Preserving Family and Community Heritage (Conservation Matters lecture)

Date: Thursday, October 18, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Admission: Free; reservations required. Call (310) 440-7300 or use the "Make Reservation" button below.



Save your stuff! In this free lecture, Don Williams, senior furniture conservator at the Smithsonian and co-author, with Louisa Jaggar, of the popular how-to guide Saving Stuff, presents practical, hands-on advice for preserving family and community treasures. Learn why stuff falls apart and how you can use professional museum techniques to safeguard your treasures, from snapshots and artwork to exotic oddments like Cousin Cecil's African Water Buffalo head.

Williams presents advice along with entertaining anecdotes from his long and varied career, which has included conserving Archie Bunker's chair and the Wright Brothers' Flyer, teaching the arts of marquetry and gilding, and amassing the world's largest collection of books on shellac.

About Don Williams
Don Williams is senior furniture conservator at the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Materials Research and an expert in historical woodworking and finishes. He was also coordinator of education and training for the Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute from 1994 to 2001. Williams leads courses and seminars across the country on preservation and appreciation of historic materials. His book Saving Stuff, co-written with Louisa Jaggar, shows how you can effectively preserve your own treasures—comic books, wedding dresses, baseball cards, furniture, stamps, fine art, papers, film, pictures, records, CDs, doll houses, flags, the family Bible, insects, and more—without going to extreme effort and expense. Williams and his book are both practical, engrossing, and fun.

About Conservation Matters
Conservation Matters is a series of occasional lectures hosted by the Getty Conservation Institute examining conservation issues from around the world. Future lectures will focus on the conservation of rediscovered paintings by Caravaggio and preserving the bridges of the Los Angeles River, among other topics.

How to Get Here
The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles, California, approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Parking is $8. See Hours, Directions, Parking for maps and driving directions.