2011 Training at the Worcester Art Museum

In July 2011, CHI was pleased to be able to hold a four-day training session hosted by the Worcester Art Museum. This training was one in a series sponsored by a generous grant from Imaging Technology Pathways for Museum Professionals (IMLS) as part of the 21st Century Museum Professionals (21MP) Grant Program.

Related Event

In May 2009, Philip Klausmeyer, who is Andrew W. Mellon Conservator in Science and Paintings Conservation at the Worcester Art Museum, presented a paper to the AIC, American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works: “Reflectance Transformation Imaging: A New Conservation Tool for Examination and Documentation”

A Note From the Curator

“The conservation department's initial forays into the use of RTI on works from the Museum's collection produced some extraordinary results. The five-day training session with the CHI staff went a long way in enabling us all to explore new applications for this remarkable technique. Since RTI is such a unique and powerful image-based method of examining and documenting surfaces, the potential is clearly there for it to take a place alongside other more established methods of technical examination commonly used in the field of conservation such as x-radiography and infrared reflectography.” — Philip Klausmeyer

Museum Conservation Department Adopts Reflectance Transformation Imaging Techniques

Training at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts

Checking the RTI dome setup before a shoot

Worcester Art Museum's Objects Conservator Paula Artal-Isbrand and CHI's Mark Mudge check
the RTI dome setup before the capture sequence

This training project was completed in 2008.

Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI) provided training for staff members in the conservation department of Worcester Art Museum. This five-day class included a custom-built light array that uses Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) technology. This new equipment allowed the team to create images of different types of objects from paintings to paper artifacts. The staff also learned to capture RTI using the highlight method, which allows them to capture images of large objects. Using these methods, the conservators were able to see details that they could not see using other imaging techniques.

Flickr Slideshow of the Worcester Art Museum Training

Notes: Click on any individual photograph to see its caption. If your browser does not display these images, you can view them on Flickr.

About the Worcester Art Museum

The Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts is world-renowned for its 35,000-piece collection of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photography, prints, drawings and new media. The works span 5,000 years of art and culture.