30TH

BY JEANNE MARIE TEUTONICO
Anniversaries are cause for celebration, but
they also provoke reflection on all that has
come before and all that might lie ahead. As
the Getty Conservation Institute turns thirty,
it is fitting to reflect on our own history and
accomplishments but also on the ways that
the conservation field has evolved more
generally in this same period.
The political, social, economic, and technological developments
that have characterized the latter part of the twentieth and
early years of the twenty-first centuries have created an increasingly
complex context for the understanding and conservation of cultural
heritage and have provoked evolution in both thinking and practice.
Today, conservation is generally understood to mean all the
processes of looking after an object or a place so as to retain its
cultural significance. 1 It is not simply about technical solutions or
individual objects but about an integrated approach that includes
planning and management and a consideration for the larger
historic environment, be that a place or a museum collection.
All of this demands a long-term view and sensitivity to
economic imperatives but also an understanding of what is
CONSERVATION PERSPECTIVES, THE GCI NEWSLETTER 5