Art Conservation Department Wins National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
Buffalo State College's Art Conservation Department has won a two-year, $221,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant.
The award is the latest in a series of NEH grants to the department to provide fellowships for students specializing in ethnographic and archaeological material conservation. The new grant will continue the previous NEH grant's support of a visiting conservator, Ruth Norton, chief conservator of the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, who will teach cultural material conservation during three weeklong visits to the department each year.
The grant also will support a visiting archaeological conservator, Harriet Beaubien, objects conservator and archaeological conservation program manager of the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education at the Smithsonian Institution. Norton and Beaubien will work in collaboration with the department's objects conservator, Professor Jonathan Thornton.
This support ensures that our students can benefit from the experience of some of the world's most highly respected art conservators, said Buffalo State College President Muriel A. Howard. The NEH has been remarkable in supporting Buffalo State. Once again, the NEH has identified the Buffalo State College Art Conservation Program as one of the most important in the nation, she added.
Buffalo State's Art Conservation Department's graduate program is one of just four degree-granting art conservation programs in North America. Students first study the traditional areas of objects, paper, and paintings conservation. They later specialize either in one of these three areas or in one of the more recently established areas of photograph, book, and ethnographic and archaeological material conservation. Their program years conclude with a final 12-month internship in their chosen specialty.
The majority of the department's 300 graduates are employed in museum conservation laboratories in the United States and abroad, many of them holding senior posts. Employers include the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
The award is the latest in a series of NEH grants to the department to provide fellowships for students specializing in ethnographic and archaeological material conservation. The new grant will continue the previous NEH grant's support of a visiting conservator, Ruth Norton, chief conservator of the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, who will teach cultural material conservation during three weeklong visits to the department each year.
The grant also will support a visiting archaeological conservator, Harriet Beaubien, objects conservator and archaeological conservation program manager of the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education at the Smithsonian Institution. Norton and Beaubien will work in collaboration with the department's objects conservator, Professor Jonathan Thornton.
This support ensures that our students can benefit from the experience of some of the world's most highly respected art conservators, said Buffalo State College President Muriel A. Howard. The NEH has been remarkable in supporting Buffalo State. Once again, the NEH has identified the Buffalo State College Art Conservation Program as one of the most important in the nation, she added.
Buffalo State's Art Conservation Department's graduate program is one of just four degree-granting art conservation programs in North America. Students first study the traditional areas of objects, paper, and paintings conservation. They later specialize either in one of these three areas or in one of the more recently established areas of photograph, book, and ethnographic and archaeological material conservation. Their program years conclude with a final 12-month internship in their chosen specialty.
The majority of the department's 300 graduates are employed in museum conservation laboratories in the United States and abroad, many of them holding senior posts. Employers include the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Media Contact:
Nanette Tramont, Director of News Services | 7168784325 | newsservices@bscmail.buffalostate.edu