Caring for the Collection: Art Conservation at the ISAC Museum

Caring for the Collection: Art Conservation at the ISAC Museum

Mondays, November 10–December 8, 6pm–8pm CST (Class will not meet the week of Thanksgiving, on November 24), live on Zoom and recorded to watch later

Instructor: Alison Whyte, MA, MAC, Senior Conservator, ISAC Museum

$196 (non-members), $157 (members), $78 (ISAC volunteers and docents and UChicago alumni), $49 (UChicago, Lab, Charter students, faculty, and staff)

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Read more about a past class taught by Alison Whyte in UChicago Magazine here

Course Description:

Have you ever wondered why the lights are so low in museum exhibits? Or why you can’t bring food and drinks into museum galleries? Or what goes on behind the scenes in a museum to keep a priceless ancient collection available for future generations to enjoy?

Explore the art and science of museum conservation with ISAC Senior Conservator Alison Whyte. Learn about the history of art conservation and how the discipline has evolved over time. Explore preventive techniques used by conservators to stop, or at least delay, the deterioration of art objects. Gain insight into the cutting edge analytical techniques used by conservators to examine works of art. Finally, get a glimpse of the step by step process of a typical conservation treatment.

Through a combination of virtual classroom sessions and virtual gallery tours, students will develop an understanding of modern art conservation and its history. This understanding will be punctuated with real life examples from the ISAC Museum collection.

Course Objectives:

▪ Students will learn the historical roots of modern art conservation and will understand how past choices influence present art conservation methodology

▪ Students will learn about select agents of deterioration that affect museum collections and what measures museum professionals take to combat them

▪ Students will be introduced to the kinds of analytical techniques used by conservators and what is involved in a typical conservation treatment

*Important Note: this course is NOT an art conservation training program. Students will not learn art conservation treatment skills or techniques*

ISAC Classes are all online and approximately a week before class starts, all class participants will receive an invitation to join CANVAS, the University of Chicago's online web platform. This platform is where students can download readings, join live Zoom meetings, and watch recordings of the class.

Instructor Bio:

Alison Whyte is senior conservator of objects at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago where she has specialized in the preservation of archaeological material from West Asia and North Africa since 2001. A professional associate of the American Institute for Conservation, she is a graduate of the Queen’s University Master of Art Conservation Program and holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and a M.A. in Ancient Studies from the University of Toronto. In addition to her on-site work at ISAC, Alison has participated in field projects in Italy, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, Afghanistan, Spain, and Uzbekistan.