wordpress.com

The Midwest Regional Conservation Guild (MRCG) is a professional conservation association in the Midwestern United States.

History

Members of the MRCG attending the 25th Annual Meeting in 2005 at the IMA

The MRCG was formed in 1980 by art conservation and restoration professionals with the purpose of bringing together those individuals in the Midwest region (and beyond) interested in the preservation of historic and artistic works and to promote fellowship and exchange of ideas on a professional level.^[1]

The first meeting of the Guild was held at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) on Saturday, October 25, 1980. Art conservation experts specializing in archive, painting, paper, object, and textile conservation from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio met that day to discuss conservation treatment issues, conservation techniques, and the "formation of an information network and cooperative disaster policy for the Midwest."^[2] (IMA) paintings conservator David Miller was the Guild's first president and presided over the first meeting of approximately 40 participants. The program consisted of an organizational meeting, museum tours, and two slide presentations.^[3]

The Guild was organized in recognition of the pressing concerns of "museum curators and private collectors alike to preserve great works of art against the ravages of time and the environment, as well as to uncover increasingly sophisticated forgeries."^[4]

The original purpose and character of the guild was defined by six principles:

The Guild should provide a framework for knowing other conservators and laboratories in our region.
The Guild should provide informal exchange of ideas with our colleagues.
The Guild should serve as a "problem solving forum."
The Guild could accurately represent our needs to national level agencies.
Meetings could be held twice a year, rotating geographic location.

Meeting locations

Main article: List of meeting locations of the Midwest Regional Conservation Guild

For more than 30 years, the Guild has had annual meetings throughout the Midwest region, often at area museums. There have been at least 49 annual meetings in 12 different states. The museums that have hosted the most meetings are:

**Top museums that have hosted MRCG meetings**
Name of museum	Number of meetings hosted
Nelson-Atkins Museum	3
Detroit Institute of Arts	3
Cincinnati Art Museum	4
Cleveland Museum of Art	6
Indianapolis Museum of Art	5

Publications

Starting in 1981 the Midwest Regional Conservation Guild Newsletter has been published bi-annually highlighting news gathered around the Midwest.

In 1993 the MRCG began producing its Membership Directory, which appears yearly.^[5]

Organisation and Governance

Current MRCG Officers

President (2015) Megan Emery
Vice President (2015) Claire Walker
Secretary (2015) Suzanne Davis
Treasurer (2015) Nicole Grabow

References

↑ "MRCG By-Laws". Retrieved 13 November 2010.
↑ Garmel, Marion (October 24, 1980). "Art Conservators To Form Guild". The Indianapolis News.
↑ Chicago Area Conservation Group Newsletter. 3 (1). January 1981. Missing or empty |title= (help)
↑ Garmel, Marion (October 24, 1980). "Art Conservators To Form Guild". The Indianapolis News.
↑ Midwest Regional Conservation Guild Newsletter. XIII (2). September 1993. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

Midwest Regional Conservation Guild Website

Conservation-restoration of cultural heritage

Collection care and management	Collecting Collection (artwork) Collections care Collection catalog Collections maintenance Collections management (museum) Collection Management Policy Collections Management System Cultural heritage management Cultural resources management Deaccessioning (museum) Digital repository audit method based on risk assessment Display case Documentation of cultural property Emergency response (museum) Exhibition of cultural heritage objects Found in collection Inherent vice Inventory (museum) Museum integrated pest management Preservation metadata Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies Preservation of meaning Preservation survey Provenance Repatriation Restoration (cultural heritage) Storage of cultural heritage objects

Expertise	Art handler Collection manager Conservator-restorer Conservation scientist Conservation technician Curator Exhibition designer Mount maker Objects conservator Paintings conservator Photograph conservator Preservationist Registrar (museum) Textile conservator

Area specialities	Antiques restoration Archaeology Bioarchaeology Building restoration Conservation science Digital photograph restoration Digital preservation Database preservation Film preservation Frame conservation Heritage science Historic preservation Media preservation Object conservation Optical media preservation Painting conservation Preservation (library and archival science) Restoration Sustainable preservation Web archiving

Techniques	Aging (artwork) Anastylosis Arrested decay Archaeological sites Architecture Automobiles Bone, horn, and antler objects Books, manuscripts, documents and ephemera Ceramic objects Clocks Copper-based objects Feathers Flags and banners Frescos Fur objects Glass objects Historic gardens Human remains Illuminated manuscripts Iron and steel objects Ivory objects Lacquerware Leather objects Lighthouses Metals Musical instruments Neon objects New media art Outdoor artworks Outdoor bronze objects Outdoor murals Paintings Painting frames Parchment Photographs Plastic objects Shipwreck artifacts Silver objects Stained glass Textiles Tibetan thangkas Time-based media art Totem poles Vehicles Vinyl discs Woodblock prints Wooden furniture Cradling (paintings) Detachment of wall paintings Desmet method Fabric restoration Historic paint analysis Inpainting Kintsugi Leafcasting Lining of paintings Mass deacidification Mold control and prevention in libraries Mold prevention Overpainting Paper splitting Radiography of cultural objects Reconstruction (architecture) Textile stabilization Transfer of panel paintings UVC-based preservation

Notable projects	Conservation issues of Pompeii and Herculaneum Conservation-restoration of Ecce Homo by Elías García Martínez Conservation-restoration of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper Conservation-restoration of the Shroud of Turin Conservation-restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes Conservation-restoration of the Statue of Liberty

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