Colloquium on conservation of organs

Historic Organs Reconsidered: Restoration and Conservation for a New
Century
Historic St. Luke's
Smithfield, Virginia
January 15-16, 1999

The Colloquium focuses on the goals and ethics of  organ
restoration.  It attempts to give balanced attention to both the
long and unbroken tradition of organ restoration, and to current
methods and standards of conservation. The colloquium, consisting of
scholarly papers and panel discussions, immediately precedes a
separate meeting of four specialists who are consulting on treatment
of the important 1630 English chamber organ at Historic St. Luke's
(HSL) near Smithfield, Virginia. The HSL organ is under
consideration for conservation or restoration and forms a backdrop
for dialog about the broader issues of organ restoration among
specialists in the musical and cultural history of organs, the
traditional restoration of organs, and the conservation of organs.
These related, but separate and sometimes fractious, sectors stand
to gain much from a future partnership. The colloquium is designed
to be a collaboration rather than a competition, and the best
possible outcome will be for organ restoration and conservation to
become increasingly informed by the insights of all interested
disciplines.

Venue: The two-day colloquium will take place at Historic St. Luke's
in Smithfield, Virginia. Sessions will be in and near the original
brick Gothic, early 17th-century St. Luke's Church with its
contemporaneous 1630 chamber organ. Appropriately,
this re-consideration of  the diverse musical and historical issues
of organ restoration takes place at a site that itself bridges the
disparate identities of church and museum.

A post-session visit to the extensive new conservation laboratories
of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation will follow the colloquium on
January 17. Participants will tour the labs and examine two
18th-century organs.

Speakers: Nineteen specialists from seven countries will give
presentations at the Colloquium. Among the speakers are Robert
Barclay of CCI; Dominic Gwynn of Goetze & Gwynn, Nottinghamshire,
England; Barbara Owen, founder and president of the Organ Historical
Society; John Watson of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; Darcy
Kruonen of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; and Goran Grahn of
Stiftelsen Musikkulturens Framjande, Sweden.

Participation is Limited to 40-50 and is by invitation or by
application. Participants are selected to include a balanced variety
of professionals in organ history, organ restoration, restoration
consulting, conservation, and material and musical-instrument
history.

A resource notebook containing abstracts and handouts for the
colloquium will be provided to all participants. The notebook will
also include a generous collection of reference documents, treatment
reports, restoration guidelines, codes of conservation ethics,
relevant articles, and other resources recommended by the invited
participants.

A publication on the broad issues of organ conservation and
restoration will be prepared and will include contributions from
colloquium presenters and others.

For More Information,
contact

    John Watson (Program Chair)
    Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
    PO Box 1776
    Williamsburg, VA 23187
    757-565-8594
    Fax: 757-565-8907
    jwatson [at] cwf__org

or
    Richard L. Austin (Registrar)
    Curator
    Historic St. Luke's Church
    14477 Benn's Church Blvd.
    Smithfield, VA  23430
    757-357-3367
    olsen [at] infi__net

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:37
                 Distributed: Friday, October 16, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-37-004
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