AIC's 47th Annual Meeting

The Fulbright Scholar Program offers conservators the opportunity of sharing their knowledge and experience in distant lands. In the spring of 2018, under the auspices of the Fulbright Specialist Program, I spent six weeks introducing wooden artifact conservation to the students of the Department of Architecture and Conservation at the Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine. This presentation will focus on my experiences, the little-known aspects of Ukraine’s heritage of wooden architecture and artifacts, and the advocacy for conservation and conservation education that became an integral aspect of my visit. My teaching took the form of nine formal lectures, delivered in Ukrainian, which encompassed a comprehensive introduction to the conservation of wooden artifacts. Visiting Ukraine also permitted me to become aware of the scope and depth of Ukraine's culture, such as the 16-18c vernacular wood churches, known as Tserkvas, some of which were designated Unesco World Heritage Sites.    http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1424      

Viewing a repository of literally thousands of renaissance and baroque polychrome sculptures, period icons, paintings, furniture, and metal objects was a revelation. These objects and many others require extensive treatment. While visiting Ukraine, I realized that I had to step outside my strict role as a visiting instructor, and to also become an advocate for a Western attitude toward historic preservation and conservation. This advocacy came to include my participation in numerous conferences and meetings, visits and presentations at many institutions, interviews in major publications, and culminated in an address to Ukraine’s parliament. Also, I realized that preserving Ukraine’s cultural heritage would require a new generation of conservators, so I became an advocate for increasing the scientific component of their art conservation education. One aspect of this was co-organizing a tour of the East Coast conservation institutions for my Ukrainian hosts so that upon their return they could upgrade their university’s conservation curriculum and establish a conservation laboratory.  These items and many more details will be the substance of my presentation.