On tonight’s “Blank Canvas,” NAGB Director Amanda Coulson meets with Mark Aronson, Chief Conservator at the Yale Centre for British Art, a position he has held since July 2007. Art conservation is something The Bahamas sorely needs, yet we have no professionally accredited conservators in the nation to care for any of our paintings, sculpture or other art works. Mr. Aronson is in The Bahamas to view the National Collection and to train local staff on how best to care for the works on a day-to-day basis.
He and Amanda discuss the difference between a “restorer” and a “conservator”; the importance of conservation; how one might get into conservation and the challenges of conservation in a time when artists use myriad materials beyond paint and canvas.
While Aronson is here, he is giving a public lecture at the NAGB, on Thursday May 10th at 6 p.m. He will discuss painting restoration, his work in collections care and touch on the ways these everyday museum activities can help serve, inform and help various communities, which include artists, collectors, museums and ultimately the communities that support them.
Blank Canvas airs every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. on Guardian talk radio 96.9 FM.
