Social Media Management

Social media can be a powerful tool to reach the public and spread awareness and educate about preventive conservation. Melissa has been quite involved in social media management since the start of her graduate studies. Here is how she has been involved specifically with this form of outreach for the field of conservation:

• Sharing (mostly) preventive conservation content through her personal Twitter account, @mkpreventive
• Managing a team of graduate and undergraduate students to run the University of Delaware Art Conservation Programs’ Instagram and Facebook accounts
• Coordinating social media strategies as part of the Communications Team for the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
  • Organizing the Facebook Watch Parties for “Stemming the Tide: Global Strategies for Sustaining Cultural Heritage Through Climate Change”

FAIC Connecting to Collections Care (C2C Care) ECPN Outreach Liaison

Since early 2019, Melissa has been serving as the AIC ECPN liaison for the Foundation for the Advancement in Conservation (FAIC)’s Connecting to Collections Care (C2C Care) Outreach Working Group. C2C Care is a free online community for collections professionals, with forums to ask conservation-related questions, and regular professional development webinar programming. The Outreach Working Group meets monthly to discuss creative strategies to reach new audiences to insure that small institutions are aware of this important resource. Some of the ideas discussed by the group include:

• Raising online presence through social media efforts
• Wearing name tags that say, “Ask Me About C2C Care” at collections-specific conferences
• Working with FAIC and AIC to find forums (annual meetings and blogs) to advocate for the community

Blog Entries/Online Publications

Melissa has been busy writing about her experiences during her studies and outreach efforts through multiple platforms. You can find a selection of her writing here:

News in Conservation (IIC)

• Social Media Tips to Promote Art Conservation: Using Instagram Stories (pages 38-40)
• Instagram Tips to Promote Art Conservation (pages 30-31)

Brooklyn Museum

• Mountmaking
• Sustainable Packing & Shipping

American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC):

• A Preventive Conservation Major’s Perspective on the IIC Turin Conference, “Preventive Conservation: The State of the Art”

Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA):

• Creating Art to Last