Celebrating the end of the first international conference on indigenous American lacquers

A big 'thank you' to all who have contributed to make the V&A 'Lacquer in the Americas' conference a huge success:

• the best conference co-organisers I could have wished for - Dana Melchar , Monica Katz and Evgeniya Ravtsova ;
• all the speakers, sharing their knowledge and experience (they included Maria-Cecilia Alvarez-White ,?Alicia Ancho Villanueva , Tatiana Apraez,?Julie Arslanoglu , Giovany Paolo Arteaga Montes, Maria Mercedes Figueroa Fernandez,?Dana Melchar , Nick Humphrey,?Mitchell Codding ,?Maria Renata de Almeida Martins , Ana García Barrios,?Emily Kaplan ,?Yayoi Kawamura , Maria del Pilar López Pérez, Alicia McGeaky ,?Richard Newman , Sonia I. Oca?a Ruiz,?Federica Pozzi ,?Elena Basso ,?Monica Katz ,?Rafael Romero Asenjo , Maria Sanchez, Emma Schmuecker ,?Ana Zabía );
• maestros Eduardo and Juan Valentin Mu?oz, and maestros Gilberto and Oscar Granja, the Colombian artists who introduced us to their wonderful work and made mopa mopa come alive in front of our eyes;

• Tatiana Apraez, the inspiring artist and jewellery designer;

• the attendees, both in person and on line, who kept us on our toes with their questions and comments;
• the V&A Audiovisual team led in this occasion by the amazing Charlie Snuggs;
• our live interpreters Valeria Luna and Carmen Solino led by Ben Denness and Tim Denness from M&R Communications;
• Nick Humphrey, Curator of Furniture and Woodwork, for being such an integral part of our indigenous American lacquer journey since 2015;
• the V&A Director, Tristram Hunt , for his generous support and enthusiasm; Pedro Gaspar , Head of Conservation, Kate Parsons , Director of Collection Care and Access, and Zoe Allen , Lead Conservator (Furniture, Metalwork, Paintings and Frames) for supporting this important initiative at the V&A.

A very special 'thank you' goes to the Colombian cultural attaché Adriana Sandoval Trujillo , Her Excellency Nancy Benitez, and all the staff at Embassy of Colombia who generously funded the event; the Spanish cultural attaché José María Robles Fraga and all the staff at the Embassy of Spain who also generously funded the conference.

The day before the conference started, presenters attended a special study day to look at and discuss lacquer objects together; we are very grateful to the following people who helped to make it happen: Margaret McQuade from the Hispanic Society Museum and Library; Adrian Locke and Idoya Beitia at the Royal Academy, and Danny Zborover at the British Museum.

Last but not least, for their logistical support during the conference: Valentina Risdonne , V&A Conservation Scientist; Danilo Marques dos Reis and Jessica Harpley , V&A Assistant Curators; and students Florencia Denti and Fiorella Lavado, without whose help things would not have gone so smoothly.

We are all looking forward to the next conference in Pasto in 2025!

In the meantime, keep an eye on our bilingual special issue of the open access Heritage MDPI journal, which Dana, Monica and I are editing, also called Lacquer in the Americas . This special issue will contain many of the papers presented at the conference and we hope it will become the go-to resource for researchers of indigenous American lacquers.?For their superlative translations of the journal papers, we would like to thank MA students in the Spanish Translation and Interpreting programme at Rutgers University run by Laura Ramirez Polo , and MA students in the Translation course at University College London led by Olivia Cockburn . More details on the individual papers coming up soon.