Interview

​All applicants who reach the final stages of evaluation will be invited for a personal interview at Winterthur Museum. At that time they will present a portfolio of both two- and three-dimensional objects that demonstrate their art and crafts skills and their conservation experiences (see Portfolio Requirements List below). During the interview, applicants will also be given two questions; they are to choose one to answer in 30 minutes. The questions are designed to get a sense of the applicants’ thoughts on overview/debatable issues in the world of conservation, art, artifacts, museums, libraries, etc. such as “what do you consider the pro’s and con’s of visible conservation treatments—treating works in front of the public?”

All applicants invited for interviews will take a standardized test for alternate color vision, and an examination of their freehand drawing skills. In addition, a one-hour chemistry exam is part of the interview process to ensure that applicants are well versed in the fundamentals of bonding, chemical nomenclature, balancing equations, organic functional groups, basic organic reactions, stereochemistry, oxidation-reduction reactions, acid-base chemistry, and pH. The American Chemical Society offers study guides etc... that may be helpful for review.  

Only those students who receive a formal letter of invitation from the Director of the Art Conservation Program to attend interviews will be required to present portfolios of conservation and studio work at the interview.

The conservation portfolio will be used by the Admissions Committee to evaluate the applicant's level of preparation for conservation work. At the interview the applicant will give a 20 minute PowerPoint or Prezi presentation of their conservation work as well as provide a more detailed portfolio of their conservation work that can be passed along to the individual committee members during the interview.

The studio portfolio will be used by the Admissions Committee to judge the craftsmanship, artistic sensitivity, and manual dexterity of invited applicants. The contents of the admission portfolio must consist of the following:

• 1 representational drawing of the human figure or a still-life subject drawn in perspective using any of the following: charcoal, crayon, pastel, pen and ink, brushed ink, silverpoint, or pencil.

• 1 free-hand representational painting using any of the following: oil, acrylic polymer, egg tempera, casein, or watercolor.

• 1 print, intaglio, woodcut, lithograph, serigraph, or a black-and-white photograph that you have printed.

• 1 textile object, ceramic, metal, stone, or wooden hand-made object, representational if possible.

• A copy, reproduction, or reconstruction of an original art work or artifact by a known artist or maker plus provide an image of the original.

• 4 examples of the artwork or reconstructions that you feel best display your competence in studio skills.​

It is preferable have the actual studio artifacts at the interview, but one to two images of art work that may be too large to bring can be shown at the end of the conservation presentation.

It is helpful to bring 9 copies of a list of your studio artifacts presented with thumbnail images.