Art CONSERVATION

I am sure some of my closest friends still do not understand what it is I am going to school for and why it prompted me to move all the way across the country from the comfortable north west. So here is some info about art conservation, what it means, what it is, and why I am so dedicated to it.

Art conservation is NOT restoration. The simple difference is that when a piece is restored it is restored to its original state, meaning that any foreign material is used to bring something back to its original pristine state. Sometimes, these foreign materials can do more harm than good. (It is just remaking an object with out the concern of preservation in mind.)
Conservation is making sure the object no longer deteriorates. This means that great amounts of research goes into an object before any type of treatment is done, even cleaning. Understanding the history of the object (what is made out of, why, where it has been, how and why it was damaged) is important to make educated decisions about what materials will be appropriate to use in its conservation treatment. All materials added to an object should be removable, so in the future it is possible to bring an object back to the state it was in before conservation treatment, if needed.

That is the simple explanation and I will not go further and bore you with the ethical issues or what preventative conservation is, but you may ask, or google it. This is a somewhat new field, and not many schools offer art conservation as a program, why I am all the way in Delaware. This is really one of the last jobs available that one would apprentice for, and why I already have 3 internships upon graduation.

I hope to go to grad school with a focus in paper and photography. Which are 2 different fields, but are similar in process treatments and chemistry. When most people think of art conservation they think of painting conservators like Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters 2. But paintings are full of chemicals that are so bad for the body that I have chosen to just not go that direction. There are SO many objects (not just paintings) that are apart of our cultural history that are soon going to be lost with out care. I became interested in this field while researching the destruction of the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan. There WAS some of the oldest pieces of history there and today it is still being used as a bunker in war. I came into the field wanting to help preserve history and culture, especially from one that was and still is being destroyed.

There will always be a need for paper conservators because of all the important documents that have to stick around and a photograph is so important because it can give a glimpse into a past world, and the chemicals used during these processes are not as harmful on my sensitive system. I won't be able to go to Afghanistan one day and help in all the rummage, but I can focus on other important articles of cultural history.

There is so much that I have left out, but now you are educated and can properly say my friend is going to school for art conservation NOT restoration, all the way in nowheresville Newark, Delawhere.

For more info links are to the right. Please ask me questions, I know more than I realize, I just do not know what people want to hear about.