CAPS Workshops 2011–2017

A component of Cleaning of Acrylic Painted Surfaces
People apply q-tips and cotton balls to colored papers

Six workshops were held between 2011 and 2017 in North America and Europe. This included workshops at:

  • Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2011
  • Tate Britain, London, 2012
  • Lunder Conservation Center, Washington D.C., 2013
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, 2014
  • Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa, 2014
  • John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2016
  • Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany, 2017

More than 100 participants from institutions and private practices benefited from training delivered at these workshops. Each of the three-and-a-half-day workshops included lectures covering recent advances in the cleaning of acrylic painted surfaces, hands-on sessions to test cleaning materials and approaches, and group discussions to discuss materials, techniques, applicability, and effectiveness.

As research developed and new materials became available to the conservation field, the contents of the workshops evolved to encompass an expanding range of cleaning approaches. Feedback from participants helped to keep an open dialogue between researchers and practitioners and to efficiently answer the needs of the field.

Principal instructors (2011–2017)

  • Tom Learner, Head of Science, Conservation Institute
  • Bronwyn Ormsby, Senior Conservation Scientist, Tate
  • Alan Phenix, Senior Scientist, Conservation Institute
  • Chris Stavroudis, independent conservator, Los Angeles
  • Richard Wolbers, Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation

Workshops schedules and materials are available in the Resources section.

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