Buffalo State’s Art Conservation Department will open its doors and share its talents with the community during the annual Art Conservation Clinic, Friday, September 25, from 9:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the north wing of Rockwell Hall.
This reservation-only event has been full for weeks and speaks to the much-desired services that the graduate art conservation program provides. Individuals who have made appointments will bring in paintings, ceramics, historical documents, photographs, sculptures, and other artifacts to be evaluated by students and members of the art conservation faculty.
“The clinic is a very important project for our department,” said Patrick Ravines, associate professor and art conservation program director. “The conservation treatments that we accept provide the raw materials for teaching and real-life projects for our students.”
Visitors bring family-owned art, as well as art from museums, archives, and other collecting institutions. Students and faculty will examine the pieces to see if they lend themselves to conservation treatment within the one or two years usually allocated for the projects.
“Basically, the pieces have to meet the art conservation criteria—not too easy and not too complicated,” Ravines said. “One student is assigned to each piece under the supervision of a faculty member to work on over the next year or more.”
The Art Conservation Department has offered the conservation clinic to private collectors and institutions in Western New York since the program moved to Buffalo State from Cooperstown in 1987. It has remained a popular service that benefits all parties.
“It provides students with tremendous work experience maintaining the cultural heritage of a community,” Ravines said. “And members of the public have access to quality conservation treatments for a fraction of what a private conservator would charge.”
The department will hold its open house on Saturday, October 17, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (no reservation required, open to the public).
