Williamstown Art Conservation Center receives analytical facility support grant

The National Park Service and the National Center for Preservation
Technology and Training (NCPTT) have awarded the Williamstown Art
Conservation Center $49,942 to provide state-of-the-art analytical
services to the national preservation and conservation community.
The project is headed by James Martin, the Center's director of
analytical services and research.  Subsequent phases of the
three-year project will be awarded based upon the availability of
appropriated funds.

The Phase I grant will enable the Center to supplement its present
array of analytical techniques with in-situ FT-IR analysis of small
objects and preparation-free analysis of samples using ATR
microscopy, digital microscopy and image analysis, and much more.
These state-of-the-art techniques will provide conservators,
curators, and collectors more detailed information about objects and
samples at reduced cost.  The hourly rate charged to conservators
and non-profit institutions during Phase I of the project has been
reduced to $63 per hour.

As an established provider of analytical services to the
conservation and preservation community, the Center's analytical
services department provides technical information useful to
scholars, curators and collectors seeking to date or authenticate a
work of art, and to conservators seeking a reliable description of
an artist's materials and techniques, the history of an object's
alteration, and the composition of materials used in treatment and
exhibition.  Since 1991, the department has undertaken more than 370
analytical projects for conservation and preservation firms,
regional conservation centers, museums, galleries and auction
houses, and corporate and private collectors in the United States,
Caribbean, Canada, England, the Middle East, and the Far East.  The
Center will continue to provide analytical services worldwide.
Projects have included the examination and analysis of architectural
finishes, archaeological objects, works on paper, ethnographic
objects, decorative objects, photographic materials, paintings,
sculpture, textiles, wooden artifacts, and materials used for
exhibition, storage, and conservation treatment.

The Williamstown Center's analytical services department was
conceived and is operated by James Martin.  Since 1994, Martin has
been director of analytical services and research as well as an
associate conservator of paintings.  Martin joined the Williamstown
Center in 1989 after receiving his M.S. from the University of
Delaware/Winterthur Program in Art Conservation.  A decade of
conservation experience in condition reporting, treatment, survey,
and facility assessments has provided him with a hands-on knowledge
of artistic and historic works, and the ability to communicate
fluently with conservators, curators, and collectors.  Martin speaks
and publishes regularly on the scientific analysis of works of art,
and instructs at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

For more information on the Center's analytical services, please
contact James Martin at 413-458-5741 or jmartin<-a t->williams< . >edu.

James Martin
Director of Analytical Services and Research
Williamstown Art Conservation Center

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:31
                Distributed: Wednesday, October 1, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-31-009
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