2:35 p.m., Aug. 22, 2008--The 2008 graduating class of art conservators in the highly regarded Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation is working to save the world's cultural treasures one painting, one sculpture, one print, one document and one artifact at a time.

The nine graduates fanned out to museums and other venues all over the country and overseas to work, to learn and to preserve during summer and yearlong internships and then gathered on Aug. 19 at the Copeland Lecture Hall at Winterthur Museum and Country Estate to give presentations about their experiences and accomplishments.

It was a gala gathering with families, faculty, friends, former art conservation students and others in the audience. Debra Hess Norris, UD vice provost for graduate and professional education, Henry Francis du Pont Chair in Fine Arts and chairperson of the Department of Art Conservation, welcomed the group.

There were then remarks by Gregory Landrey, director of the library, collections management and academic programs at Winterthur, and Tom Apple, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, representing the partnership between the two institutions that sponsor the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.

In his talk Apple said the program was a fusion of art and science and one of the “crown jewels” of the college with dedicated faculty and students. He thanked donors who helped make the program so successful.

Each student gave a talk and slide presentation, and at the end of the day, the incoming Class of 2011 gave a special reception for the outgoing class and guests and presented them with “conservation take-out boxes,” equipped with swab sticks, a whetstone, cotton and a brush rest.

“This has been a fabulous class,” Norris said. “They are dedicated professionals, and also involved in outreach and cooperative projects.”

Joyce Hill Stoner, professor of art conservation and director of the UD Preservation Studies doctoral program, agreed. “This has been an outstanding class-one proof is the excellent fellowships and jobs that have been offered to the students after graduation,” she said.

The graduates of the Class of 2008 are

Debra Breslin, a graduate of Temple University, spent her internship at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Breslin worked on Egyptian funerary art at the Brooklyn Museum and then helped clean and repair a French Empire clock and worked on modern sculpture in Philadelphia. Next year she will work the conservation of arms and armor for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Katie Payne de Chavez is a UD graduate and took her art conservation skills to the Santa Teresa Monastery Museum in Peru, working on polychrome sculptures. In Cleveland this past year, her assignments included restoring 18th-century French doors at the Intermuseum Conservation Association and helping in the treatment of a 50-foot outdoor bronze sculpture. She will work at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center following graduation.

Lauren Cox transferred from Clemson University to UD. She spent her internship in three locations--the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Art in Denver, where she worked on the restoration of a painting of Mount Rainier, followed by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where she helped restore the painted panels of an Italian wedding chest, and the Gianfranco Pocobene Studio, where she helped restore the Turkish Smoking Room at Victoria Mansion in Portland, Maine, cleaning walls and doors, regilding and applying gold leaf to the exotic interior. Next fall, she has a fellowship at the Straus Center of Harvard University (formerly the Fogg Art Museum).

Kristen deGhetaldi was a chemistry major at Grinnell College in Iowa and said the major has been helpful in analyzing and treating paintings. She had a summer internship at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and then moved to the National Gallery of Art, where she treated paintings by Monet and Rothko and others. In addition, she was involved in the loans of paintings, examining them and seeing they were safe to travel and served as a courier, personally taking works of art to Europe. She will return to the National Gallery as a fellow for the next three years.

Amber Kerr-Allison is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. During her years at UD, she has worked on the restoration of a chateau in France and at the National Museum of Illustration housed in a mansion in Newport. R.I. Her internship was at the Lunder Conservation Center at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The center is housed in several glass-enclosed rooms where the public can watch conservators at work to raise awareness about the importance of caring and preserving works of art. Kerr-Allison is returning to the Smithsonian as a fellow.

Jessica Moody, a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, is a paper conservator. She previously had a summer internship at the Rijksmuseum, where she learned European conservation techniques. Her internship was at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia where she was involved in the preservation of various artifacts and papers, including a letter by Benjamin Franklin. She will be a fellow at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia.

Adam Novak is a UD graduate and is a paper conservator. He decided to become an art conservator while on a high school trip to Germany. He has worked at Colonial Williamsburg and last summer worked at the National Conservation Centre in Liverpool, England, and in the Paper Conservation Lab at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which provided him with a solid foundation in paper conservation methods and techniques. He will be a fellow at the Harvard University Straus Center next year.

Courtney Shimoda, a graduate of the University of Alabama with a master's degree from Florida State University, is focusing on Asian paintings on paper. She spent her internship year at the Asian Conservation Studio at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boson, where she treated Japanese woodblock prints, and at the East Asian Painting Conservation Studio at The Freer/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where she treated Asian paintings on paper. She will return there as a fellow.

Samantha Springer is a graduate of McGill University and has a master's degree in art history from Hunter College. She spent her internship year at the Alaska State Museum and Sheldon Jackson Museum, both in Alaska, studying and treating Native American basketry. She then worked in objects conservation at the Art Institute of Chicago and in the anthropology department of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. She has worked a variety of objects from contemporary sculpture to a chess set. She just became the mother of a baby and has to complete two more months of her internship.

Article by Sue Moncure

Photos by Greg Drew