About us

Icon’s vision is to protect, preserve and promote our treasured cultural heritage through cultivating skilled conservation professionals, supporting meaningful collaboration across the cultural heritage sector, and delivering public benefit through engagement and advocacy.

Icon’s mission is to represent and support the practice and profession of conservation by promoting the public value of caring for cultural heritage and upholding high standards and ethics in conservation practice.

Icon ensures that the guardians and owners of objects, buildings and collections can access knowledgeable and passionate professionals who will help them safeguard the physical remains of our past for the future.

Our Charitable Objects are:

• To advance the education of the public by research into and the promotion of the conservation of items and collections of items of cultural, aesthetic, historic and scientific value; and
• To preserve and conserve items and collections of items of cultural, aesthetic, historic and scientific value.

Conservation professionals work in a variety of disciplines. Many are conservators but Icon’s membership of 2,300 individuals and organisations also embraces heritage scientists, craftspeople, architects, archivists and others. Most of our members are UK-based but many also work internationally.

Environmental sustainability

Icon is committed to promoting the positive role that conservation can play in inspiring and informing climate action. We are also actively seeking ways to reduce our organisational carbon footprint and supporting our members to embed environmental sustainability in their professional activities. Further details can be found in our Environmental Statement.