Peter Schjeldahl, senior art critic, The New Yorker
Book signing of Let’s See: Writings on Art from "The New Yorker" follows

The conservation profession has well-defined documentation procedures and has created sophisticated reference databases, but there is no generally accepted standard for automating the day-to-day management of conservation procedures. As a result, the conservation management "niche" looks a lot like collections management did twenty years ago: a few home-grown systems exist in larger institutions, created by enterprising individuals to solve local problems, while most conservators continue to generate documentation in much the same way as has been done for the past half century. Beginning in 2006 the Mellon Foundation, followed a year later by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), sought to address this problem both from a conceptual standpoint and through the identification of innovative activities in the field.

This panel brings together a group of investigators and practitioners who have worked with these agencies to develop solutions. Wynne H. Phelan and Dave Thompson will discuss work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), on the Art Conservation Database (ACD), a project to develop a Web-based database documentation program that enables the creation, management, and dissemination of conservation records. The MFAH project, underwritten by an IMLS National Leadership grant, will make the ACD available to all interested institutions. Nancy Ash will present the latest version of The Tracker, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s fully functioning conservation management system.

Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, collectors, with filmmaker Megumi Sasaki, in conversation with Ruth Fine, curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art

Calvin Tomkins, author and staff writer, The New Yorker, in conversation with Harry Cooper, curator of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art
Book signing of Lives of the Artists follows

Marcello Simonetta, writer and historian
Book signing of The Montefeltro Conspiracy: A Renaissance Mystery Decoded follows

Péter Forgács, filmmaker

The lives of ordinary Hungarians are exposed and examined in the work of media artist Péter Forgács. Through examples of forgotten home movies from the 1920s and 1930s that he has recast, Forgács discusses his unique approach to media and his development as an artist, while providing a general introduction to the films that follow. (Approximately 50 minutes.) This program is made possible by funds given in memory of Rajiv Vaidya.

Conrad Rudolph, professor of medieval art history, University of California at Riverside

Douglas Brine, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art

Kimberly Schenck, head of paper conservation, National Gallery of Art

Jennifer Wagelie, department of academic programs, National Gallery of Art

Conrad Rudolph, professor of medieval art history, University of California at Riverside

Paul Zanker, professor of art history, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa

Paul Zanker is internationally recognized for his contributions to the study of the Hellenistic Greek, Roman, and Late Antique periods. After serving for many years as the president of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, Zanker became a professor of ancient art history in 2001 at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. He has not only made hundreds of contributions to the scholarly literature but also has a wide readership among the public at large. Among his many outstanding books published in English are The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Thomas Spencer Jerome Lectures, 1989), The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity (Sather Classical Lectures, 1996), and Pompeii, Public and Private Life (1998), the latter a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

A Wyeth Foundation for American Art Conference, co-organized by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts and the National Museum of the American Indian. Illustrated lectures by noted scholars including:

Nancy Anderson, National Gallery of Art

Ned Blackhawk, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Philip Deloria, University of Michigan

Leah Dilworth, Long Island University

Kate Flint, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Michael Gaudio, University of Minnesota

Katherine Manthorne, The City University of New York

Jolene Rickard, Cornell University

Paul Chaat Smith, National Museum of the American Indian

William Truettner, Smithsonian American Art Museum