Conservation At F|S
Care of the collections began before the museum came into existence as Charles Lang Freer, the founder of the Freer Gallery of Art, hired Japanese painting restorers to care for his works and to prepare them for their eventual home as part of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1932, the Freer Gallery of Art hired a full-time Japanese restorer and created what was to become the East Asian Painting Conservation Studio. The Technical Laboratory, and the first use of scientific methods for the study of art at the Smithsonian Institution, started in 1951 when the chemist Rutherford J. Gettens moved from the Fogg Museum at Harvard University to the Freer. The East Asian Painting Conservation Studio and the Technical Laboratory merged in 1990 to form the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research.
The conservators in the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research care for and treat works of art in the collection and prepare them for exhibition. Conservation-restoration at the Freer|Sackler is broken into four sections: Asian Paintings(one of the only East Asian painting conservation studios in the United States devoted to using traditional methods), Objects, Paper, and Exhibitions. Together they work to ensure the long-term preservation and storage, safe handling, exhibition, and transport of artworks in the permanent collection, as well as those on loan.
Conservators are responsible for conducting technical examinations of objects already in the collection and those under consideration for acquisition. They also collaborate frequently with the department’s scientists on technical and applied research. Training and professional outreach efforts are an integral part of the department’s commitment to educating future conservators, museum professionals, and the public about conservation.
Read more about this topic: Freer Gallery Of Art
Famous quotes by conservation at f|s:
“Conservation must become before recreation.”
—Prince Charles (b. 1948)
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)
“A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“The putting into force of laws which shall secure the conservation of our resources, as far as they may be within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, including the more important work of saving and restoring our forests and the great improvement of waterways, are all proper government functions which must involve large expenditure if properly performed.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)