91原创

We look forward to welcoming our third-year fellows in the Winterthur/91原创 Program in Art Conservation back to Winterthur on August 11, 2026, to present formal lectures documenting their second- and third-year internship experiences.

These remarkably talented students have cared for collections across the globe, from Alaska to Singapore, and have partnered with institutions ranging from archeological digs to a living history museum.

While their presentations will describe their experiences in greater depth, read below for a summary of the work each student has completed over the past year.

This year Zoe Avery received a Fulbright grant to intern at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands, a world-renowned collection of 17th-century Dutch masterworks. She has treated Willem Claesz. Heda’s Still Life with Nautilus Cup (1640) and a painting entitled Portrait of a Girl with Peaches (c. 1640), an unidentified fragment of a much larger family portrait.

Paired with Junior Curator Julie Hartkamp, she carried out an extensive technical and stylistic study which revealed the origin and artist of Girl with Peaches. The discoveries made in this highly collaborative project are currently being produced as a mini-series for the Mauritshuis’ website and social media.

Outside of projects, Zoe also travels with paintings as a courier for exhibitions in other museums, performs minor aesthetic treatments to prepare paintings for display, assists with gallery maintenance, and had traveled to many other collections, labs, workshops, conferences, and symposia around Europe for connoisseurship, professional development, and networking purposes.

Paintings major Taryn Monize completed her third-year internship at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) in Cleveland, Ohio, under the supervision of Dean Yoder, the Lapis Senior Conservator of Paintings and Head of Paintings Conservation. Taryn’s major projects included the first ever conservation treatment of Harbour Scene (1965.451) by Frank Boggs, a 19th century French/American painter.?Two of Taryn’s other projects, including Pine Tree by Giovanni Segantini (1982.124) and Gulf and Crest by Arthur B. Davies (1932.536) required major structural treatment and inspired a research project focused on adapting edge lining techniques.

Aside from treatment, Taryn participated in technical analysis during her time at the CMA, taking full advantage of the Conservation department’s rich array of analytical equipment. Lions and Fox in a Rugged Landscape (2024.13), an early 17th century panel painting by Roelandt Savery, underwent intensive technical analysis, including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), macro x-ray fluorescence (macro XRF) and, in partnership with Case Western Reserve University, scanning electron microscopy-electron dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS).

Taryn’s in-depth technical study will add to a deeper understanding of the materials and techniques used by Roelandt Savery. Taryn also got involved with the CMA’s Education Outreach departments to help host the December Play Day Event and partnered with the department for their annual Community Arts Centre Career Fair.

Leah Palmer spent her third year as an advanced level objects conservation intern at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C. SAAM is known for its unique collection of fine art, craft and contemporary work and is renowned for its Lunder Conservation Center—the world’s first on-view conservation lab. This position provided Leah with an opportunity to explore her love of research, analysis, consultations and public engagement—all within the context of the greater Smithsonian Institution.

Leah first worked on two memory jars—ceramic jars from the American South craft tradition, covered in tiny mementos memorializing a specific person. Her art historical research grew into a focus on how the West African funerary tradition of power figures, or Minkisi, intersected with other American Southern craft traditions to influence the symbolism contained within these memory jars. Curatorial interest led Leah to analyze these two jars via x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and x-radiography. Analytical results supported the hypothesis that these objects might have been made by the same person. The two jars will be on display in November in SAAM’s newly renovated second-floor gallery focused on posthumous and memorial art.

Leah also combined her love of jewelry with her Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA) training in artist interviews to treat seven pieces of contemporary art jewelry. These works will be on view in Handwork, an upcoming exhibit at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery of Contemporary Craft. The jewelry pieces range from a LEGO brick necklace to a pig intestine brooch, and all have unique and unusual treatment needs. To care for these works, Leah conducted interviews with artists to inform their treatment and future care.

In addition to other treatment projects—including a massive marble figure, a glowing 1930s cabinet and a painted steel sculpture—Leah embraced outreach at Smithsonian, participating in family conservation workshops at the National Museum of Asian Art, leading tours of the Lunder Center, creating content for SAAM’s social media and acting as a career mentor at the National Girl Scout of America conference.

