The Conservation Center at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to strengthen the Center’s mission to provide future conservators with the premier graduate-level training and education in the country.
The Conservation Center at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to strengthen the Center’s mission to provide future conservators with the premier graduate-level training and education in the country.
The two-year grant for the project, Conservation Training and Education: The Future of Humanities Stewardship, supports financial aid for six conservation graduate students and helps pay for guest lecturers and adjunct faculty from some of the country’s leading cultural institutions.
The NEH grant enhances the 55-year-old Conservation Center’s reputation as a leader in art conservation training. The Center’s students combine diverse skills in science, art history and studio art to care for and preserve our cultural heritage. During their four-year program, they work alongside professional conservators and cultural heritage experts at major institutions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History, and archaeological sites such as Samothrace, Greece and Abydos, Egypt. The IFA is the only program in the United States that awards its graduates a dual master’s degree in art history and conservation.
“The NEH shows great foresight in recognizing the importance of training in the stewardship of humanities collections,” said Patricia Rubin, Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director of the IFA. “They are investing in the future of a profession that is invested in our cultural past.”
“As one of the world’s great artistic hubs, New York has always attracted the best and the brightest talent,” said Brook Gesser, senior advisor to U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who has been a steady advocate of federal arts and cultural funding in Congress. “The work the IFA will create with this award will no doubt contribute to the rich cultural vitality of our state.”
“We’re fortunate that the NEH has identified our program as essential to the future of our collective heritage,” said Dr. Hannelore Roemich, Chairman and Professor of Conservation Science at the IFA. “This grant allows us to accept the most promising students and appoint the most outstanding professionals in the field to teach them. The National Endowment for the Humanities has been a significant supporter of the
Conservation Center and the Institute of Fine Arts for over two decades, substantially contributing to our goal of training conservators and helping to advance our educational mission.”
About the NYU Institute of Fine Arts
The Institute of Fine Arts is an international leader in research and graduate teaching, and committed to global engagement and advancing the fields of art history, archaeology, and the theory and practice of conservation. New York City, with its incomparable resources and vitality, provides a backdrop and extended campus for the IFA’s activities. Work takes place on-site and beyond our walls through fieldwork, off-site teaching, cultural advocacy, and curatorial and conservation collaborations.