University of Delaware Art Conservation Programs

01/17/2025

Riley Thomas, a third-year WUDPAC fellow in objects conservation, has been hard at work at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) in Boston, MA treating these 16th century gilded wooden panels from Southern Germany. Originally thought to be part of a larger piece, or perhaps from choir stalls in a church, these panels now hang on either side of the fireplace in the Dutch Room.

This treatment is part of a multi-year project ongoing at the ISGM to restore the Dutch Room to Isabella Stewart Gardner’s original vision. For more information on this floor-to-ceiling restoration, check out: https://www.gardnermuseum.org/dutch-room-restoration

Images:
1. Riley cleaning the gilded halo over Joseph in a scene of the Nativity.
2. Riley doing a rolled paper fill for the pest holes in Nativity.
3. Resurrection (left) and Nativity (right) in the lab during treatment.

01/07/2025

Come learn simple methods to protect, clean and repair your treasured objects. With the guidance of conservators from the University of Delaware you will work on your own treasures. A treasure no larger than a brown paper grocery bag that is in need of some cleaning or repair is perfect for this event. (No broken electronics please.) Attend one, two or all three of the workshops in this series. Maximum of six participants in each workshop. To discuss your object contact Anisha Gupta, [email protected], or Joelle Wickens, [email protected].

Click the link in our bio to register!

12/24/2024

Season’s greetings and happy holidays from the WUDPAC first-year students (and their textile-block felt creations)! ☃️🎁🌟🕯️

We’ll see you all in the new year for another fun and busy semester! ✨

12/20/2024

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, third-year WUDPAC fellow in furniture conservation Sarah Beach has gotten extensive hands on experience in disaster recovery. Whether it be helping local artists recover work from their flooded studio, or cleaning ecclesiastical furniture from Richard Morris Hunts only surviving church, Sarah has helped the community in Asheville, NC reclaim their cultural heritage and begin the long process to rebuild. Read more about Sarah’s work with the Biltmore Estate and the Cathedral of All Souls at the link in our story!

12/13/2024

Textile block for first years has been to DYE for 🤪🧶✨

Images 1-7: a field trip to the and the looking at some incredible textiles and trying our hands at screen printing 🥳

Images 8-10: indigo dyeing! 🪻💧✨

Images 11-13: practicing our color matching skills with various fabric paints 🎨

12/11/2024

Sam Lee, a Library and Archives Conservation minor, has spent her independent study hours this semester crafting a variey of historical book models. Through these models, Sam has grown her skills in traditional bookbinding methods. Swipe to see Sam working on her 18th century full leather binding!

1: Paring leather using an english paring knife
2: Using a Schärffix to thin leather
3: 18th century book model ready to be covered
4: Calf-skin leather, prepared to cover the book model
5: Glair and ferrous sulphate to be used to decorate the final leather binding

12/02/2024

Dr. Joelle Wickens, Assistant Professor of Preventive Conservation, and PhD candidate Anisha Gupta will be leading two clinics for the wider Delaware community called "Caring for Your Treasured items"!

The clinics will be held at the Route 9 Library and Innovation Center:
Wednesday, December 11 @6:30pm
Saturday, December 14

In these workshops, Dr. Wickens and Anisha will guide participants in the preservation of the objects they hold dear. The 2-hour clinics will connect community members with UD conservators and will provide them with storage materials and informational resources on hands-on preservation tips and techniques to use at home.

All are welcome! To participate, 🔗Click the link in our bio to register🔗 and bring an object you love, through which you have been able to connect to a piece of your history.

11/27/2024

Our first years are thinking about more animals than just turkeys this week! ✨

Pictures 1-5: learning how to spin wool from the fuzziest guest lecturers 🐰🐇 🧶

Pictures 6-13: last week’s field trip to the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science 🐻‍❄️🐘🪸🐚✨

11/19/2024

Second-Year WUDPAC Paper Majors, Sam Callanta and Sam Lee, have participated in a wide variety of seminars this semester, learning from Senior Paper Conservator, Crystal Maitland, and multiple guest lecturers. In these seminars, they have learned about paper bathing and humidification, created hydrogels and rigid gels, and discussed incorporating Eastern papermaking tools into Western conservation practice, among many other things. Swipe to see what adventures the Sams have gotten up to!

