CONSERVATION SCIENCES
FOR ART, ARCHITECTURE, ARCHIVES AND ARCHAEOLOGY
At the intersection of art and science, heritage and legacy
Teaching: Courses and Workshops
What goes into the art, science, and practice of permanence?
What get preserved? How? Why? Who decides? What is lost?
These courses explore how science and technologies are changing how we understand, preserve, and disseminate our civilizations’ creative expressions in the arts and cultural heritage.
Current Courses at:
Art Conservation major at Scripps College, Claremont, CA
These courses use current events, history, science, and technology to examine a wide range of interdisciplinary issues related to the past and future of cultural heritage. The possibilities are diverse and endless, since the topic is those parts of our civilizations worth preserving, which range from art collections, archaeology, architecture, and archives to intangible heritage (languages, cuisine, dance, etc.), as well as historic cities and sites. Add climate change, pollution, development, and tourism impacts, and it starts to broaden into what might be more accurately called Cultural Sustainability Science. A common thread to all of these things worth preserving is that they are being monitored, measured, and turned into digital objects starting slowly, but now at an increasingly rapid rate.
Examples include using computer science to read an intact ancient library of carbonized scrolls, rediscovering ancient methods for making a blue pigment, sourcing recently looted antiquities using forensic science, and prolonging the life of World Heritage by studying risks, ranging from microbes to earthquakes, and the breath of tourists to flash floods. These courses have attracted participants from over 35 majors and are designed to appeal to those contemplating career options as researchers, managers, and practitioners, as well as those who would like to explore these topics for their own sake. They also work to illuminate the many connections between our evolving science & technology, and our understanding and preservation of valuable heritage, whether it’s a classic car or a de Kooning, Venice or a Van Gogh. Even intangible heritage is coming to the fore, with classic recipes being preserved and travels chronicled.
Art Conservation 115 Art Crime: Plunder, Fakes and Forensics
(Spring 2020, Spring 2017, and Fall 2014 at Scripps College; Spring 2016 at Occidental College)
Art Conservation 101: Introduction to Art Conservation
(Spring 2018, Fall 2012, Spring 2011 - Scripps College)
Art Conservation 110: Artists’ Materials—Ancient and Modern
(Spring 2019, Fall 2016, Fall 2013, Fall 2011 - Scripps College)
Art Conservation 120: Global Tourism, Climate Change, and World Heritage Preservation
(Fall 2018, Fall 2015, Fall 2011 - Scripps College)
Art Conservation 125: Preserving Cultural Landscapes
(Spring 2016 - Scripps College)
Art Conservation 144: Capturing Art: Digital Preservation and Analysis in 100 Objects
Mellon Foundation funded Digital Humanities Course, 5C, The Claremont Colleges (Fall 2019, Fall 2017 - Scripps College)
Workshops and Short Courses Taught:
1. Salts and Desalination talk, February19, 2016 New Orleans, LA Salts of the Earth: Conservation of Historic Masonry Impacted by Salts and Rising Damp - A Symposium of the Louisiana Museum Foundation, Lecture and Panel Discussion.
2. Lecture, Workshop and Panel Discussion: American Museum of Ceramic Art – AMOCA - Ceramics Conservation Workshop, Pomona, CA; Feb 22, 2014; http://www.amoca.org/ceramic-conservation-workshop/
3. Invited lecture, workshop and panel discussion, “Salinization and damage to historic materials: New Orleans, Venice and Adelaide” Oct 25-26, 2013, Galveston Historical Foundation, Rising Damp Symposium; http://ncptt.nps.gov/blog/rising-damp-symposium
4. Lecturer for Master-Doctorate Course: Global Change and Risks to Cultural Heritage, Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France, Palais du Louvre, Paris, 10-14 Sept 2012, EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement, University of Cergy Pontoise, Centro Universitario Europeo per i Beni Culturali.
5. Developed and taught three PATRIMA Project Short Courses, University of Cergy-Pontoise, France, as Cultural Heritage Chair in 2012
1. Measuring Change in Artist Materials
2. A new toolbox for Art Conservation:
Connecting research and practice with Internet and social networking tools
3. Climate Change, Sustainability and Heritage Preservation
6. Desalination Workshop, New Orleans: Lead Scientist and Co-Organizer: Poultice Desalination of Porous Building Materials Workshop https://www.getty.edu/conservation/our_projects/education/sci_series/poultice_workshop.html
7. Lecturer for The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property in Rome (ICCROM–UNESCO). Venice Stone Conservation Course, May, 2009: Weathering and Treatment of Stone.
8. Instructor for Field Course, sponsored and hosted by ARCE.org, in Luxor, Egypt on Stone Conservation and the Treatment of Salt Weathering and Rising Damp. I created a two-week lecture/lab/field course for 25 conservation technicians working for the Ministry of Antiquities. January/February 2010.
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