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​​Conservation is an exciting, interdisciplinary field that builds upon a strong foundation in chemistry, studio arts, art history, history, fine arts, and anthropology. We encourage students to double-major or minor in related disciplines including anthropology, art history, history, fine arts, chemistry, foreign languages, museum studies, or material culture studies to better understand our material past.
A specialized graduate degree is required to be a practicing conservator. Our undergraduate program helps to prepare students for graduate school, but does not guarantee entry into an art conservation graduate program. Following graduation, our art conservation undergraduates will be able to:
- Apply basic chemistry to the understanding of art and artifact deterioration
- Evaluate and apply essential preventive conservation strategies to collections
- Understand the ethics involved in preservation-related professions
- Advocate for the preservation of cultural heritage
- Write thorough condition reports for art and artifacts
- Be useful conservation technicians and collection managers
- Apply for art conservation and/or historic preservation graduate programs and related fields