Greetings Colleagues, I trust you're well and in good spirits. Board member Debbie Hess Norris, University of Delaware, shares the opportunity below. Respectfully, Sandra Dear Colleagues, I have the honor to serve on the HBCU Library Alliance Board, a position I value greatly. I am hopeful that one of your photographic collections can be preserved at no cost and with great expertise by our ten graduate students in art conservation during my January 2022 three-week, intensive course in photograph conservation. I will be advertising this opportunity nationally soon, but I very much want to work with one of our HBCU libraries if possible. I have had a wonderful experience working with Fisk University in the preservation of two amazing collections. Please let me know if you are interested so we can connect asap. Please read below and all the best to each of you! Debbie The Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware https://www.artcons.udel.edu/ seeks to help preserve a small (less than 300) collection of photographic prints held in a museum, library, archive or historic house that is in need of conservation treatment and rehousing. This project will be incorporated into a 3-week graduate-level course in photograph conservation which I have taught for nearly 40 years. https://www.artcons.udel.edu/faculty/ud-faculty/dhnorris. The work will be done on site at Winterthur Museum. All costs - transportation, treatment and rehousing supplies, time - will be covered by UD. The collection chosen will be shipped in late October for initial examination; treatment will be conducted in January, and the collection returned in February. Past projects have included: (1) a collection of silver gelatin prints and film-base negatives from the Para la Naturaleza, a unit of the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust, (2) the preservation of the W.E.B. DuBois WWII Photograph Collection at Fisk University, (3) a large collection of 19th-century images depicting Arctic Exploration from the Explorers Club in NYC, and (4) the recovery of 280+ flood-damaged photographs from Wimberley, Texas. See https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/january/art-conservation-arctic-explorers-photographs/ and http://www1.udel.edu/udaily/2016/jan/saving-photographs-011516.html for more information. These projects provide our ten talented graduate students with an opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge to the preservation of significant photographic holdings worldwide. International projects will be considered. Criteria for selection include (1) the significance of the collection locally, nationally or globally and the opportunity to preserve a collection in collaboration with their stakeholders and community, (2) lack of financial or human resources available to care for the collection (3) the condition of the collection - ideally these materials will require surface cleaning and some stabilization including binder consolidation, tear mending, flattening, and/or minimal inpainting, (4) the variety of the photographic processes represented, and (5) the learning and teaching opportunities presented by this work Given the collection size and time frame, individual reports will not be prepared for every photograph. One larger report will be required; selective individual reports may be prepared by each of our students. Approval for treatment will be secured in November so that the project can be completed on time. Planning is key. We have estimated that past projects would have costs $25,000 - $45,000. This is a wonderful opportunity for institutions and for our students and a project that I look forward to annually. Please email me (Debbie Hess Norris) with questions at dhnorris@udel.edu<mailto:dhnorris@udel.edu>. While I may send an e-mail outside traditional working hours, I do not expect a response outside of your own. Debra Hess Norris (she, her, hers) Chair and Professor of Photograph Conservation, Department of Art Conservation Unidel - Henry Francis DuPont Chair of Fine Arts Director, Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation Francis Alison Professor, 2018 Department of Art Conservation (www.artcons.udel.edu<http://www.artcons.udel.edu/>) 303 Old College Newark, Delaware 19716 Cell 302-981-8424 (but email is best) We acknowledge that the land on which the University of Delaware sits and occupies today as the traditional home of the Lenni-Lenape and Nanticoke tribal nations (Delaware's nation). Without them we would not have access to this gathering. We take this opportunity to thank and express gratitude to the original caretakers of this land.