UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 9, Page 10
October 27, 1994
UD connection; International award honors art conservators

     The first international award for the promotion of public
understanding and appreciation of the accomplishments of the art
conservation profession has been presented to British conservators
Simon F. Cane and Mary Brooks and York Castle Museum, United Kingdom,
in honor of the exhibition "Stop the Rot."
     Presented Sept. 15 at the International Institute for
Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) international
symposium in Ottawa, Canada, the new award is named in honor of
Sheldon and Caroline Keck, pioneer U.S. conservators who advised on
the founding of the University of Delaware/Winterthur master's and
doctoral degree programs in art conservation.
     "Stop the Rot," mounted in a special exhibition gallery in York,
ran from April 2, 1993, to April 13, 1994, and was viewed by more than
a half million people.
     Visitors learned about the damaging effects of pollution,
humidity, insect pests and the greatest pests of all-humans, who drop
things, vandalize them and leave fingerprints that can damage a work
of art or important cultural artifact. Those visiting the exhibition
took away a leaflet explaining "Why things fall to bits" and "What we
can do about it." The leaflet also offered helpful hints about the
care and handling of textiles, drawings, paintings, silver, bronze,
brass and wooden objects.
     In addition to visitors from the public, the exhibition was used
as a training base by conservation students, museum professionals and
teachers.
     According to Joyce Hill Stoner, director and chairperson of the
Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware, this new
Keck award comes at a crucial time.
     "With the current publicized attacks on the treatments of the
Sistine Chapel and other major international works of art, attention
is being diverted from the 'good news' about the extraordinary skill
and care exercised by well-trained conservation professionals around
the world," she said.
     "Through the efforts of individuals like Sheldon and Caroline
Keck, today there are academic programs in place that are providing us
with gifted and dedicated conservators.
     For example, graduates of the University of Delaware/Winterthur
Program alone now head conservation departments throughout the U.S.,
including the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, the
National Museum of African Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts.
     "Advising the public on care of private collections of art and
artifacts is just one of the many obligations of the professional
conservator, but these activities rarely come to light unless there is
a major controversy," Stoner said.
     She noted that it is particularly fitting that the new award
honors the Kecks, who were probably the most well-known art
conservators in the United States from the 1930s to the 1980s.
     Working from a laboratory in Brooklyn, N.Y., and with Sheldon
Keck's position as conservator to the Brooklyn Museum from 1934 to
1961, the couple jointly trained a number of significant future
leaders and laboratory directors for U.S. museums.
     They acted as consultant conservators to the Museum of Modern
Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Phillips Collection, Colonial
Williamsburg, the St. Louis City Art Museum and many other national
institutions.
     In 1951, they were initial fellows (number 19 and 20) of the
International Institute for Conservation, and Caroline Keck served as
executive director of the Foundation of the American Institute for
Conservation through much of the 1980s.
     She has written several succinct and readable books on the care
of paintings and a number of key articles on conservation philosophy
and treatment for both Museum News and The Journal of the American
Institute for Conservation.
     The Kecks worked steadily to initiate museum departments and
regional centers for the practice of art conservation in the U.S,
through treatments, lectures, exhibitions and articles.
     In 1960, they were instrumental in the founding of the first
master's degree-level program in art conservation at New York
University's Institute of Fine Arts, and then they inaugurated and
jointly ran the Cooperstown Conservation training program under the
auspices of the State University College at Oneonta and the New York
State Historical Association from 1969-81. They consulted on the
founding of the third U.S. conservation graduate program, jointly
sponsored by the University of Delaware and Winterthur Museum, which
began in 1974.
     Caroline Keck always said that the field of conservation should
have a doctoral degree, and she strongly supported the founding in
1990 of the Ph.D. in Art Conservation Research at the University of
Delaware, the first such program in North America and the third in the
world-joining other programs at the University of London and in
Australia. In 1991, she persuaded many colleagues to contribute to the
1991 Coremans benefit auction for doctoral fellowships at the
University of Delaware.
     Sheldon Keck died in June 1993; at the age of 85, Caroline Keck
is still writing articles and treating paintings.
     The Kecks have left their library and archives to the University
of Delaware Ph.D. program and Coremans endowment and doctoral
fellowships.
     A quarter of Caroline Keck's estate will come to the Coremans
fellowships at  the UD.
     The next IIC Keck Award will be presented at the IIC Congress in
Copenhagen in 1996.