Shelburne Museum has hired a paintings conservator to assist with treating 20 of the museum’s most important American paintings, Museum Director Stephan Jost announced.
Painting Conservator Pamela Betts joined the museum in January. Prior to Shelburne Museum, Betts worked for ARTEX Fine Art Services in Maryland. Previous experience includes positions at the National Gallery of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
The museum’s American paintings collection includes over 400 18th -20th century works including artists Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth, Martin Johnson Heade and Albert Bierstadt. The conservation project is funded with a $61,600 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Over the course of the 14-month project, Betts will be examining, stabilizing and cleaning a selection of 20 American paintings from the museum’s permanent collection. Paintings scheduled for conservation include works by 19th century luminists Francis Augusta Silva and Fitz Henry Lane and portrait painter John Singleton Copley.
About Shelburne Museum: Shelburne Museum is one of the nation's finest, most diverse and unconventional museums of art, design and Americana. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in a remarkable setting of 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds. The museum’s collection includes works by the great Impressionists Claude Monet, Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas as well as a prized collection of folk art including trade signs, weathervanes and quilts.
