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Keck Award

The Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award recognizes a sustained record of excellence in the education and training of conservation professionals.

Deadline: January 15

Nominate Edit Nomination

Guidelines

Write a letter outlining why the nominee deserves this award.
Collect letters from at least two additional co-sponsors.

Criteria

Nominations should address the introduction of pre-program applicants into a private, regional, or museum conservation laboratory to explain the basics of conservation procedures, approaches, and ethics in any specialty, including conservation science.
Nominations should address the organization and supervision of internship and apprenticeship training in any specialty.
Nominations should address the instruction of students at a college or university in pre-program preparatory conservation program, a master’s level program, or a doctoral program.
Nominations should address the organization and teaching of courses and workshops.
Nominees should have Professional Associate or Fellow membership.

Recipients

2023: Jiuan Jiuan Chen and Catherine McLean
2022: Ron Harvey and Glenn Wharton
2021: Michele Marincola and Kate Smith
2020: Joyce Hill Stoner
2019: Beverly (Bev) Perkins and Lynn Grant
2018: Frank Matero, Consuela "Chela" Metzger, Norman Weiss
2017: Gary Albright, Judith Levinson, James Hamm
2016: Dr. Mary F. Striegel and Dr. Robert Waller
2015: Sylvia Rodgers Albro; Renée Stein
2014: Vicki Cassman; Stephen Koob
2013: Marian Kaminitz; Jonathan Thornton
2012: Cathleen Baker; Cleo Mullins
2011: Thomas M. Edmondson; Nancy Heugh
2010: Betsy Palmer Eldridge; Bruno Pouliot
2009: Nancy Odegaard; Ellen Pearlstein; Thornton Rockwell
2008: Craigen Bowen (P); Terry Drayman-Weisser
2007: James Bernstein; Debra Evans; John Krill; Martin Radecki
2006: Catharine Hawks; Nora Kennedy
2005: Irene Brückle; Martin Weaver (P)
2004: Debra Hess Norris
2003: Margaret Holben Ellis
2001: Molly Ann Faries; Virginia Greene
2000: Christa Gaehde; José Orraca
1999: Roy Perkinson
1998: Bernard Rabin; Sidney Williston
1997: F. Christopher Tahk
1996: Bettina Jessell; Mary Wood Lee
1995: Elisabeth Cornu
1994: Dan Kushel; Perry C. Huston

Sheldon and Caroline Keck

Sheldon and Caroline Keck met on a course on the now famous "Methods and Processes in the Fine Arts," also known as the "egg and plaster" course, taught by Edward Waldo Forbes and George Stout. They married in 1933. Sheldon Waugh Keck (1910-1993) graduated from Harvard in 1932, majoring in art history and became an apprentice at the Fogg Art Museum. Caroline K. Keck (1908-2007) studied at Vassar and Harvard, and began a doctorate in Berlin in the early 1930s, returning to the US when the Nazis came to power. In 1934, Sheldon Keck was appointed the first conservator at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, and together he and Caroline worked from a laboratory in State Street, Brooklyn, where they became involved in the training of conservators. In 1954, the Kecks arranged the exhibition “Take Care” at the Brooklyn Museum, which emphasized current techniques for the examination and treatment of paintings. The exhibition featured their film, A Future for the Past, which was a pioneer use of moving images within a museum gallery setting. Mrs. Keck was especially proud of the EPC “Exposition of Painting Conservation” at the Brooklyn Museum October 22-26, 1962, which she called “a dream for many years.” In 1969, the Kecks, under the auspices of UNESCO, established the Latin American Center for Conservation of Cultural property in Mexico City. In addition, they were instrumental in founding the first master's level course in art conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in 1960, and to inaugurate and run the Cooperstown Graduate Program from 1969. In 1987, they established a fund for the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation (FAIC) through the sale of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting in their personal collection. Its earnings continue to support day-to-day FAIC activities as well as the Individual Professional Development Scholarships that are awarded yearly.

Boothroyd Brooks, Hero. A Short History of IIC: Foundation and Development. London: The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 2000.

Hill Stoner, Joyce, 2007. Caroline K. Keck (1908–2007). AIC News Vol. 33, Number 2 (March 2008).

Sack, Susanne P., 1993. A Tribute to Sheldon Keck. AIC News Vol. 18, Number 5 (September 1993).