Concerns about course on paintings conservation

I would like to thank all those who approached me with their
concerns about my upcoming course:"Introduction to the Conservation
and Restoration of Paintings", offered at Hunter College Continuing
Education program.

The main concerns had to do with the practical part of my course
curriculum.

Upon reflection, I can see how there may be a perception for
potential harm in offering some knowledge on the practical aspects
of paintings conservation to a group of beginners. I incorporated
the various expressed concerns and made some important changes to
the curriculum.

As stated in the course description, the theoretical portion of it
will concentrate on the history of this field and historical
techniques with focus on paintings, as well as the Code of Ethics.

Given the fact that a substantial part of the course will address
the history of conservation and its philosophical substrate,
reflected in aesthetic choices, the practical part will focus on
practicing different techniques of color integration with different
materials, on mock ups. This will help the students to understand
the different mind sets behind these choices (tratteggio, neutral
lowering of the tone, mimetic).

I would like to stress again the fact that the School of Continuing
Education doesn't provide a Diploma, so this is an introductory
course that aims at providing preliminary information about our
field.

So far the majority of the people that contacted me were interested
in applying for a Graduate Program:  as the course will progress and
we will have an opportunity to discover who the students are and
their particular interests, further fine tuning of the curriculum
will be in order for the coming semesters.

I hope this will find approval and support in our community.

Maria Scarpini


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:50
                    Distributed: Monday, May 2, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-50-006
                                  ***