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