Beth Ann Richwine (April 25, 1959 - January 15, 2019 [1] ) was an art conservator. She worked as an Objects Conservator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for 30 years. [1]
Richwine was born in Newport News, VA and graduated from York High School in 1977. She went on to graduate from University of Mary Washington in 1981 and earn her master's in art conservation from SUNY Buffalo. [2]
Richwine started as an Objects Conservator at the National Museum of American History in 1987. [3] She spent more than 300 hours cleaning the dioramas and mechanisms of the Great History Clock of America in an effort to restore it to a working state. [4]
Richwine was married to Randall Cleaver and resided in Takoma Park, Maryland. [1] Outside of her work as a conservator, Richwine had many creative hobbies including ceramics, cheesemaking, and pysanska-style eggs. [1]
The conservation and restoration of cultural property focuses on protection and care of cultural property, including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include preventive conservation, examination, documentation, research, treatment, and education. This field is closely allied with conservation science, curators and registrars.
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The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's largest and most inclusive collections of art, from the colonial period to the present, made in the United States. The museum has more than 7,000 artists represented in the collection. Most exhibitions take place in the museum's main building, the Old Patent Office Building, while craft-focused exhibitions are shown in the Renwick Gallery.
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The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) is a global organisation for conservation and restoration professionals with over two thousand members in over fifty countries. IIC seeks to promote the knowledge, methods and working standards needed to protect and preserve historic and artistic works throughout the world.
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An Objects conservator is a professional, working in a museum setting or private practice, that specializes in the conservation of three-dimensional works. They undergo specialized education, training, and experience that allows them to formulate and implement preventive strategies and invasive treatment protocols to preserve cultural property for the future. Objects conservators typically specialize in one type of material or class of cultural property, including metals, archaeological artifacts, ethnographic artifacts, glass, and ceramic art. Objects conservation presents many challenges due to their three-dimensional form and composite nature.
The conservation and restoration of wooden furniture is an activity dedicated to the preservation and protection of wooden furniture objects of historical and personal value. When applied to cultural heritage this activity is generally undertaken by a conservator-restorer. Furniture conservation and restoration can be divided into two general areas: structure and finish. Structure generally relates to wood and can be divided into solid, joined, and veneered wood. The finish of furniture can be painted or transparent.
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