The North American Textile Conservation Conference was founded as an international forum to share research, theory and practice in the field of textile conservation, and foster collaboration. This is achieved by holding a biennial conference with training sessions and presentations, and disseminating the conference papers to participants, and the wider conservation and museum communities.
The North American Textile Conservation Conference (NATCC) was founded in 1994. As stated in the group's Bylaws, the purposes of the NATCC are to improve the quality of textile conservation through discussion of current practices and research by organizing a biennial conference and publishing the papers presented at the biennial conference. These Preprints are distributed to the conference attendees. Preprints are also made available to the wider museum community.
NATCC was incorporated in the State of New York as a non-profit corporation in July of 2001 and received its 501(c)(3) status from the IRS in 2002. The NATCC has evolved into an inclusive organization whose conferences are planned by a rotating Board of Directors of twelve textile conservators, textile scientists and curators from throughout North America.
- Fall 1997 Ottawa, Ontario: The Fabric of an Exhibition, Canadian Conservation Institute, National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Civilization
- Spring 2000 Ashville, N.C.: Conservation Combinations, the Biltmore Estate
- Spring 2002 Philadelphia Pa./Winterthur De.: Strengthening the Bond: Science and Textiles, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Winterthur Museum and Gardens
- Fall 2003 Albany N.Y.: The Conservation of Flags and Other Symbolic Textiles, New York State Museum, New York State Parks Peebles Island Resource Center
- Fall 2005 Mexico City: Recovering the Past: The Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Textiles, Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia
- Fall 2007 Washington, D.C.: Facing Impermanence: Exploring Preventive Conservation for Textiles, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of the American Indian, The Textile Museum
- 2005 Getty Foundation Professional Organization Travel Grants awarded to NATCC for air fare and conference registration up to 25 Central and South American conservation professionals, air fare for Latin Americans who are presenting papers at the conference and 10 Latin American students, and registration for 10 Mexican colleagues.