Have you run a project that helps the public appreciate and understand conservation?

Run every two years, we invite you to apply or nominate others for IIC’s 2026 Keck Award

Deadline for nominations: 19 June 2026

Communicating to the public everything that is involved in the art and science of conservation has always been a skill in itself. We believe that promoting public understanding, storytelling and appreciation of conservation are becoming increasingly important ways to recognise, inspire, and contextualise the work of our profession. Projects that reach diverse and underrepresented audiences  and regions are particularly welcomed as well as initiatives that increase social impact and inspire creative engagement.

Open to all formats as well as small projects and those from larger institutions. Many of our past winners have blended in-person and offline outreach but we also welcome applications from all-virtual projects as well. We invite you to nominate projects run by you or your institution – or pass this information along to those whose work you have admired.

About the award

The IIC Keck Award was generously endowed by Sheldon and Caroline Keck to commemorate their shared lives of distinguished achievements in conservation. The award is presented every two years at the IIC Congress to the individual or group who has contributed most towards promoting public understanding of conservation and engagement with the accomplishments of the conservation profession.

Past winners

You can find out more about previous winners here. In 2024, the winner was ‚Santiago Maldonado Murals: Memory Preservation and Community Participation in a Collective Project‘, Centro TAREA and Escuela de Arte y Patrimonio, National University of San Martin as well as the Ministry of Culture of the Nation and Municipality of 25 de Mayo, Buenes Aires, Argentina.

A generous prize to support your future work

The award consists of a certificate and a prize of £2500, which will be presented online at the next biennial IIC Congress in Ghent, September 2026 on the topic of ‚Ensembles: Conserving Interconnected Artworks, Artefacts and Collections‘.

Simple application process

If you would like to propose a project, whether your own work, institution or organisation, or the work of others, please send your proposal to iic@iiconservation.org with the words ‚Keck Award‘ in the subject line by 19 June 2026.

The nomination should include the name, job title and professional address of the individual (or all of the partners in a group project) and should include the following:

• a statement of between 500 and 1000 words describing the nominee’s public outreach and engagement activities
• plus two or three photographs in support of this statement
• if available, please give us an outline of supporting material available – for example publications, websites, videos, or evidence of media coverage. We might ask for these at a a later date.

You do not need to be a member of the IIC to apply.

Shortlisting and Public Vote

A shortlist of projects will be selected by a panel of judges. Due to the high number of nominations we usually receive, it will only be possible to contact those that have been shortlisted before a public vote opens in July 2026. The winning nomination will be chosen by public vote and the announced during the Closing Ceremony of the 8 – 11 September IIC Ghent Congress 2026.