Art restoration helps resore pieces such as these pottery sherds.
Art restoration, or conservation, focuses on the renewal of paintings, architecture, murals, sculpture, artifacts or other art fixtures. Many schools in the United States offer certificate or bachelor degree programs but far fewer teach students who wish to pursue graduate degrees. Students interested in art conservation must take care to only attend accredited universities; otherwise their graduate degree holds no meaning in the professional or academic world.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Named "most influential art school" in a survey of art critics around the United States, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago or SAIC offers a master of science degree in historic preservation. This program focuses on the restoration of architectural art. SAIC's graduates can work as historic site managers, preservation planners or art consultants to restoration architects. Located amidst the architecture of downtown Chicago, SAIC requires students to complete both an internship and a thesis before graduation.
University of Delaware
University of Delaware partners with the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate to offer a master of science degree in art conservation. Alumni of the program work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at Harvard University Library and at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, among other prestigious institutions. The three-year degree focuses on early American art. University of Delaware hosts a building with museum-quality equipment for students to practice restoring textiles, paintings or any historical object of artistic significance.
University of Pennsylvania
This Ivy League school offers a master of science degree in historic preservation. The University of Pennsylvania's School of Design, formally the Graduate School of Fine Arts, uses its location in downtown Philadelphia to let students develop real-world restoration skills in the United States' original capital. This two-year program requires both an internship and a thesis in one of five levels of specialization: site management, building conservation, preservation planning, landscape preservation and preservation design.
Buffalo State College
The State University of New York, Buffalo State College, offers a comprehensive graduate degree program in art conservation. Situated in Rockwell Hall, the school focuses on hands-on techniques for restoring art objects ranging from pottery sherds to textiles and paintings. The school sits in Buffalo, New York and the graduate program takes three years to complete.
