BACC's Community Programs Fund

BACC conservators specialize in the care of paintings, textiles, objects & paper, as well as preventive care of collections, all committed to advancing the study and preservation of cultural heritage for all communities. Our program areas seek to engage historically underserved communities in preservation. BACC’s cultural preservation workforce development initiative is a series of programs intended to build awareness among students from San Diego’s diverse communities about art conservation and  preservation of cultural heritage. With a special focus on STEAM programming that uses science and technology to nourish a better understanding of the arts, build awareness among students about conservation and related cultural fields and encourage students to consider the field of cultural preservation as a career path.

Our Preserve Community Art program has sought to expand the existing

knowledge base of conservators to include culturally conscious methods of care through dialogues with community caretakers, stakeholders, and artists of public art. This work has been primarily centered in San Diego's Chicano community. In partnership with the Centro Cultural de la Raza, BACC coordinated Preserving Chicana/o/x Art: Conversations on Conservation. Through a series of informal dialogues with artists, community organizers, theorists, conservators, curators and administrators, the conversations explored issues of representation, culturally responsive approaches to conservation, rasquachismo, and community led standards for the care and preservation of Chicana/o/x cultural collections inside and outside of institutions, all in an effort to answer the question: What does Cultural Preservation look like for the Chicana/o/x community?

Staff also routinely lead free workshops on at-home collections care, further democratizing this knowledge.

BACC Programs are fully supported by grants and individual donors like you! We appreciate your support.