Interested in Becoming a Conservator?

Here are some suggestions for a start:

• Look over the American Institute for Conservation “Becoming a Conservator” page which has lots of useful info on the various fields of conservation and the types of training: https://www.culturalheritage.org/about-conservation/become-a-conservator
• Contact the coordinators for the graduate programs you are interested in and establish a relationship with them. Let them know you are interested and see if they have further advice about the minimum requirements. You may find that a lot of other students have more than the minimum so it can be quite competitive.
• Join the student or emerging professional networks for your nearest professional society. The Emerging Conservators Professional Network of the AIC (American Institute for Conservation). Student membership is $71 (2017) so try to capitalize on that for a year! https://www.culturalheritage.org/membership/groups-and-networks/emerging-conservation-professionals-network. They have webinars and resources for building your experience and finding a mentor to work with.
• Think about what kind of conservation you are interested in. Do you want to become a conservation scientist or would you rather perform treatments on artworks? What type of material do you enjoy working with? If you are not sure, talk to the conservators in various specialty fields to find out what they do on a regular basis.
• Build up your visual portfolio. Try to take a few workshops or classes at a local art gallery or studio to demonstrate your artistic skills. One great way is to recreate or reproduce an artwork in the same media.
• Join the Cons Dist List: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/aboutcdl.shtml. Internships and opportunities are regularly posted.
• Sign up for or check a variety of museum and conservation internship sites for opportunities: http://www.artcons.udel.edu/jobs-internships/internships; http://museum-employment.com/index.html
• Search for jobs in conservation and look at those you may be interested in as a future career. Note the minimum requirements and find commonalities to work towards.
• If you are looking for overall experience in all types of conservation, you may consider contacting a variety of conservators in your area or an area of your choosing to see who has opportunities available for internships or apprenticeships. The Find A Conservator tool for US-based students is a great start: https://www.culturalheritage.org/membership/find-a-conservator. The New Zealand Conservators of Cultural Materials has a similar feature: https://nzccm.org.nz/find-a-conservator/ 
• Look at other types of programs that may include museum studies to learn more about similar career fields in registration, curation, or education.
• Sign up for newsletters from online providers, especially for online courses. You can network with other professionals and the instructors and the course offerings can be affordable and a good way to keep your skills up to date while you are looking at graduate schools. Some good ones are:
  • https://www.collectioncare.org/collections-caretaker
  • https://cityofangelsconservation.weebly.com/online-classes.html
  • http://icom.museum/media/e-newsletter/
  • http://www.hornemann-institut.de/english/continuing_training.php