Graduate Student Awards
Graduate Student Awards
The Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware offers several prestigious awards to recognize and support outstanding students in the field. Two notable awards are:
Rowntree Research Award: This award provides funding for undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research projects in art conservation. It aims to encourage innovative and impactful research that advances the field and contributes to the preservation of cultural heritage.
Stryker Memorial Award: This award recognizes exceptional academic achievement and scholarly contributions by a graduating senior in the art conservation program. It celebrates the student's dedication and excellence throughout their studies.
Rowntree Research Award in Contemporary Art
UD's Department of Art Conservation was pleased to present the 2022 Rowntree Research Award in Contemporary Art to Daniella Villamil (WUDPAC Class of 2024) for her work with the time-based media collections at the Museum of Modern Art.
Current students enrolled in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, or in UD's Preservation Studies Program, are invited to apply for the $1000 Rowntree Research Award to support attendance at conferences, or to travel to carry out research or collections-based study related to contemporary art. The annual deadline for applications is April 1.
The award complements the once-a-year Rowntree speaker on contemporary art. The award is a memorial to Joanna Rowntree (WUDPAC 1995), a promising contemporary art conservator who died of cancer in May 2006 at age 38.
Ask for the application form by writing to jhstoner@udel.edu: you will be asked for a budget along with answers to questions about the project, including a description of the proposed activity, significance of the activity to your work in contemporary art, and whether other funds will be available/solicited for the project.
Recipients of the Rowntree Research Award:
2017—Diana Hartman
2022— Daniella Villamil
Joanna Rowntree Lecturers:
2008—Deborah Butterfield
2009—Jean Shin
2010—Glenn Wharton
2011—Gwynne Ryan
2012—Yvonne Shashouha
2013—Megan Saligman
2014—Helen Ingalls
2015—Mark Golden
2016—Valerie Hagerty
2017—Christian Scheidemann
2019—Teresa Oaxaca
2021—Margaret Rose Vendryes
2022—Janey Chang
2023—Joanna Phillips
2024—Adebunmi Gbadebo
Emily Schuetz Stryker Memorial Award
The Emily Schuetz Stryker Memorial Award was established in 2014, in memory and in honor of Emily Schuetz Stryker, a graduate of the WUDPAC class of 2013. In the words of her classmate, “Emily was undoubtedly one of the strongest, most brilliant, and most positive forces in our class – and her inclusion in our group made us all better people, better friends, and better conservators”. Each year, as the recipient is selected, we keep these words in mind as well as the promise to do our best to select someone who shares Emily’s interests and passions: textile conservation, preventive conservation minor, Maryland, travel, and financial stability.
2022 Stryker Memorial Award recipient Adriana Benavides is a graduate student at Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation majoring in paintings conservation with a minor in preventive conservation. She is fascinated by the structural and social complexity that paintings can offer and is enthusiastic about their preservation and treatment. She is also committed to making conservation more accessible to the wider public and breaking down barriers between conservation and other material culture-based professions. Before coming to Delaware, she lived in Maryland where she completed her undergraduate education at Towson University with majors in Art History and Studio Arts, and minors in Chemistry and German. She also interned at the Walters Art Museum and worked at an archival frame shop, both in Baltimore City. She spent her first summer of graduate school at the Balboa Art Conservation Center in San Diego, California. In her free time, she loves visiting museums, listening to podcasts, cuddling with her cats, cooking with her partner, and playing video games or Dungeons and Dragons with her friends.
Recipients of the Stryker Memorial Award:
2014-Miranda Dunn
2015-Mariana Di Giacomo
2016-Jackie Peterson
2017-Nick Kaplan
2018-Lindsey Zachman
2019-Maddie Cooper
2020-Kris Cnossen
2021-Margaret O’Neil
2022-Adriana Benavides
2023-Ka Yee Christy Ching
