Month: January 2011

On the Road to Conservation: A Pre-Program Road Trip – Part I

Image Caption: Clockwise from top left: Our host house in Pittsburgh, Winterthur’s campus, Katherine at the Conservation Center, Jessica in Times Square, home away from home – the car, Winterthur’s entrance sign.

This post by Jessica Ford is the first in a two part blog entry. Please check back for the second post by Katherine Langdon. Both Jessica and Katherine are pre-program interns working with Richard McCoy at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

It’s been almost two months since Katherine and I embarked on our epic journey to visit conservation graduate schools: one that tested our navigational skills, our endurance, and our conservation aspirations. Having returned to the IMA in one piece with a strengthened determination towards our goals, I can say that the adventure was certainly a success.

Considering our daunting plan to visit all three East Coast graduate conservation programs (University of Delaware – Winterthur, NYU-IFA Conservation Center, and Buffalo State) in seven days, teamwork was a must from the moment we loaded up my trusty Honda Fit with a week’s worth of personal belongings, snacks, and study material.

Our first stop was to visit the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation’s (WUDPAC) annual Portfolio Day. Although we only got a taste of the breathtaking campus, we were assured that Winterthur was a fantastic place to be by Katherine’s book 1000 Places to See Before You Die. Two eager faces in the crowd of about 70 prospective students, Katherine and I were happy to have a chance to walk and talk for a moment with Professor of Material Culture and Adjunct Paintings Conservator Joyce Hill Stoner and converse in-depth with first-year student Crista Pack.

Second-year student Steven O’Banion gave our group an impressive and detailed review of his recent conservation opportunities. His presentation was followed by a whirlwind tour of the entire department. Pictures and more details of the event can be found on WUDPAC’s website.

From there we drove to the suburbs of Philadelphia, where we took lodging for a couple of nights (more on this stop in Part 2 of our story). Early on a dark Friday morning we set out again, this time by train to New York, New York. Katherine had never been to the Big Apple, and I had been once and loved it. Needless to say we were both quite excited for this excursion. The only challenge was smashing as much as possible into one day.

First, we hit the Conservation Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Open House. Located just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Met, the building is in the tall, narrow, town-house style that one would expect uptown, which resulted in the different labs being neatly stacked on top of each other all the way up to the penthouse paintings lab. It was there that we met 3rd year student Kristin Robinson, who talked to us about the school and her experiences. The program in NYC is distinctly different from the other conservation grad programs in that the degree is actually a MA in Art History with an Advanced Certificate in Conservation. A strong interest in art history is part of what drew me to conservation in the first place, so I appreciate the emphasis. Kristin showed us a small, medieval icon that she was currently working on, which highlighted another benefit of the program – its proximity to the IFA’s prestigious art history program (right across the street). A Latin verse on the painting was illegible, but Kristin was able to find help from the Art History Department’s specialized faculty in puzzling together the correct phrase before restoring it.

In addition to the IFA, the number of important museums located nearby makes the location mind-blowing with respect to resources, art historically and otherwise. Some of the conservation curriculum takes place in the labs of the Met, MoMA, etc., and the network of connections built in this environment surely helps many students obtain 4th-year and post-graduate internships from these institutions as well. Plus, anyone who survives in NYC for three to four years automatically gains a fair amount of street cred.

After our visit to from the Conservation Center we headed to the MET, where objects conservator Beth Edelstein showed us where the conservation magic happens: a subterranean labyrinth of labs full of art objects – musical instruments, jewelry boxes, Islamic wall panels – and no less than 40 professionals to work on them. At one point, Katherine nearly had a heart attack when she spotted a very convincing replica of the Mask of Agamemnon. After Beth’s tour ended, our self-guided tour of the galleries began. After a couple of hours the rest of New York beckoned, and we filled the remainder of our afternoon and much of the night with the sights, sounds, and food of Midtown.

Saturday we were in Washington DC, where Katherine and I split up to cover as much museum ground as possible. While she investigated the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, My husband Duncan and I trekked to the Museum of Unnatural History at a nearby Renaissance Faire.

This tale is only halfway done! Check back tomorrow to learn about the rest of our adventures from Katherine’s perspective including our time in Philadelphia, more about D.C., and our visit to the conservation program in Buffalo, New York.

10 Tips for Becoming a Conservator

Tip #6: Attend conferences, lectures and workshops

Like lab visits, attending educational events can teach you a great deal about conservation, as well as give you an opportunity to meet other conservators, scientists, artists, and museum professionals. Take a look at the calendars of local museums, galleries, universities and conservation guilds to find out what’s happening.

Here’s an example of a conference on photographic materials summarized by Amy Brost.

Professional organizations generally hold an annual conference, which offers a plethora of lectures and workshops…enough to make it worth the trip to another state. AIC’s annual conference will be held in Philadelphia in 2011, and includes a variety of interesting paper topics, courses, and tours of conservation labs (see the schedule here). You can also check the websites of other organizations listed in tip #2 for upcoming conferences and events.