Image 1: Removing washed objects from baths and using different drying techniques to dry them
Image 2: Examining various hydrogels
Image 3: Caring for Japanese brushes
Image 4: Comparing different papers' reactions to passive humidification

11/15/2024

Feathers, horn, and hair, oh my 😮🪶🦚🐐🦏

Organics block for the first year students has been filled with some spectacular show and tell study objects! 🤩

Image 1: observing iridescent and non-iridescent feathers under the microscope. 🪶

Image 2: looking at various objects made from horn 🐏

Image 3-4: Victorian hair jewelry 💇‍♀️

Image 5: analyzing peacock feathers under the microscope 🦚

Image 6: learning all things tortoiseshell 🐢

11/13/2024

Second-Year WUDPAC Paintings Majors have spent the past few months creating gorgeous reproduction artworks under the tutelage of Professor Brian Baade! The goal of creating these reproductions is for the students to familiarize themselves with historic painting techniques and materials.

Second-Years Zoe Avery, Tatiana Shannon, and Taryn Nurse have hand-mixedn pigments, prepared wooden panels, and perfected traditional techniques such as pastiglia and water gilding.

🎨Image 1: Zoe Avery beginning her oil painting on canvas
🖼️Image 2: Tatiana Shannon mulling yellow ochre
🖌️Image 3: Taryn Nurse gilding her sgrafitoed panel

11/10/2024

🌶Objects conservator and affiliated associate professor, Lauren Fair, waxes lead sculptures around the Winterthur estate with a special ingredient to deter squirrels (who like to chew on lead...).

11/05/2024

This Saturday, the Conservation department put on a workshop for a group of 11 Curatorial Track PhD Art History students entitled “Detective Art History: Art & Material Sciences”. In this workshop, Winterthur conservators, scientists, and graduate students discussed conservation projects in which they used technical analysis and close looking to discover new insights! Curatorial students learned how material science and conservation assessments have led to the re-evaluation of those objects’ histories, provenances, dates of manufacture, and conditions.

10/29/2024

It's almost "Ask a Conservator" Day!

On Friday, November 1, conservators from around the globe will be rallying on social media to answer YOUR questions about conservation, the life of a conservator, and any other questions you have about this field!

This year, the theme is "A Day in the Life." On Friday, the WUDPAC first-years will be posting a short video explaining the 9-5 of a first year graduate student.

And check out our story! Every day this week, we will have question box up for you to put YOUR questions about art conservation! No question is too small!

10/25/2024

Third-year WUDPAC fellow Brittany Murray has been busy at her internship at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. She spent the last few weeks constructing a large clamshell box for the richly illuminated Faites et Dictes by Valerius Maximus, part of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection.

1. An image of Faites et Dictes and the original leather box.

2. Faites et Dictes in a freshly cut four flap enclosure. Next to the book is the bottom tray of the clamshell box, drying under weight.

3. For the spine of the box, the title, author, place of publication, and year of publication were stamped in gold foil on split leather. Next to the leather is a mat board mock-up stamped using carbon paper, to ensure the letters are in the correct orientation.

4. The cover boards of the clamshell box with the spine leather attached, next to the original box.

5. The final product! A 3/4 view of the clamshell box, closed.

6. A view of the open box with Faites et Dictes inside.

7. An open view of the book, turned to an illuminated page.

10/18/2024

Library block is in full swing for the first year students! 📚📕📖

Image 1: Jody Beenk from the Weissman Preservation Center at Harvard discussing East Asian binding styles.

Image 2: Rachel Bissonnette from the Folger Shakespeare Library discussing the topic of Islamicate bindings.

Images 3-4: Students working on their case-binding cut-away models. 🖌️📔

Images 5-7: A fun and messy day learning the art of western paper marbling from Dr. Melissa Tedone and Karissa Muratore.🎨✨

10/17/2024

Abby Lichtenwalner, UD art conservation and art history major, with a minor in museum studies, shares her thoughts with the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs (HCA), its supporters, and its newsletter subscribers through a series of articles her and her fellow museum studies students wrote proposing ideas for the Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site near Newark, DE.

Students from the University of Delaware learning what it takes to develop plans for a historic site will be sharing their thoughts with the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs (HCA), its supporters, and its newsletter subscribers through a series of articles the students penned abo...

10/08/2024

Treatments are underway for the WUDPAC 2026 cohort! The second-years are beginning work on their semester-long treatment projects, and over the past few weeks, they've been sharing their research on public-facing tours.

Tours of the Winterthur conservation labs will be held from 1:30-2:30 on October 16th, December 11th, January 13th, March 14th, and April 9th. To sign up for a tour or have questions about pre-program conservation tours, please contact WUDPAC Fellows Sam Lee (she/hers) and Zoe Avery (she/hers) at [email protected])

----------
In order of appearance:
1) Zoe Avery, Paintings Major
2) Leah Palmer, Objects Major
3) Sam Lee, Paper Major
4) Daisy Diamond, Objects Major