Services

The Williamstown Art Conservation Center offers preservation conservation and restoration for a broad range of cultural and historical materials. These include:

• Paintings in all media on canvas, wood, glass and metal, as well as murals, frescoes and other works which, for reasons of fragility, construction or size, must be treated in situ;
• Prints, drawings, pastels, watercolors, posters, maps, documents and photographs, including non-Western art such as Asian woodblock prints, scrolls and folding screens;
• Varnished, painted and gilded wood, upholstered furniture, picture frames and architectural interiors;
• Fine art sculpture, outdoor monuments, and archaeological, ethnographic, decorative and historic objects made of organic and inorganic materials such as ceramics, glass, stone, plaster, metal, ivory, wood, feathers, leather, fur and rawhide.

The Analytical Services department offers a range of in-house examination and micro-analytical services for technical study of historic and artistic works. Technical studies typically include investigation of artist materials and techniques; decorative finish history and alteration; treatment-related analysis, such as determination of solubility and melting point; and documentation of work-in-progress.
    In addition to conservation treatments and analysis, WACC also partners with clients on all aspects of preservation outreach, including facility assessments, collection surveys and consultation advice on preventive conservation and collections-management priorities.