Even for those already in the field of conservation, continuing education is a necessity to stay abreast of current theory and practice. If you read the distlist, you’ll see posts about upcoming events every week, that target a breadth of audiences. Though some can be pricey, there are many talks and webinars that cost absolutely nothing, like this lecture by Carol Mancusi-Ungaro at the Menil Collection in Houston, or the Connecting to Collections webinar series. Just be patient and look around for something that suits you.

The preservation of ancient cities is more than just the conservation of individual monuments

Two recent articles in The New York Times have focused on the conservation of ancient cities– one on the successfully completed rebuilding of the old city of Aleppo, Syria and the other on the recently restarted conservation of the site of ancient Babylon. Rather than just conserve individual monuments, both projects have taken into consideration the needs of local residents and the economic impact of conservation.

The full texts of the articles can be read at:

“Preserving Heritage, and the Fabric of Life, in Syria”

“After Ravages of TIme and War, Triage to Save Ruins and Babylon”

A bas-relief on a wall at Babylon

The AIC Emergency Committee seeks student member

The AIC Emergency Committee (EC) is interested in having a student member join its ranks. (AIC-CERT falls under the watchful eye of the Emergency Committee.) We “meet” on a monthly basis via a conference call, do “homework” between meetings, and try to meet in person at AIC’s Annual Meeting. Topics that we’ve covered have included deployment and debriefing of AIC-CERT members for national disasters, deployment and debriefing of AIC conservators to Haiti, and expansion of the disaster planning section of the AIC website (still in progress).


All applicants are asked to submit a brief letter of interest and CV (both in electronic format) to the committee co-chairs (me and Andrew Robb, anro@loc.gov).


The EC considers the candidates and forwards the documents for those they chose to the AIC Board for approval. Board votes take place electronically and are usually done within a week. The term would begin at the Annual Meeting, which this year will be held May 31 through June 3. A term is for 4 years.


The deadline for applying is January 31. I’d be happy to field any questions that might arise.


Lori Foley

lfoley@nedcc.org

Deadline for Lightning round at ANAGPIC is Jan 5th

Just a friendly reminder: the abstract submission deadline for the conservation/conservation science lightning round is this Wednesday, January 5, 2011, at 10PM EST.

We would love to hear from students in any of the North American doctoral programs related to aspects of conservation/science/art history/anthropology/library materials. We also want to hear from 4th- or 5th-year interns, post-docs, or other post-graduate fellows who have interesting research projects in progress at the various museums, institutes, etc., that support the preservation and conservation of cultural heritage.
Proposals of no more than 250 words, contact information, and institutional affiliation should be sent to ANAGPIC.Lightning@gmail.com. Submissions must be received by 10PM EST on January 5, 2011. Speakers will be notified in February 2011.

10 Tips for Becoming a Conservator

Tip #5: Think about your education

By this point, you’re probably sure that you want to become a conservator, and should begin to think about your education, if you haven’t already. There are really only two training options in the field of conservation: apprenticeships or graduate school.

Though apprentice training is becoming less prevalent, you can still learn everything you need to know by working with skilled conservators, and supplementing your education with independent reading, coursework, and research. Unfortunately, the time it takes to become a “qualified” conservator will be much longer than a 2-4 year graduate program, and no official certification system currently exists in the U.S. One of the largest benefits of apprenticeships, however, is the flexibility to work part-time, and in any location that you’re able to find a supervisor.

Graduate conservation programs, on the other hand, do require you to attend classes at their location, but only for the first 2-3 years, as the final year is a full-time internship that can take place in another city, or even country. More and more frequently, degrees are required of candidates for fellowships and conservator positions because the employer is familiar with the program curricula and can be confident that you’ve had a thorough education. Having a school affiliation is also a benefit in terms of networking with other alumni, and forming connections with your fellow students.

You have five options for graduate schools in and around the United States for your certificate, MA or MS: UCLA, Queen’s University, Buffalo State College, NYU, and Winterthur/University of Delaware. Each school has its own unique attributes, but they’re all regarded as equally capable institutions and will offer an array of opportunities for learning about conservation, and making the transition from student to professional. If you’re interested in studying abroad, there’s a complete list on CoOL of schools in Australia, Asia and Europe. You may have to work out your own funding for programs abroad; in the U.S., all of the schools offer tuition remission and a small stipend for living expenses.

Check out this blog post by Julie Benner about the Textile Conservation Centre in Glasgow.

After choosing one or more schools of interest, the next step is to look into the admission requirements, such as pre-requisite courses, standardized tests and hands-on experience. Then, check out the application procedures and deadlines, so you can get an idea of how many letters of recommendation you’ll need, what types of objects to put into your studio art portfolio, etc. Faculty members are incredibly helpful if you have any questions about preparing for admission, and there are always people available if you’d like to schedule a tour of the facility.

With so few placements for the number of applicants, I probably don’t have to tell you that the admission is very competitive. Just stay positive and focused on what you need to do to make yourself the best possible candidate. In my opinion, it’s a good idea to apply as soon as you meet the minimum requirements because, even if you’re not chosen as a student for that year’s class, you will better understand the application—and maybe even interviewing—process to prepare you for the following year. Faculty members may also be willing to discuss your application with you and make specific recommendations; this type of treatment is so rare in graduate school, but if you’re willing to make the commitment, the conservation programs really do want to help you succeed. Good luck!