The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded a $250,000 grant to the Art Conservation Department to provide fellowships. Beneficiaries will include students accepted into the highly selective master’s program in fall 2011. Patrick Ravines, associate professor and director of Art Conservation, is the project director. James Hamm, professor of art conservation and interim director from 2009-2010, prepared the grant proposal.

“We have been without the NEH fellowship support for one year,” said Meredeth Lavelle, senior staff assistant. “We are incredibly grateful to have it back.”

Lavelle noted that graduate-level conservation education programs are threatened by diminished funding. “For example,” she said, “the Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record at the University of Texas at Austin stopped accepting new students last September.” With few institutions even offering the demanding, complex program in art and artifact conservation and preservation, such a loss undermines the United States’ ability to prepare the next generation to care for the nation’s most important cultural treasures.

“Our program, one of only three comprehensive graduate programs in art conservation in the United States, is very demanding,” said Lavelle. “To complete their studies and develop essential hands-on skills, students rely on fellowships. We are very grateful for all support, including, of course, this grant from the NEH.”

The mission of the Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State is to provide its graduate students with an outstanding educational experience that enables them to become intelligent and skilled conservators and responsible custodians of the nation’s works of cultural, historic, and artistic significance.