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Students and faculty in the Department of Art Conservation are
all focused on public engagement and advocacy, Norris said, but the “NEH
Fellow” title especially emphasizes the importance of that role to the
NEH and to the conservation profession. The six fellows, she said, “will
become real ambassadors for the humanities.”
Lauren Fair, an affiliated assistant professor of art conservation
and objects conservator at Winterthur Museum, who prepared the grant
proposal submitted to NEH, also spoke of the importance of that agency’s
support over the years. Stipends, from the NEH and a variety of other
sources, are “tremendously important for the success of our graduates,”
she said.
Students often do years of preparation to enter WUDPAC, an
internationally prestigious program, taking additional courses in fields
such as chemistry and working as staff members or interns for museums
or conservation organizations after earning their bachelor’s degree.
Summers in the program are spent in field placements in the U.S. and
abroad, so students rely on stipends to help with their living expenses.
“The support from NEH recognizes how
important the field of conservation is to the humanities,” Fair said.
“We’re formally designating these students as ‘NEH Fellows,’ a
distinction that will follow them throughout their time in our program.”
The fellows will do various forms of public outreach, which could
include speaking to school or community groups or helping to organize
workshops or symposia, she said.
The new fellows are aspiring to careers that encompass such areas as
preventive conservation, textiles, industrial materials, emergency
response and preparedness and the challenges climate change poses to
conservation in the form of severe storms and rising sea levels. They
all plan to collaborate closely with the communities that created the
material culture they are studying.