Mindfulness and Conservation

The goals are twofold: to see (a) if mindfulness can improve the practice of conservation by slowing the mind down, promoting focus, and reducing biases and (b) if the deep looking that is an integral part of conservation can be a catalyst for mindfulness.

It has become common knowledge that practicing mindfulness meditation can improve our personal and professional lives by calming the nervous system, making us more present and less reactive. For some, it is a purely practical endeavor. For others, it is a spiritual one in which the sense of self recedes to give way to a spacious open consciousness and a sense of interconnectedness with all other beings. Both a growing body of scientific evidence and overwhelmingly positive personal testimonies demonstrate the effectiveness and affirm the benefits of mindfulness meditation. There are numerous mindfulness apps, recorded meditations online, and mindfulness tips in magazines and social media. The Museum field, including Getty, has also embraced mindfulness in recent years.

Conservators need to look deeply at objects to understand their materiality, their history, and the changes and damages that may have occurred. But they can also make a myriad of snap judgments without being aware of it: judgments about what an object is, its provenance, its quality, how it is made, what has happened to it, and how to approach its conservation. Snap judgments could result from cultural biases, or overreliance on one’s experience, among other reasons.

The practice of mindfulness can bring latent assumptions to the forefront of consciousness, freeing the mind and sustaining openness, curiosity, and learning from the object. On the other hand, there is a deep focus and meditative quality to the type of looking practiced by conservators that could serve as an anchor for a mindfulness practice. Additionally, conservation work entails tasks that can be physically strenuous–for example, precise, repetitive motions, sustained attention and tension, and looking through a microscope. Can a mindfulness practice help alleviate bodily strain?

The first step in this project will be to organize a pilot mindfulness workshop specifically designed for conservators during which anonymous data will be collected via biometric feedback and mindfulness state surveys. The results of the workshop will inform the project’s next steps.

Tedi Asher, Neuroscience Researcher, Peabody Essex Museum PEM
Rachel Rivenc, Senior Conservator, Getty Research Institute
Lilit Sadoyan, Gallery Educator, Getty Museum
Diana Winston, Director, UCLA Mindful

Conservation Association of Los Angeles (CALA)
Peabody Essex Museum (PEM)
UCLA Mindful