The Met: Research Scholarship in Photograph Conservation Grant

The Met: Research Scholarship in Photograph Conservation Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Metropolitan Museum Of Art
Amount: Up to US $63,000
Last Updated: October 29, 2024

Summary

The Met: Research Scholarship in Photograph Conservation offers a unique opportunity for scholars to engage deeply with art conservation. Hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the program fosters a community of diverse researchers focused on innovative projects related to the museum's extensive photographic collection. With a two-year fellowship, scholars gain valuable experience through hands-on research, workshops, and discussions, contributing significantly to the field of photograph conservation and expanding their professional horizons.

Overview

Mission Statement The Metropolitan Museum of Art collects, studies, conserves, and presents significant works of art across time and cultures in order to connect all people to creativity, knowledge, ideas, and one another. Fellowships Applicants come from diverse backgrounds and nationalities and vary widely in their perspectives and training. Each year, The Met creates a close knit community of scholars whose individual interests collectively illuminate the Museum's collection of artworks spanning 5,000 years of human creativity. Exploring new avenues of research in the history of art and visual culture, education, public practice, and critical theory, fellows expand, challenge, and actively redefine the very limits and purview of these disciplines by introducing fresh ideas drawn from philosophy, anthropology, museum studies, historiography, conservation, and the material sciences. Research Scholarship in Photograph Conservation The Research Scholar in the Department of Photograph Conservation (DPhC) is based in the Sherman Fairchild Center for Works on Paper and Photograph Conservation. The Research Scholar is fully integrated into the life of The Met and is given unique access to the inner workings of the Museum through a rich program of tours, roundtable discussions, and workshops. The scholar conducts a research project based on the Museum’s resources and its collections of photographs, in addition to participating in the preservation- and exhibition-related activities of the Photograph Conservation Department. Successful candidates will propose focused research, built around The Met collection, which furthers the Museum’s academic mission and contributes to the field of photograph conservation. Projects Current topics of interest for the DPhC include the characterization of the photographic papers and applied media used by James Van Der Zee (1886–1983) or Charles DeForest Fredricks (1823 1894). The Met’s Department of Photographs has recently acquired the archive of the former and a large group of works by the latter. Examples of previous research projects include: a technical and historical investigation of E. J. Bellocq’s working methods; methods for imaging and tracking silver mirroring; the characterization of photographs in The Diane Arbus Archive; measurement and documentation of color change in photographs using densitometry, spectrophotometry, and micro-fading; and the application of anoxic enclosures for conservation of photographic objects, focusing on the effectiveness of these packages for long-term preservation of autochrome plates. Fellowship Period Fellowships are for 24 months, beginning on September 1 following the application deadline. The Research Scholar in Photograph Conservation Fellowship carries the possibility of renewal for a third year. Funding The stipend amount is $57,000 per year, with up to an additional $6,000 for travel (maximum of six weeks).

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. The Research Scholar is expected to have a graduate degree in conservation or equivalent experience and should be completely committed to the conservation of photographs as their area of specialization.The Fellowship Program is open to and regularly hosts international scholars. However, due to changes in travel and visa restrictions, which have fluctuated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Museum cannot guarantee that international scholars will be able to travel to New York for the fellowship period. Please consult the U.S. Department of State and New York State websites for updates on the current status of international and interstate travel. While we will make reasonable efforts to accommodate future unforeseen changes, we are unable to modify program dates on an individual basis.Applicants may only apply for one type of fellowship per application cycle. The only exception to this is the History of Art and Visual Culture Fellowship, which can be applied to concurrently with the Leonard A. Lauder Fellowship and the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellowship.

Ineligibility

We are unable to accept proposals for exhibitions, symposia, or similar programs. Applications in which such a project is the major objective of the proposal will be disqualified.