BodyText1
For the last five years, WUDPAC has partnered with Voices in Contemporary Art and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation to pair senior conservators and conservation graduate students in support of artist-endowed collections.
From the VoCA Research webpage:
In 2018, Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA), The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (RRF) and the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) launched a groundbreaking partnership that provides a new educational model for conservation in contemporary art, while addressing the specific object-based research needs of an artist-endowed foundation. This multi-year collaboration pairs second-year conservation graduate fellows with a team of leading conservators from VoCA, professors of conservation and conservation science from WUDPAC, and RRF staff to provide the students with first-hand, real-world experience concerning the material demands of contemporary art. Working together, the team demonstrates and realizes the highest levels of research, scholarship, and art stewardship for the Foundation’s artwork holdings.
As part of this partnership, students are offered the opportunity to aid the RRF with two major strategic ambitions: conducting a collections survey and launching a catalogue raisonné project. These goals are advanced through deep technical study of selected works and the development of a comprehensive collections manual to support the long-term care of Rauschenberg’s diverse and prolific output.
The project also brings together the unique attributes of each partner. The conservation students have an unparalleled opportunity to help maintain the Foundation’s collection, supporting object-level preservation priorities; RRF gains enhanced access to preservation resources for its collection needs while gleaning valuable information to support its catalogue raisonné initiatives; and VoCA has an opportunity to leverage its strengths as a global platform for professional learning and exchange. For many of our fellows, the growth in their professional communities and networks is an important outcome beyond their technical conservation goals. VoCA is proud to foster this type of interdisciplinary, intergenerational relationship building.
-------
VoCA Research pairs senior conservators from the VoCA Network with conservation graduate students to conduct object surveys and technical examinations, all in support of the long-term preservation of artwork held in artist-endowed foundations. To read more about VoCA Research, including yearly goals, activties, and participants, visit the VoCA Research webpage.
