Establishing a balance between access to cultural property and the potential for damage or loss of value to that property is a topic of regular debate among conservators of cultural property. For artifacts in public collections, what constitutes appropriate public access? What should determine the parameters? Under what circumstances should they be ignored? For functional objects, when is a working facsimile acceptable?

The AIC Program Committee is eager to include a broad range of experiences and opinions about the issues of use and preservation of artifacts that not always available to conservators. I have been asked to coordinate efforts to include presentations by scholars who are not conservators of art or historic artifacts, but to whom these issues are also important.

For further information, please contact me by Monday, 5 September 2005. This will give me time to respond before the AIC deadline of Friday, 19 September.