Glass Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, hosted by UrbanGlass
Taught by Karen Stamm
Karen Stamm, Conservator, is responsible for the technical examination and treatment of three-dimensional glass objects in the Museum's collection. She received her training in archaeological conservation at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London and worked as a conservator at the Athenian Agora for three years. After joining The Met in 1998, she worked on the reinstallation of the Greek and Roman galleries and the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia, and the conservation of sculpture in the Department of Asian Art's collection, before assuming her current responsibilities for glass.
The Metropolitan Museum houses a world-class collection of glass objects spanning nearly 5000 years. Karen Stamm, the Met’s conservator of glass, will visit UrbanGlass to talk about caring for this large and varied collection.
The conservation of glass stands apart from the conservation of most other materials because it is transparent. Conserving a see-through medium affects treatment decisions. When choosing adhesives and resins for restoration, conservators not only consider the working properties, long-term stability and future reversibility of these materials, but also clarity, color and refractive index since they must match the transparent glass. Casting methods for replacing losses in glass are designed to ensure that they flawlessly match the finish of the original. This is not a hands-on workshop but more of an insight into the different methods used in the conservation profession.
Please note this talk takes place at UrbanGlass in Fort Greene and not at the Met.
