Foundation For Advancement In Conservation

Professional development & education - workshops and educational sessions are a key part of faic's programs. In addition to offering workshops at the aic annual meeting, which draws 800+ attendees each year, faic produces professional development programs throughout the year at various locations. These events range from weeklong, lab-based workshops on specific treatment techniques to online programs on mentoring and preventive conservation topics. Faic created new curricula to fill gaps in training, including a series of online courses. In 2024, faic presented 13 in-person and online events that reached 327 professionals. Faic awarded $310,249 in professional development scholarships and post-graduate fellowships in 2024.

Research and publications - faic publishes information of interest to the conservation and preservation communities on its web pages, such as survey results and other research. Faic videos on disaster response and other topics are made available through faic's learning portal and on the aic youtube account. Faic publishes the field guide to emergency response and the emergency response and salvage wheel, essential resources for collecting institutions after disasters. Faic administers the faic/samuel h kress conservation publication fellowships, which have resulted in at least 32 new publications since 1994. Faic also operates an oral history project, which documents the history of conservation through interviews.climate resilience and sustainabilityfaic developed climate resilience resources for cultural heritage, an online toolkit to help cultural organizations assess the impact of climate change on their site and improve their resiliency. The stich life cycle assessment project provides carbon impact data on common materials and activities of collecting institutions to help them reduce their environmental impact.

Emergency preparedness, response, & recovery - faic manages several emergency initiatives that support efforts in all phases of dealing with emergencies, from preparedness to response and recovery. An annual mayday campaign encourages collecting institutions to undertake emergency planning activities during the month of may. A team of more than 100 trained professionals, called the national heritage responders (nhr), provides expert assistance to institutions that experience damage from emergencies. The alliance for response (afr) program is a national initiative that develops and trains regional response teams that include cultural institutions and local emergency professionals in 36 locations around the country. In 2024, faic provided training for an afr network in charleston, sc, and in new orleans, la. Staff worked with organizers in arizona to plan a new regional afr network. Faic provided training and networking webinars and microgrant opportunities for existing networks.