Category: Art Conservation
What is a Conservation Clinic?
November 20, 2024 Written by CAS Staff
The Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) faculty and students have been hosting free-of-charge monthly or bi-monthly cultural heritage conservation clinics since 1976, where advice on condition, care, and possible treatment is offered without charge. We are proud that this is a service for members of the community who are interested in how to care for or how to find trained conservators to treat their treasured family possessions. (We have had visitors bringing things from as far away as Charlottesville, VA and Williamstown, MA!) A small percentage of the works may be accepted for treatment by advanced graduate students if they have unique problems that fit into the teaching curriculum. However, many of our graduates or their professional colleagues are skilled private conservators located in the mid-Atlantic region, and we are glad to provide their contact information.
On designated Thursday afternoons, we have an array of tables in the Brown Center with our teaching conservators and their students on the ready to look at furniture, textiles, books and archives, paintings, photographs, works on paper, or decorative, archaeological, and ethnographic objects. Appointments are for thirty minutes, and up to three works can be brought for that timeslot. In addition, there is a “preventive conservation” table that features advice on continuing care—how to order archival materials for proper storage or how to choose safe framing or mounts for needlework, etc.
We have found these clinics to be “win-win” experiences—the owners learn about the condition of their works: which have high priority condition issues to address as soon as possible or what can they leave alone without guilt. At the same time, our students learn their “bedside manners”—how to explain in listener-friendly terms what may be complex issues of deterioration.
Each visitor may have a personal story to tell; this could range from an ancestor’s special bequest to a chance encounter at a yard sale that proved to reveal the long-lost portrait of a famous abolitionist. (In this instance Winterthur owned the print, but no one had previously known what had happened to the original painting. It was treated and is now in the National Portrait Gallery.)
A sampling of the memorable objects and artworks that have come to clinic includes: A dinner roll signed by Andy Warhol, a pantyhose testing leg from du Pont--a life-size leg that was used to test the pull strength of pantyhose, Incan brain surgery tools, two Ben & Jerry animation cels signed by the artist for the owner and her sister when they were little girls, and a re-discovered portrait by Benjamin West. A particularly touching story was revealed at a recent clinic: a gentleman brought in a sampler that his wife had made, and he was seeking advice on how to mount it properly. As he chatted with Winterthur Museum Associate Preventive Conservator and WUDPAC Affiliated Assistant Professor William Donnelly at the preventive table, he mentioned that his wife had passed away and that after her death he had taught himself how to sew and knit so that he could finish her craft pieces starting from where she had left off. William praised him for his impressive work (which embarrassed the gentleman), but he sent William a message afterwards that he was making progress and was grateful for the mounting diagram he had received at clinic.
More information about the Conservation Clinics can be found on the ARTC website. The clinic schedule is also published on the website of the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. If you would like to participate in a Conservation Clinic, please call 800.448.3883 to make an appointment.
