Our staff are here to provide the highest quality art conservation and collections services. As the oldest, full-service art conservation laboratory in the country our clarion call is “Art Conservation for the Nation!"
We believe that BLACK LIVES MATTER!
Committment to Quality
Our staff brings the same commitment to quality to each and every project that comes through the doors at the PIVOT Center.
Unique Skills
Each and every one of our conservators is an AIC Fellow, AIC Professional Associate, or active member of AIC. Our technicians and support staff bring a wide range of skills to the care and handling of material culture treasures.
Attention to Detail
No art piece is too large or too small for our conservators. We offer our customers the highest quality of care whether your bring us centuries-old painting or a family heirloom that needs some tender, loving care.
Board of Directors
Recent Support
Our Mission and History
Mission Statement
ICA – Art Conservation (ICA) protects, preserves, and enriches our shared heritage of art and material culture through conservation, advocacy, and education.
ICA is a unique arts, culture, and education nonprofit that provides access to conservation expertise, knowledge, and skill for all stewards of material culture through services and programs. As an educational nonprofit, ICA works with arts, culture, education, history, neighborhood, public, and private partners to make our communities stronger and more successful by educating about material culture and sharing the means to preserve works of art and other cultural treasures for people today and for future generations.
History
The Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) was founded in 1952 by the directors of six Midwestern museums as the nation’s first non-profit regional art conservation center to provide professional, high-quality, and cost-effective art conservation services and specialized conservation education.
ICA became the model used by the National Endowment for the Arts when it incentivized a network of similar centers across the United States in 1971. Originally located on the campus of Oberlin College, in 2003 ICA staff packed up the lab and moved to the historic Vitrolite Building in Cleveland’s Hingetown neighborhood. Twenty years later, ICA moved to its current home in the Pivot Center for Art, Dance, and Expression in Cleveland’s vibrant Clark-Fulton neighborhood to join a community of arts and social service organizations. Come visit!
Opportunities: Pre-Program Internships
Pre-program internships are required before students can apply to one of the five graduate programs in fine arts conservation in North America. As projects in the lab allow, ICA periodically accepts pre-program interns.
Because ICA does not currently have funding to support internships, ICA can only offer internships to students who are rising juniors or seniors, living in the Cleveland area.
We will work with colleges and universities that provide students with internships for academic credit. Interns generally work 12-15 hours a week in the lab. If you are interested in applying to be an intern during the summer or fall of 2024, your first step is to set up a tour of labs and meet our staff. To set up a tour contact us at info@ica-artconservation.org.
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
BLACK LIVES MATTER!
ICA’s Racial Equity, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Statement
ICA’s mission is to preserve the corpus of human visual material culture — artistic, historic, scientific, and cultural – for all people today and in the future. Our work touches on objects born of all cultures, all times, all geographies, and all belief systems. It is imperative that ICA conduct its work within an environment that transcends any race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, age, veteran status, citizenship, immigration status, disability or protected class. All perspectives are relevant, vital, and welcome in the development and implementation of the best solutions to conserve and preserve our visual material culture.
