Evolving Innovation in 21st-Century Conservation

Héctor Berdecia-Hernández
Centro de Conservación y Restauración de Puerto Rico
Prerecorded talk: “Thinking Broadly: Perspectives, Lessons, and Approaches for the Preservation and Conservation of Collections and Buildings in the US Caribbean”

Héctor Berdecia-Hernández is a conservator specializing in architecture and monuments and he currently serves as the founding director general of the Centro de Conservación y Restauración de Puerto Rico. Berdecia-Hernández is also an adjunct professor in preservation technology and materials conservation at the graduate program in Architectural Conservation and Rehabilitation at the Universidad Politécnica de Puerto Rico. He is currently an associate member of the American Institute for Conservation and the International Institute for Conservation. He received his MS in Historic Preservation with a concentration in Architectural Materials Conservation from the University of Pennsylvania and attended joint conservation science courses at Georgetown University and the Università degli Studi di Firenze.

Lora Angelova
The National Archives, UK
Prerecorded talk: “Vibrant Matter: Caring for Collections at the Artifactual/Informational Value Boundary”

Lora Angelova is the head of conservation research and audience development at the National Archives, UK, where she previously worked as a conservation scientist. Angelova’s background is in chemistry and surface cleaning of cultural and heritage materials, and her current focus is the intersection of heritage science, conservation research, and archival practice. She completed a PhD in Chemistry and Heritage Science in 2013 through a collaboration between the National Gallery of Art and Georgetown University.

Pip Laurenson
University College London
Prerecorded talk: “Innovation in Conservation: One View from the Here and Now”

Pip Laurenson, ACR, is professor of conservation at University College London and director of the MSc in the Conservation of Contemporary Art and Media. At the Tate, Laurenson established and led the Time-Based Media Conservation team (1996–2010) and was head of Collection Care Research (2010­–2022). From 2018 to 2022, she led Reshaping the Collectible: When Artworks Live in the Museum, a Mellon Foundation initiative. She is a member of the steering committee of the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art.