During the Spring 2026 semester, I recently completed the History of Art department’s new course offering on Art Conservation where students were able to gain in-depth exposure to the field of conservation. Professor Mathison led the course, which included various guest lectures, field-trips, and projects, through which I had the opportunity to learn more about the field of conservation, its role and importance in museums and cultural heritage preservation, and the requirements for starting a career in this field.  

It was particularly valuable to hear from some of the guest lecturers throughout the course on their perspective of working in the field of conservation and their background in art history. Some of our guest lectures included OSU History of Art alumni including Alaina Gregg, now working in non-profit policy related to conservation and heritage preservation at the American Flood Coalition, as well as Lindsey Jones, owner and founder of Columbus-based private conservation firm Blind Eye Restoration.  

Throughout the course we also had the opportunity to interact with a diverse range of conservation labs across Ohio State’s campus and greater Ohio, including the OSU Digital Preservation and Digitization Unit, the OSU libraries conservation lab, and the ICA-art conservation unit in Cleveland, and the Cleveland Museum of Art’s conservation labs. I particularly found The Cleveland Museum of Arts labs fascinating as their facilities included multiple specialized labs focused on conservation of specific art materials and mediums – including their textile conservation lab which was preparing materials for their upcoming exhibit on textiles from Madagascar.  

Through this course, students were able to meet with and learn more about the diverse resources and projects in conservation happening within the local Ohio region and connect with professionals in this field. Additionally, we were able to consider conservation from a hands-on perspective through several interesting projects, such as a final project focused on restoring a historic art object in partnership with OSU’s Thompson Library Special Collections. The manuscript I worked on for this project dated from the 17^th century and originated from the Eastern Orthodox church, and was an interesting opportunity to learn about the vast, diverse collection we have here on OSU’s campus, and the efforts that go into preserving and maintaining these collections!