Editorial

Abstract

In  at the ICOM CC th Triennial Conference in Melbourne, Professor Colin Pearson established the AICCM award for the most ‘Outstanding Research in the Field of Material Conservation’ published in the AICCM Bulletin. Some three years later at the  AICCM National Conference in the Blue Mountains Sydney, a Gedenkschrift dedicated to Professor Colin Pearson celebrated his life and contribution to cultural materials conservation was organized by the then AICCM President, MaryJo Lelyveld. Colin, the ‘Father of the Conservation Profession in Australia’ had passed away the previous year, on  April . Friend and mentor to generations of conservators both in Australia and overseas his passing was keenly felt across the heritage sector and beyond (Lyall & Batterham ). In honour of the immense contribution that Colin made throughout his -year career, this memorial publication of the AICCM Bulletin is dedicated to Colin and captures the themes and papers explored during the Gedenkshcrift and the  AICCM National Conference. The papers exemplify Colin’s legacy and an Australian conservation profession that he valued. As such the focus of this volume . explores the areas important to Colin covering materials research in conservation, conservation education and training, preventive conservation and environmental guidelines, and conservation in the Asia Pacific. As considered in all the papers, Colin was very much central to the formative period (–) and growth period ( to the present) of conservation in Australia. We see this examined in Marcelle Scott’s paper ‘Professor Colin Pearson: one of the most versatile and capable conservators of his generation’ that considers Colin’s contributory role as an educator over the two periods. In  Colin joined the Canberra College of Advanced Education (CCAE) to establish a conservation training program, the first in Australia and one of earliest programs to include an ethnographic conservation specialization (Figure ). Under his tenure, the CCAE (later the University of Canberra) program offered courses at Bachelor, Master, and PhD levels graduating  students over its  year history (Figure ). Scott’s paper fleshes out the issues of ‘what an “ideal” conservation course might be’. The paper points out the challenges faced by Colin working across the University and professional contexts, and more importantly the ‘tensions between the need to prepare students for the future while wanting new graduates to be work-ready’. This is akin to managing diverse expectations while building disciplinary bodies of knowledge that are grounded by ethical and conceptual responsibilities to collections, culture and society. As such, Scott also recognizes that Colin may model what a future educator should look like and one that fully combines research, teaching and practice. In doing so, Colin ‘was able to construct such a rigorous, and internationally recognised and recognisable professional conservation curriculum that was both traditional and innovative’. In Colin’s later years, he spoke of the necessity to build relevance and visibility. Ian MacLeod’s paper ‘Contribution to Research: Colin Pearson, AO, MBE, FTSE, FIIC, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD’ warmly commends Colin’s long list of awards and credits. In  Colin FIGURE . Dr Colin Pearson during his time as the Head of the Materials Conservation Department in Freemantle in the s, image from the Western Australian Museum.