23/09/2026
Day 4 of the 2026 IIC Congress in Ghent:
Session 7 explored shared stewardship in conservation through four talks: adaptive climate control at the Getty Research Institute, traditional craftsmanship in restoring Yunnan-Guizhou Guild Hall, an interdisciplinary study of Margarito d'Arezzo's panel paintings, and the regional hubs that expanded participation in the 2024 IIC Lima Congress across Latin America. Together, they showed stewardship as something built through collaboration and shared knowledge, across departments, disciplines, and regions.
Session 8 was about pushing conservation beyond physical materials into the realm of intent, meaning, and digital infrastructure. Talks ranged from a proposed global interoperable museum database using AI, to reviving Jenny Holzer's obsolete UNEX Sign through detective work on old floppy disks and CDs, to the ethical puzzle of "preserving" Ruben Samama and Anton Kusters' Blue-Sky Project, where fading is the intended artwork rather than damage, to a forward-looking proposal for conserving cultural heritage in space. This session made the case that conservation is expanding to include immaterial, digital, and even extraterrestrial heritage.
Closing the Congress, the roundtable "Heritage, Security and Resilience: Conservation as Critical Infrastructure" tackled conservators' role in crisis response, from emergency preparedness projects and protecting heritage in conflict zones to creative material solutions when standard supplies aren't available. Panellists agreed conservators are already acting as first responders, but emphasised this only works through networking with institutions like fire brigades and municipalities, sustaining public support beyond the immediate crisis, and caring for practitioners' own mental health afterwards. The session closed the Congress on a note of community as conservation's greatest strength.
The closing ceremony in Ghent began with the announcement that Toronto, Canada, will host the 2028 Congress under the theme "Conservation in the Digital Age," followed by the Keck Award ceremony, where "Motherland: The Restoration" from Guadalajara, Mexico took the top prize among 163 applications. After four days of lectures, research, and connection, the Congress wrapped up with closing remarks from Professor Mieke Adriaens, celebrating collaboration and shared knowledge as the heart of the conservation field.
