IFA Receives $1 Million from Leon Levy Foundation for Student Fellowships

By Richard Pierce

      The Conservation Center at NYU’s Institute for Fine Arts (IFA) recently announced that it received a $1 million grant from the Levy Foundation to advance graduate training in archaeological conservation. The grant creates 15 Leon Levy Fellowships at the institute to support promising students enrolled in the center’s four-year training program. It also establishes five Leon Levy Visiting Fellowships, which will be awarded over five years to one individual each year who specializes in the conservation of archaeological materials of the ancient world—western Mediterranean to China.
      “The material heritage of the ancient world is vast, as are the conservation needs of archaeological artifacts and sites,” says Michele Marincola, interim director at the IFA and Sherman Fairchild Chairman of the Conservation Center. “To properly care for this tangible part of our history requires highly skilled and educated archaeological conservators, both in the U.S. and internationally. With the additional resources that the Levy Foundation gift provides, NYU hopes to make a global impact by training conservators who are prepared to deal with the complex challenges posed by archaeological sites and artifacts.”
      The IFA believes it is uniquely positioned to advance training in this field. It has a premier graduate program in conservation, distinguished faculty in art history and archaeology, and numerous opportunities for training and research in the field, including IFA-sponsored excavations at Samo¬thrace in Greece, Selinunte in Italy, Aphrodisias in Turkey, and Abydos in Egypt.
      “Conservation initiatives, such as this one to train skilled conservators, are critical in preserving history’s most important treasures,” says Shelby White, founding trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation. “In that context, we are delighted to support the Institute of Fine Arts in training the next generation of archaeological conservators.”