John Krill Receives 2007 Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award

The Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award, granted by the American Institute for Conservation, recognizes a sustained record of excellence in the education and training of conservation professionals. We are proud to report that the 2007 recipient of this esteemed award was John Krill. John received his award at the American Institute for Conservation’s annual conference held April 16-20th in Richmond, Virginia.

John is a gifted conservation educator, renowned paper historian and public speaker; he has taught in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) for 25 years. Nearly 250 graduate students have benefited from John’s highly organized, comprehensive and creative 14-day paper conservation block taught to first year students in the WUDPAC program. The block covers the history of materials, connoisseurship, and treatment procedures for works of art on paper. John has also trained and mentored 71 students who have majored or minored in paper conservation during his tenure. These students are now in leading paper conservation laboratories and involved in research and preservation advocacy initiatives throughout the United States, including the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, the Library of Congress, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

Selected comments from John’s 2002-06 student evaluations are listed below:

“John was very well prepared for each class and always had examples of paper objects for us to look at. John’s obvious enthusiasm for the subject through the course was very important to me and made the class very enjoyable.”

“John is a wonderful teacher, very organized. Excellent!”

“The greatest gift John Krill passes on to his students is a respect for paper. This lesson is the seed from which successful paper conservators grow.”