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AIC Position Paper: Beyond Career Day: Conservation and K-12 Education
Introduction
The American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), and its Foundation
(FAIC), encourage collaborations between conservation professionals and K-12 students and educators to
develop and implement conservation-based educational programs. The interdisciplinary and inquiry-based
nature of the field of art conservation makes it a natural fit with K-12 educational goals. Conservation can
provide a unique and engaging approach to learning in a wide range of subject areas and skills. The goals of
this position paper are to elucidate the applicability of conservation topics to K-12 learning environments
and goals, and to outline a number of ways in which conservation professionals and educators can develop
and implement conservation-based educational programming.
Conservation and its applicability to current challenges in K-12 education
The present challenges within the American educational system have been well-reported: students’
proficiency in math, science and reading is stagnating at levels that are not competitive with those of many
other countriesi, while budget cuts are eliminating art programs from schoolsii. In recent years there has been
a particular emphasis on improving and expanding education in STEM subjects (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math) to ensure this country’s competitiveness in the current economyiii. While attempting
to address these challenges, public schools must also follow state-defined learning standards that outline the
topics and skills to be taught at each grade level. There is a need for innovative and effective programming
that particularly supports the arts, writing, and the sciences while also satisfying these standards.
Conservation-based lesson plans and curricula are particularly well-suited to this challenge on a number
of levels. Art conservation topics are:
• Inquiry-based: Observation, deduction, and problem solving are fundamental activities engaged in
every day by conservators. Conservation-based lesson plans are thus ideal for promoting
problem-basediv or discovery learning, helping to develop the important critical skills outlined in
state standards.
• Multi-disciplinary: Incorporating not only the visual arts and the physical sciences, but also
connecting directly to other core subjects such as history, math, and social studies,
conservation topics can be readily integrated with, or used to reinforce, lessons in other areas.
This can provide opportunities for classroom teachers to work together. Critical reading and
descriptive writing are also fundamental conservation skills that can be developed through such
lesson plans.
