Conservators from the Midwest Art Conservation Center offer workshops like “Conserving and Cleaning Feathers: A Hands-On Introduction,” ensuring that collections of indigenous artifacts are properly conserved. Image courtesy of the Midwest Art Conservation Center.
The Midwest Art Conservation Center (MACC) provides preservation education and support to cultural heritage organizations located throughout the United States, with a particular focus on the Midwest region. Since 1993, National Endowment for the Humanities funding has bolstered these efforts, ensuring that the Midwest’s cultural heritage is preserved for future generations. As part of the NEH’s regional field service program, MACC provides preservation assistance and planning to museums, historical organizations, libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions. Because the Upper Midwest has a high density of Native American tribes, MACC takes a special interest in preserving the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples by working directly with tribal representatives.
The Midwest Art Conservation Center has had an impact on thousands of cultural heritage institutions. In 2018 alone, MACC staff responded to more than 27,000 phone and email requests related to collections care. They hosted over 1,300 individuals who visited the center to learn more about conservation, preservation, and the inclusion of culturally-diverse materials in public collections. MACC also provided a wide range of workshops to cultural heritage professionals and volunteers, including workshops on “Basic Art Handling and Collections Care,” “Museum Environments 101,” and “Writing Grant for Preservation & Conservation Projects.” The center also provided collections assessments to 13 organizations. These assessments support the longterm health of heritage collections by providing institutions with detailed, prioritized recommendations for collections care. In addition, MACC maintains for organizations a lending library of conservation books, journals, and equipment for monitoring the environmental impact of light and humidity on delicate materials.
A conservator from the Midwest Art Conservation Center leads a workshop on cleaning glass bead objects. Image courtesy of the Midwest Art Conservation Center.
MACC’s emphasis on caring for Native American historical artifacts has enabled it to serve many of the Midwest’s tribes and ensure that items held by non-tribal organizations are cared for properly. In 2018, MACC presented “Conserving and Cleaning Feathers: A Hands-On Introduction,” “Safely Handling Art and Artifacts in Native Collections” and “Creating Supportive Inserts for Baskets” workshops at the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums. Their new Native Fellowship Program brings Native American students to the center for twelve weeks of conservation education, helping to increase the number of Native American conservation professionals.
