Winter 2013

In This Issue:

Thanks to one of the conservators participating in the Panel Paintings Initiative, an altarpiece by Pacino di Bonaguida (Florence, active 1302-1340) received much needed structural treatment before arriving at the Getty Museum for the Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance exhibition. Aleksandra Hola, a Polish conservator who just completed her training at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, assisted with the repair of the panel on loan from the Walters Art Museum. The painting had earlier been cut down into three pieces and subsequently screwed back together with metal braces in a well-intentioned, but harmful treatment. Hola visited Los Angeles in December to see the exhibition before returning home. In a post on the Getty's Iris blog, she reflected on the "once in a lifetime opportunity" that the training fellowship provided and expressed her excitement about putting newly gained skills to use. Read the full story here.

In December the Foundation brought representatives from ten Connecting Art Histories projects to the Getty Center for a workshop also attended by Getty Museum and Research Institute colleagues. Over the course of two days, this international group of grant project leaders discussed art history in their respective regions, presented their research projects, and explored new models for scholarship and teaching. By connecting leading art historians from different parts of the world to each other, the Getty grants are expanding intellectual networks among art historians working in today's global context. The timing was right for the meeting, as many of the early projects funded through this initiative near completion and teams explore the dissemination of their research.

This month marks the beginning of the second course in preventative conservation at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil supported by a 2011 Getty grant. The University of Delaware—a leader in this collaborative effort whose partners include the U.S. Department of State and the Getty Conservation Institute—administers the program, which provides training for Iraq's museum and heritage professionals. To date, nearly 100 individuals from across the country have received training at the center, which opened in 2009. Over the next ten months, this year's course participants will acquire skills related to a variety of media, from photographs to textiles, before finishing with exhibition techniques and final projects. Follow the trainees and their work on the Institute's Facebook page.

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