Reunion
Weekend and Conference
"Educated at Winterthur: A Half Century of Achievement"
September 21-22, 2001
Keynote Address
The Winterthur Programs,
'51 to '01: Are We There Yet?
by
Charles F. Hummel (WPEAC '55)
(as
presented on September 21, 2001)
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(page 12) 4. Facilities and Equipment: In the past ten years or so, space dedicated to use by the graduate programs has shrunk considerably. Classroom space is now virtually limited to the Belknap Room in the Research Building, with notoriously poor acoustics, and Room 204 in the South Wing, with poor ventilation, soundproofing, and ceiling height for projection of images. The Museum's program needs make use of the Rotunda difficult, and the losses of Somerset Room, Bowers Parlor, and Charleston Dining Room as meeting places for staff and the graduate programs has heightened competition for space. The Student Lounge on the second floor of the Research Building, in theory, must accommodate the needs of forty graduate students each year. The space and equipment in it might be satisfactory for ten or fifteen students. Both WPEAC and WUDPAC are in need of improved color printers, flatbed scanners, digital and video imaging systems, and for WUDPAC, coupling the latter with optical microscopy systems. These and Analytical Laboratory equipment needs should be met if all students are to become familiar with new techniques for examining and interpreting objects. Television cameras, computer/slide links, and digital imaging are only a few examples of technology with which our graduate students must be familiar in order to analyze, interpret, and care for our material culture heritage. 5. Curricula: WUDPAC needs to develop new courses in conservation management, electronic media presentation, furniture conservation, and preventive conservation. All three programs need additional funding for travel and research relating to significant public and private collections of material culture. Such funding is required for both students and faculty. Any thinking professional understands that it is impossible to provide a lifetime's requirements for training personnel within a period of two or three years. As noted in a recent Getty Conservation Institute article, "The acquisition of skills and knowledge is not confined to the relatively brief period of formal training leading to some qualifications. It is an educational process that continues throughout a professional career. That process must be accommodated within and fostered by the administrative structure in order to ensure professional standards." Approximately forty years ago, Ted Richardson, speaking at a Smithsonian Institution conference, "The Museums and Education," touched on the need for in-service training. He stated that, "knowledge, concepts and techniques of professional life need periodic upgrading. Perhaps it will be necessary to send museum people back to school every ten years to be brought up to date in their own fields . . . . The narrowness of vision and insularity of which learned men and women can be capable are notorious." Winterthur
and the University need to provide leadership in the area of
mid-level career courses for the graduates of the three
co-sponsored programs. |
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