This summer, Bard Graduate Center partnered in a summer school organized by the University of Amsterdam in conjunction with the conservation department of the Rijksmuseum. The title of the program was “Conservation and Humanities: Objects as Evidence.” The two-week session was one of several structurally similar programs run by the University of Amsterdam, and as such students were able to live in University student housing. The administrative details were handled by the University as well. BGC was represented by PhD students Martina D’Amato and Antonia Behan, as well as by faculty member Deborah Krohn, who was also one of the organizers and presented a workshop.

The group of ten students, who were impressively international, included representatives from Turkey, India, Belgium, China, Rumania, Canada, and the United States. Most were enrolled in MA or PhD programs in the fields of conservation, art history, or history. The students got along well and made contacts that will be useful to them in the future.

Over the two weeks, workshops were offered on weekdays between 9 am and 5 pm. We met each morning in the Ateliergebouw, where the conservation department of the Rijksmuseum has its lab and where its students are trained. On some days, PowerPoint lectures were presented prior to our touring the galleries or visiting the lab where we more closely examined the objects. Other days began either directly in the lab or in the galleries. We took trips to the Rijksmuseum Depot in Lelystad and to Kasteel Duivenvoorde near Leiden. The detailed program is here.

All in all, the quality of the workshops was outstanding. For many students, it was an opportunity to see state-of-the-art equipment and learn how it can be used to investigate objects such as textiles, ceramics, coins, furniture, and metalwork. For everyone, it was a wonderful opportunity to become acquainted with one of the world’s greatest museum collections, and to meet many of its most important curators and conservators. Since the museum re-opened two years ago— after a massive ten-year renovation—the objects selected to investigate were mostly from areas of the collection that were newly on view or at least re-conceived as part of the renovation.

~ Professor Deborah Krohn