Craft and Conservation
Includes a Live In-Person Event on 06/10/2025 at 9:00 AM (EDT)
June 10-13, 2025, Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, Winterthur, DE
Instructors: David Bayne, Kathy Z. Gillis, and Gregory J. Landrey
Conservation professionals need to be able to identify the historic techniques used in the making of the object they are treating. Furniture conservators need to recognize the woodworking abilities of the original maker as well as the techniques used by subsequent restorers. Furniture makers need to understand the long-term effects of their woodworking practices and understand how their work will change or be viewed over time. This workshop will work with the premise that each of these groups can contribute to the other’s knowledge and to the dialogue concerning when, where, and by whom furniture was and is made.
The Craft and Conservation workshop will gather five emerging furniture-making professionals [EFPs] including students, and five emerging conservation professionals [ECPs], including students, for a mutual learning experience. Guided by conservation and museum professionals, the group will examine representative pieces from Winterthur’s collection and identify woodworking techniques incorporated within them. Following observations and assessing the likely tools used in fabrication, participants will practice the same techniques using the same tools.
Each day will lead to discussion about the contributions that can be made by the furniture makers to the field of conservation in providing the conservators with the perspective of a furniture maker, including aspects of training of the original craftsmen. Correspondingly, conservators can share approaches that can contribute to the care and longevity of both antique and contemporary furniture. This sharing of perspectives will allow both groups to become more cognizant of principles pertinent to their respective professions.
The workshop will draw heavily on resources available at Winterthur, including library materials and allied professionals. Both ECPS and EFPs will benefit from establishing relationships in allied fields. All participants will engage in intensive examination of a select group of furniture in Winterthur’s collection as well as hands-on activities in the workshop.
Interested individuals must apply by March 31, 2025. Registration to participate is free and participants will each receive a $1,000 travel stipend.
This workshop is organized and supported in part by the Wooden Artifacts Group (WAG) of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC).
Additional funding for this program comes from a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC) Endowment for Professional Development, which was created by a grant from the Mellon Foundation and is supported by donations from members of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and its friends. Workshops are made possible with the assistance of many AIC members, but no AIC membership dues were used to create or present this workshop.
Interested individuals must apply by March 31, 2025. Registration to participate is free and participants will each receive a $1,000 travel stipend. Applicants will be asked to submit a statement addressing how they hope to contribute to the workshop, what they hope to gain by attending, and relevant experience (see Criteria for Review below).
Criteria for Review:
- Value the importance of a mutual learning experience.
Emerging Conservation Professionals
- An expressed interest in the field of traditional woodworking.
- Interest in specializing in furniture conservation but with no or limited experience in furniture-making.
- Enrolled in or recent graduate of a graduate conservation training program or equivalent experience.
- Familiarity with the AIC Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct.
Emerging Furniture-making Professionals
- An expressed interest in the field of furniture conservation.
- Experience in furniture-making, hand tools, and creating period furniture reproductions.
- Familiarity with traditional joinery materials and techniques and an ability to demonstrate those techniques.
- Appreciation of the importance of learning techniques through the study of representative examples of American period furniture.
David Bayne
David Bayne graduated from the Smithsonian Institution’s Furniture Conservation Training Program in 1990. He worked on American furniture for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, the US Department of State, the Winterthur Museum, and private clients. At the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, David also worked on wooden folk sculpture of all sorts. David was the Furniture Conservator for the New York State Bureau of Historic Sites, located at the Peebles Island Resource Center in Waterford, New York from 1992 to 2020.
He has published in the AIC’s Wooden Artifacts Group Postprints, lectured to The Furniture Society, the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums, the American Association of State and Local Historians, involved in the organization of the 2001 and 2004 Furniture in France study trips, as well as the 2006 reciprocal visit for French colleagues to the United States. In 2018, David taught principals of wood conservation for two months in Beijing, China, as part of a program sponsored by the World Monuments Fund and hosted by the Palace Museum and the Tsinghua University.
Kathy Z. Gillis
Elizabeth Terry Seaks Senior Conservator of Furniture
Winterthur Museum, Gardens and Library
Kathy Z. Gillis Is currently the Elizabeth Terry Seaks Senior Conservator of Furniture at Winterthur Museum, Gardens and Library. Kathy is a graduate of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (Class of 1993) with a specialty in Furniture Conservation.
Throughout her career she has held internships and positions at The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Colonial Williamsburg, the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Oakland Museum of California, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.
She has been active in the Wooden Artifacts Group (WAG) of AIC since 1992, serving as Program Chair, Specialty Group Chair, and Secretary/Treasurer over the years. One of her proudest accomplishments has been assisting in the organization of WAG's two Furniture in France Study Tours and the follow-up French-American Partnership.
