About Us
PreserVenice is a non-profit organization based in Venice, Italy. We are dedicated to the preservation of the significant tradition of public art and outdoor sculpture in the city of Venice.
What is the difference between "preservation" and "conservation"? The question has been debated at length, and PreserVenice has its own specific definitions. To us, "conservation" is the process of physically working on an object to save it from destruction, or to improve its condition. Conservation is, of course, performed by conservators, in situ or in laboratories. "Preservation" is a more general term, referring to any work that helps to save public art in Venice. Photographing, cataloguing, analyzing...they are all parts of the more general definition of "preservation." Conservation work is therefore a subset of preservation, but PreserVenice does both.
History
PreserVenice began as an idea conceived by students at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. A graduation requirement at WPI is the completion of a seven-week Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) 
, a group effort that seeks to address issues that lie at the intersection of science and society. A WPI professor and alumnus, Dr. Fabio Carrera, has supervised off-campus IQPs in Venice since 1988, when the first project in the city examined the feasibility of establishing a permanent Venice Project Center.
In the summer of 1991, the first IQP relating to public art was completed. Conducted in conjunction with Archeoclub di Venezia, the project inventoried outdoor sculpture and laid the groundwork for over a decade of work to come in the area of public art in Venice. Since the first project, teams have examined wellheads, fountains, decorative keystones, flagstaff pedestals, and more while completing over 15 projects relating to Venetian outdoor sculpture.
The idea for PreserVenice was first raised during the completion of a 2002 project . The students decided that enough work had been accomplished, enough data gathered, that an entity separate from WPI and the Venice Project Center was necessary to maintain the databases created by WPI students and others. Unfortunately, due to the difficulties in founding such an organization in the limited time frame of a seven-week IQP, PreserVenice remained nothing more than a "future recommendation" for several years.
The most decisive steps towards founding PreserVenice were taken by the Fall 2007 IQP team consisting of Amanda Kent, Rebecca Kieselbach, Kyle Miller, Ryan Sottolano and Steven Vessella. Anticipating the buzz surrounding the 20th anniversary of the Venice Project Center in 2008, this IQP produced the promotional materials, website, and by-laws that would make PreserVenice a reality.