We just got back from a weekend of photo geekery! The Photographic Materials Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Artifacts hosted their bi-annual winter conference this past weekend. Professionals from all over North America and Europe came to present and discuss issues and new discoveries in photo conservation. Phenomenally boring to most people, but super fun for us!
Eight of us drove up for the two day conservation road trip. The PMG was nice enough to host a gala as well, which was held at the Museum of Nature in downtown Ottawa. It's a beautiful old building that has had a recent renovation to include a lovely reception hall. We were treated to some very nice catered finger food and a bar! The museum was also in charge of the table centre pieces, which we played with after a while.
RAAWWWWWWWRRRRRR!! (Ooo, crackers!)
As it turns out, conservators like their alcohol. not only was the free-ish bar stocked with nice wine and beer, they had had a Vodka luge made for the reception. That would be a vodka dispensing ice sculpture.The older guys were frequenting sneaking shots when the bar tenders weren't looking. Quite the fun evening.
We also learned a very interesting way of dealing with unexpected disasters in the conservation field. I may have to carry holy water and a rosary in my tool kit from now on. Note the word "again" at the bottom of the slide. This presentation was a retelling of how things can happen without any warning in the preservation process. For now, however, back to Toronto, back to school and back to work. And back to home cooked meals... except that my roommate and I ordered sushi the Sunday night I was back. It was glorious. I have had home cooked since, and will post soon.
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