Objects major Luca Denegre split his third-year internship between the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Brooklyn Museum in New York. At the Cooper Hewitt, Luca completed the structural repair of a Tiffany Favrile glass compote dish and minor treatments on silver, aluminum and plastic decorative arts objects.?He also had the opportunity to sit in on a class at the New York University/Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center and to travel to Portugal in November to present at the conference “Understanding Plastics” on the analysis and treatment of a PVC dog raincoat.

At the Brooklyn Museum, Luca assisted with day-to-day activities in the lab, including gallery maintenance for Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party,” installation of a work in the exhibition “Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses” and the filling and inpainting of a polyurethane foam “Capitello” chair designed by Studio 65. His supervisors Kate Tyler and Isabel Schneider recently presented on their treatment of the chair and their tailored foamed methyl cellulose fill recipe at the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) annual meeting in Montreal.

Luca’s independent treatment projects have included Egyptian ceramic and stone objects, Cree embroidered hide mittens and a painted child’s table from the 1920s.

His most recent project was a 1980s plastic Enorme Telephone, designed by Ettore Sottsass, founder of the Memphis Group. Recently, 500 original unopened Enorme Telephones were discovered in California, bringing this object back into the limelight. Having been stored since the 1980s, styrofoam from the original packaging had become stuck to the surface of the PVC phone cord. Treatment included documentation of the phone and original packaging, removal of the styrofoam residues and designing appropriate long-term storage for the object.

Objects conservation fellow Daisy Diamond is completing her third-year internship at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA). For the entirety of her internship, Daisy has focused on the holistic preservation and contextualization of a pair of wooden guardian figures with a lacquer coating and paint fragments made around the 1560s to 1620s in Japan. These figures would have been found in the entrance gate to a Shintō shrine and were carved to protect the deities, or “kami,” residing at the shrine.

Daisy’s treatment has focused primarily on surface cleaning as well as the structural stabilization of the wooden substrate and extremely fragile paint fragments. Additionally aesthetic treatments include minor loss compensation and reversal of prior treatments.

Technical analysis has informed treatment and contextualization of the materials and craft processes used to create these figures in collaboration with Sinéad Vilbar, Curator of Japanese Art. Analytical techniques include x-radiography, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

Following a research trip to Japan to learn from experts on wood analysis and the preservation or religious statuary, Daisy contributed to an interactive installation exploring the significance of the materials used in these guardian figures for the upcoming special exhibition “ArtLens Reimagined: The Intersection of Art, Technology, and Innovation.”

Daisy’s training at the CMA has also included caring for the growing time-based media collection at the CMA, which led her to participate in the Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA) Time-Based Media Stewardship Workshop. Additionally, she has participated in the laser cleaning treatments of marble, learned about lost-wax casting through a hands-on collaboration with the Cleveland-based Studio Foundry, conducted an artist-interview with Ann Hamilton, supported the installation of the “Martin Puryear: Nexus” exhibition and been a part of a wide variety of outreach initiatives.

Caitlyn Fong spent her third year at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). At NMAI, Caitlyn supported community and researcher visits, and prepared items for their return to communities. She also treated and documented items for exhibitions and assisted with collections maintenance tasks.

For an upcoming exhibition of Indigenous miniatures from across the Americas, Caitlyn worked alongside conservator Beth Holford and mountmaker Shelly Uhlir to research and treat a wide range of materials. Some of her favorites included an airplane model made of a gourd and a dog sled with a hunter. These miniatures were created with the utmost care and reflect a high degree of skill that is especially evident under the microscope.

Caitlyn had a meaningful time exploring the meanings and roles of collections by assisting with community visits and learning from community members from across the Americas. Caitlyn also participated in the “Always Becoming” sculpture project, working with artist Nora Naranjo-Morse and her family on the revitalization of the sculptures for NMAI’s participation in the Smithsonian’s 250th programming.

