Buffalo State Hosts National Art Conservation Conference

Aspiring art conservators from across the country will converge on Buffalo State April 10–12 for the 40th annual conference of the Association of North American Graduate Programs in Conservation (ANAGPIC). 

Participants hail from New York University, Harvard University, Columbia University, Queen’s University in Canada, the University of Delaware, the University of California, Los Angeles, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Since its inception, ANAGPIC, which Buffalo State helped found, has held yearly conferences in different venues to provide art conservation graduate students the opportunity to present current research to their peers and for professional art conservators to share ideas and trends.

"It's great for us to have the chance every year to get a pulse on what’s happening in the field, including new methods of conservation and exciting artistic discoveries," said Patrick Ravines, professor and director of art conservation. "We're happy to have the opportunity to host this year's conference. We've planned events in the Darwin Martin House, the Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which will connect with people dealing with objects as well as historic buildings."

The theme of this year's conference is "Extreme Conservation," which Ravines describes as conservation carried out in extreme environments or with huge objects. Think aircraft carriers and Antarctica.

Lizzie Meek, who serves as the program manager for artifacts at the Antarctic Heritage Trust, will deliver the keynote talk, "Ice-Axes and Fingerless Gloves—Extreme Conservation in Antarctica," on April 12 at 8:30 a.m. in the Ciminelli Recital Hall at Rockwell Hall. Other speakers include Alan Phenix, scientist with the Getty Conservation Institute, and Malcolm Collum, chief conservator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

During the conference, students also will have the chance to engage in student/faculty exchanges that will help them integrate into the profession, Ravines said.

Founded in 1970, Buffalo State’s Art Conservation Department is one of the leading graduate programs of its kind in North America. Accepting only 10 students a year, the competitive program educates conservators of fine art and material cultural heritage. Program graduates can be found in the conservation labs of major institutions across the United States, including the Smithsonian Institute, the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.