Award Applications Due March 1 2009

The new John Krill Advanced Scholarship Award in Paper Conservation and Connoisseurship and The Betty Fiske Professional Development Award in Asian or Contemporary Art Preservation were announced Tuesday, August 19th to recognize the dynamic careers of John Krill and Betty Fiske, Paper Conservators and Educators. Both awards will advance and strengthen the scholarship and research opportunities for early career conservation professionals.

John Krill is retiring after 32 years of teaching and service as Paper Conservator for Winterthur Museum and Associate Professor of Art Conservation. John received an M. A. in Art History from Penn State and a diploma in Conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts of N.Y.U. Before his long and distinguished career at Winterthur Museum, he worked as Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings and as Paper Conservator at the Baltimore Museum of Art (1971-73), and Paper Conservator at the National Gallery of Art (1973-76). John has served as guest curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1987) for the exhibition English Artists’ Paper: Renaissance to Regency; as guest lecturer in Durham, England at the 500th Anniversary of papermaking in Great Britain in 1988; and helped plan the program for the 1999 international conference Looking at Paper: Evidence & Interpretation held in Toronto. He is co-organizer of the international group Training & Education in Paper Conservation which has met annually since 2003. John also has a book, English Artists’ Paper, which is in its second edition (2002). John recently received the AIC Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award for teaching excellence. One of his students, best summarizes that “John Krill epitomizes that rare mixture of talent, passion and intellect governed by integrity and authentic love for the field.”

Betty Fiske is retiring after 16 years of teaching and service as Paper Conservator for Winterthur Museum and Assistant Professor of Art Conservation. Betty began her career as a printer. Before she found conservation she obtained Bachelor and Masters of Fine Arts degrees specializing in printmaking. For a decade she worked in printing studios, she taught printmaking, and she curated print collections including work on the catalog raisonne for Robert Motherwell’s prints. Betty was inspired to pursue conservation training by Marilyn Weidner with whom she worked prior to her acceptance in 1980 in WUDPAC Betty specialized in paper conservation under paper conservator Anne Clapp’s guidance. From there she spent 11 years as a paper conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Betty devoted herself to Asian printmaking and paper studies, conducting research and leading many study trips to Japan and Southeast Asia acquiring expertise that she generously shared with students and fellow conservators. From 1992 until now she has been a Winterthur Paper Conservator and Adjunct Assistant Professor for WUDPAC.

We honor these two phenomenal WUDPAC educators upon their retirement and for their combined 48 years of teaching in our graduate program.

The WUDPAC Scholarship Committee is soliciting nominations for the First Annual WUDPAC John Krill Advanced Scholarship Award in Paper Conservation and Connoisseurship and the Betty Fiske Professional Development Award in Asian or Contemporary Art Preservation. Each award will provide $1000 annually.

For further information about award criteria email Vicki Cassman at: vcassman@udel.edu