As part of her third-year internship in the East Asian Paintings lab at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Sam Callanta remounted a small, non-accessioned Japanese Buddhist painting on silk into a hanging scroll format. The complex, laminated structure of mounted Japanese paintings requires training and skills in 丑测ō驳耻 (表具), the practice of applying supportive paper linings and protective, decorative silk borders to a finished painting. These mountings are periodically replaced when they no longer provide structural support. Remounting is integral to the longevity of Japanese paintings and contributes to the continuation of an intangible cultural heritage through participation in a craft tradition.

While at the CMA, this project was an opportunity for Sam to experience the mounting process from start to finish and further develop her skills under the guidance of conservator Sara Ribbans, a graduate of Queens University who studied with Tominaga Beizando (富永米山堂 ) and Usami Shokakudo (宇佐美松鶴堂) in Japan.

Sam has also contributed to collections care by performing condition checks of loan items (incoming and outgoing), new acquisitions and artworks scheduled for gallery rotation. She completed minor treatments of three artworks now on display in the Japanese gallery as part of “‘Bunjin’ in Japanese Art,” and assisted guest conservator Grace Jan with the treatment and remounting of two Chinese prints for the upcoming special exhibition “Print Revolutions: Chinese Impressions, 1630s–1960s,” opening in November 2026.

In addition to collections care and development in mounting skills, Sam carried out a technical study of Red Amida 赤阿弥陀像 (1971.164), a large Buddhist painting currently attributed to the Kamakura Period. She conducted x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) to characterize the pigment palette, as well as microscopic examination of the weave structure of the painting silk and historical contextual research from both English and Japanese-language resources.

Her research interests extend to mounting fabrics, particularly kinran 金襴 (silk textiles featuring patterns woven from gilded paper threads), and she is currently examining samples of these gilded threads through polarized light microscopy (PLM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and cross-section analysis.

For her third year at W91原创PAC, paper major and library and archives minor Sam Lee is interning in the paper lab at the Legion of Honor, one of two museums that make up the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.?

Most recently, Sam completed the treatment of “The Death of Seneca,” a copper plate engraving by Simon Francois Ravenet II after a painting by Luca Giordano. The print had significant surface soiling, a large tideline, and lost printing ink from creases and abrasions. Through this project, Sam honed her skills in immersion washing and inpainting. Now that the treatment is complete, this print can be integrated into the collection or shown in a future exhibit.

Sam also surveyed the condition and catalogued preservation copies of cellulose nitrate and acetate negatives by prominent San Francisco based photographer Arnold Genthe. This collection of negatives are rare documents of the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, which devastated most of San Francisco. Understanding their current condition will be a vital part of the collection’s long-term preservation.

Binh-An Nguyen,?a third-year preventive conservation graduate fellow, spent the past year interning at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CW). CW is the largest living history museum in the world with over 300 acres that consists of the historic area, the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, Campbell Archaeology Center, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library and Bruton Heights Campus.?At CW, Binh-An is working with the Preventive Conservation Team (the largest preventive team in North America) on a variety of preventive projects, collaborating with departments across the foundation and partnering institutions.

As part of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-funded research study with the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) at Rochester Institute of Technology, Georgia Southern University and CW, Binh-An helped collect data about conditions that promote mold growth. Samples of aged and unaged parchment and paper were deployed in various sites across CW, and every six weeks Binh-An and members of the Preventive Team analyzed the samples using a water activity meter, luminometer and anemometer.

To better help prepare the staff at CW’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library for potential water emergencies that may affect the collection, Binh-An helped organize a wet salvage training.?Staff gained hands-on experience handling handle different kinds of wet media and how to best dry these materials safely.

She also investigated the lightfastness of modern oil pastels to better understand how artwork made of similar materials will respond after being exposed to light while on display. To mimic a set of artworks in CW’s folk art collection created by artist Eddie Arning, she created mockups which she measured using a spectrophotometer and microfadeometer to see how the materials faded or color shifted after being artificially faded.

In addition to these projects, Binh-An participated in maintenance of objects in the historic area such as rewaxing of reproduction guns at the Governor’s Palace and cleaning patio furniture at Bassett Hall, the Rockefeller’s former residence in Williamsburg. With this year being the celebration of both America’s semiquincentennial and CW’s centennial, she also enjoyed attending many of the events associated with both celebrations throughout Williamsburg.