The Mature Conservator

[Dennis Piechota]

I have the impression that some conservators move out of conservation as they mature in the field. 

While it's common and expected to move upward from the bench to conservation administration many who started with me have left the field entirely! One left to sell sportswear; Another is a CPA; Then there is the gifted metals conservator who left to sell real estate; An objects conservator became his museum's Finance VP; A famed paper conservator is now a curator; And a founder of American conservation became a museum director.

I'm in my 60s and I realize that I too have 'moved on' in a sense. While I still do treatments and identify as a conservator I'm more fascinated by the intellectual aspects of the field and in applying what I see as the conservator's frame of reference to archaeological theory.

Perhaps this phenomenon is common to many fields. But I suspect this maturing away from the bench may also be a symptom of a deficiency in the core of our field as it is currently practiced. Many of us working within the confines of our applied materialism eventually tire of it. While the challenges never cease, they can slowly fail to engage the seasoned conservator. 

If this is true it may mark our discipline as one for the young and if that is true how would such a realization suggest we change our field's internal structure and direct its growth?

Dennis

Dennis Piechota

Archaeological Conservator

Fiske Center for Archaeological Research
UMass Boston
Office: 617-287-6829

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