Arts Playlist: Multifaceted program aims to improve diversity in art conservation

By Kyle McKinnon

Published September 29, 2023 at 10:34 AM EDT

Dr. Rosie Grayburn (right) and graduate student Yan Ling Choi examine the elemental composition of the pigments on “Helen’s Scrapbook House” using non-destructive X-ray fluorescence  analysis.

A group of 10 students from historically black colleges and universities recently completed a summer art conservation course at the University of Delaware designed to increase diversity in the field.

The program included two weeks of training on conservation at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, followed by an internship in conservation labs working to preserve cultural artifacts and works of art.

In this edition of Arts Playlist, Delaware Public Media’s Kyle McKinnon is joined by the program’s coordinator Nina Owczarek and University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff junior Dorian Henry to discuss the importance of increasing diversity in art conservation.

UD's Nina Owczarek, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff's Dorian Henry, and Bank of America's Chip Rossi break down the importance of art conservation with Delaware Public Media’s Kyle McKinnon

A group of HBCU students benefit during a University of Delaware art conservancy program.

Over the summer, 10 students from HBCUs and minority serving institutions studied art conservation through the University of Delaware.

The program seeks to expand diversity in the profession.Art conservation is more than the name implies. UD Program coordinator Nina Owczarek suggests the profession is expansive.

“But it encompasses a lot more. We do examinations, documentation, preventive care - if you can prevent it from breaking to begin with, then you’re a lot better off. Then we are also engaged in research and education."

Following two weeks of training on fundamentals at the Winterthur Museum, the students interned in conservation labs working to preserve artifacts and works of art.

The program is supported by a $500,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation.

Dorian Henry, a junior at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, worked alongside the Winterthur team of 25 conservators.

“It was helpful in a curatorial way, too, because we helped with the Ann Lowe exhibition and we got to install and write condition reports and things like that. These are things I’ve never done before. It was getting that experience that was the best thing.”

Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.