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Workshop

Craft and Conservation Workshop Amer­i­can Insti­tute for Conser­va­tion and Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

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Craft and Conser­va­tion,” June 10 – 13, 2025. This work­ship will gather emerg­ing furni­ture makers and furni­ture conser­va­tors to build shared knowl­edge and dialogue about making furni­ture, how it was made, and approaches for its long-term care.
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June 10 – 13, 2025, Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, Winterthur, DE

Instruc­tors: David Bayne, Kathy Z. Gillis, and Gregory J. Landrey

Conser­va­tion profes­sion­als need to be able to iden­tify the historic tech­niques used in the making of the object they are treat­ing. Furni­ture conser­va­tors need to recog­nize the wood­work­ing abil­i­ties of the orig­i­nal maker as well as the tech­niques used by subse­quent restor­ers. Furni­ture makers need to under­stand the long-term effects of their wood­work­ing prac­tices and under­stand how their work will change or be viewed over time. This work­shop will work with the premise that each of these groups can contribute to the other’s knowl­edge and to the dialogue concern­ing when, where, and by whom furni­ture was and is made.

The Craft and Conser­va­tion work­shop will gather five emerg­ing furni­ture-making profes­sion­als [EFPs] includ­ing students, and five emerg­ing conser­va­tion profes­sion­als [ECPs], includ­ing students, for a mutual learn­ing expe­ri­ence. Guided by conser­va­tion and museum profes­sion­als, the group will examine repre­sen­ta­tive pieces from Winterthur’s collec­tion and iden­tify wood­work­ing tech­niques incor­po­rated within them. Follow­ing obser­va­tions and assess­ing the likely tools used in fabri­ca­tion, partic­i­pants will prac­tice the same tech­niques using the same tools. 

Each day will lead to discus­sion about the contri­bu­tions that can be made by the furni­ture makers to the field of conser­va­tion in provid­ing the conser­va­tors with the perspec­tive of a furni­ture maker, includ­ing aspects of train­ing of the orig­i­nal crafts­men. Corre­spond­ingly, conser­va­tors can share approaches that can contribute to the care and longevity of both antique and contem­po­rary furni­ture. This sharing of perspec­tives will allow both groups to become more cognizant of prin­ci­ples perti­nent to their respective professions.

The work­shop will draw heavily on resources avail­able at Winterthur, includ­ing library mate­ri­als and allied profes­sion­als. Both ECPS and EFPs will benefit from estab­lish­ing rela­tion­ships in allied fields. All partic­i­pants will engage in inten­sive exam­i­na­tion of a select group of furni­ture in Winterthur’s collec­tion as well as hands-on activ­i­ties in the workshop.

Inter­ested indi­vid­u­als must apply by March 31, 2025. Regis­tra­tion to partic­i­pate is free and each partic­i­pant will receive a $1,000 stipend. 

This work­shop is orga­nized and supported in part by the Wooden Arti­facts Group (WAG) of the Amer­i­can Insti­tute for Conser­va­tion (AIC).

Addi­tional funding for this program comes from a grant from the National Endow­ment for the Human­i­ties and the Foun­da­tion for Advance­ment in Conser­va­tion (FAIC) Endow­ment for Profes­sional Devel­op­ment, which was created by a grant from the Mellon Foun­da­tion and is supported by dona­tions from members of the Amer­i­can Insti­tute for Conser­va­tion (AIC) and its friends. Work­shops are made possi­ble with the assis­tance of many AIC members, but no AIC member­ship dues were used to create or present this workshop.

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