Category: Art Conservation
Student Blog: The Walters Art Museum
April 28, 2025 Written by Nicole Chausse
My third-year fellowship has been spent at the third oldest conservation lab in the United States (90 years old!!) at The Walters Art Museum, located in Baltimore, MD. My supervisors in the Objects conservation lab are Angie Elliott and Gregory Smith. I also enjoy having recent WUDPAC alumnus Elle Friedberg (Objects Mellon Fellow) and Sarah Freshnock (Preventive Conservator) as colleagues.
The Walters Art Museum is well known for their strong collection of antiquities and artwork amassed during the 19th-20th century by William Walters and his son, Henry Walters. Upon H. Walters’ passing, the collection’s buildings and contents were bequeathed to the City Council of Baltimore “for the benefit of the public,” and at present, the institution provides free admission for all visitors. A wide range of cultures and materials are currently represented in the collection, including ancient archaeological findings from Egypt and the Mediterranean, medieval European art, Islamic and Asian art, as well as Renaissance, Baroque, and European decorative arts. The museum also features traveling exhibitions and installs an annual show featuring local contemporary artists.
The conservation lab at The Walters Art Museum is highly regarded for their quality of research, publishing, and work with public engagement. One of my favorite parts about working here is the ability to interact so frequently and directly with the public through the Conservation Window, which is a space located in the galleries where conservators can work on treatments or show study collection objects (like ivories) to raise awareness for the role of conservation in the museum. On my busiest window shift during the Lunar New Year celebrations, I had over 130 visitors in 3.5 hours, including at least 40 children and 90 adults! The museum also hosts an abundance of free artmaking programs, teen engagement, school tours, and hosts the community for large events and exhibition openings.
Some projects I’ve worked on so far include an Ethiopian basket treatment (surface cleaning, leather repair, shell stabilization, mount design), selective corrosion removal from an ancient archaeological Visigoth buckle, an investigation of the noninvasive identification of bronze disease using Fiber Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS), assistance with arsenic testing for taxidermy specimens, and hands-on activities for elementary school outreach. My textile minor concentration at WUDPAC prepared me well to independently design and carry out treatments for the humidification and crease reduction of two banana fiber kimonos, and the stabilization of fraying threads in a linen book where I rewove some sections thread by thread!
A treatment I currently have in progress is the repair of an ancient Egyptian limestone frieze with a scene depicting a bull and figures. It had previous restorations that failed due to their age and past environmental fluctuations. Rejoining the broken halves and filling the losses appear to be simple tasks at first glance, but the delicate nature of the ancient limestone requires careful consideration of material choices. After the failed restoration material was removed, a gap between the break edges prevented a close join of the two halves. Bulked fills with Paraloid B-72 were tested to see what might work to provide enough structural stability, but in the end, I decided to make an epoxy fill that conforms to the gap in order to fill the empty space. After the break edges were consolidated, I adhered the epoxy fill and stone halves together with Paraloid B-72 to ensure reversibility as well as tight joins between the surfaces. To visually integrate the join on the front of the object, I will consolidate friable surfaces with methylcellulose in water, lay down a thin piece of Japanese tissue paper to act as a barrier layer, and apply a spackle or bulked fill on top to compensate for the losses. If the fills need to be removed in the future, the tissue paper will aid in the clean removal of the fill material and prevent particulates from becoming embedded in the soft limestone surface. The treatment will be completed after inpainting and the design of a custom handling board to minimize risk of the stone breaking again. It is slated for exhibition in the upcoming Fall 2026 show, Soulful Creatures.
I am looking forward to the rest of my internship with an upcoming enamel treatment and the opening of Latin American Art / Arte Latinoamericano in newly renovated galleries!
- Nicole Chausse, WUDPAC Class of 2025
