Operations of AMIEN
AMIEN is part of a non-profit organization.
In the interest of full disclosure: Any fees that are charged for AMIEN’s services are used solely to pay for the expenses associated with providing the services, including the salary and benefits of its Administrator, Mark Gottsegen.
What's included when I register with AMIEN?
You'll have unlimited access to the information through our website as well as the following extras when you register at the forums:Our dispute resolution service for registered users only
Plus other services.
Are companies involved?Yes, but companies can't pay for their involvement, though they can be Supporters like any other user.
Supporters of AMIEN can make donations to the organization but do not expect to have any influence on the operating principles of AMIEN. Companies (art materials manufacturers, retailers, distributors, instrument-makers, and so on) derive the benefit of being publicly recognized for their honest contributions to AMIEN.What companies or products are rated on AMIEN?
None. It is up to the artist to determine whether a particular product is suitable for the art. AMIEN will not tell you how to make your art, and does not have an esthetic point of view.Is there a fee?
No. Simply register.The people who use its services support AMIEN.
Why would I use AMIEN, when I can just ask my fellow artists or teachers, or search the Internet, for information?
How do you know if the information is good, and unbiased? Art materials education in secondary and post-secondary educational institutions is practically non-existent today. Artists who use a particular material or method have been taught to do so, somewhere; do you know if the teacher was well trained? This problem is well recognized and is more than 50 years old.
Anyone who sells a product is biased towards the product: that’s a business fact, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But that doesn’t mean you will be guaranteed an unbiased opinion about a class of products, or a process.Most books and other information sources for artists are out-of-date from the moment they are published, including The Painter’s Handbook. Each year, hundreds of new art material products are produced – to say nothing of the thousands of non-art products that artists also use. How do you know whether the material is appropriate, or what might happen if you use it? The Internet is particularly distressing in this respect. Even there, many people are pushing a particular idea, esthetic, or material. That’s bias.
At AMIEN, we make comments based on our combined principal staff experience of more than 50 years of associations with the world of artists: art materials manufacturers, conservation research scientists, standards-writing groups, foundations, conservators, artists, retailers, curators, collectors, writers about art materials and others who share one common goal. We want artists to make durable art, and we want them to have the best current information they can about how to use their materials, and what to use. Neither Albert Albano or Mark Gottsegen has ever endorsed or promoted a commercial art material product. Nor do we do so at AMIEN. At AMIEN, we will not even recommend a product unless it is unique – and an art material product can only maintain its uniqueness for a year, at most, before someone else copies it. In that respect, AMIEN sells nothing tangible except ideas.
How long has the principal of AMIEN been in working on its ideas?
Mark Gottsegen, Artist, Writer, Materials Research Director of the Intermuseum Conservation Association; AMIEN Administrator
B.A. Studio Art, University of Rochester, NY
M.F.A. Painting, Boston University, with Philip Guston and James Weeks
Principles of Color Technology, RPI, Troy, NY
Adjunct drawing and painting instructor, Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield MA
Associate Professor, UNC Greensboro, Greensboro NC
Associate Lecturer, University of Akron's Meyer's School of Art
Past Chair, ASTM International D01.57 on Artists’ Paints and Related Materials
Website: The Painter's Handbook.com. ica-artconservation.org
Complete CV available upon appropriate request
