The Mellon Foundation has awarded a $2.1 million grant jointly to the Buffalo, Winterthur, and NYU graduate programs in art conservation to support Library and Archives / Book Conservation training. At Buffalo, we have outlined a program that builds on our existing program in flat paper and book conservation, and on our strength as a program dedicated to a broad-based, hands-on experience. We refer to the program as LACE which stands for Library and Archives Conservation Education.
For the duration of this grant, we have two LACE fellowship positions for members of the incoming class who are interested in library/archives or rare book conservation. These fellows will be offered extra benefits compared to their classmates, in order to encourage these specialties. In addition to a graduate fellowship, the Mellon library/archive grant provides generous summer fellowships and travel allowances. These students also typically have more funding available to them for their third year graduate internship experiences.
Additional opportunities that our LACE fellows have participated in over the past four years include: - Introduction to Paleography and History of Bookbinding courses at Columbia University
- Historical book structures practicum taught by Jeff Peachey
- Rare Book School at the University of Virginia
- Online courses developed exclusively for our LACE students such as Issues in Conserving Archival Collections
- Montefiascone Conservation Workshop
Our students have spent their third-year internships at the Library of Congress, Columbia University Library, National Archives & Records Administration, Weissman Preservation Center at Harvard Libraries, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Boston Athenaeum, New York Universities Library, University Library Leiden in the Netherlands, UCLA Library Conservation Center, New-York Historical Society Library, Stanford University Libraries, and the Folger Shakespeare Library.
For more information on the Library Archives Cohort with Buffalo State, NYU, and Wintherthur/University of Delaware please visit our website.