Morgan Library Curators to Lead a Traveling Seminar on Drawings Connoisseurship

New York—The Morgan Library & Museum is proud to announce that curators John Marciari and Jennifer Tonkovich of the Drawings and Prints Department will lead a ten-day traveling seminar aimed at training a new generation of drawings scholars and curators. From June 26 to July 4, 2018, participants will visit collections in London, Oxford, Windsor, and elsewhere to learn the skills of connoisseurship and the workings of the art market for old master and 19th-century drawings.

The seminar is supported by a major grant from the Getty Foundation’s new initiative The Paper Project: Prints and Drawings Curatorship in the 21st Century, created to address the lack of informal and formal training for curators entering the field. The seminar includes visits to some of the major collections of drawings in England, including the Ashmolean Museum, the British Museum, and the Royal Collection. 

Drs. Marciari and Tonkovich, together with host curators at those institutions, will conduct sessions exploring questions of attribution, condition, quality, and authenticity of works of art. Chosen from a competitive search process, the participants for the seminar include assistant curators and curatorial fellows from museums across the United States and from institutions in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands.  

“The Drawing Institute was founded in 2011 to deepen the understanding and appreciation of the role of drawing in the history of art,” said Colin B. Bailey, director of the Morgan. “Today’s curators working in drawings and prints are required to learn an enormous amount of information and must possess significant expertise in order to navigate the art market, generate scholarship, and develop innovative exhibitions. We are delighted to provide an opportunity to mentor and support the promising curators in this field.”

“The Paper Project is a response to the need for more training and professional development opportunities to serve a rising generation of curators of prints and drawings,” says Deborah Marrow, director of the Getty Foundation. “The museums involved in these inaugural projects are widely recognized for their excellent collections, influential scholarship, and commitment to training. The Morgan’s seminar will not only provide the practical knowledge needed to succeed as drawings and prints curators, but it will also help ensure their future leadership in the field.”

Grants have also been awarded to the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford; the British Museum in London; the Courtauld Gallery in London; the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam; and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Image: John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator and Department Head, leading a Morgan Drawing Institute seminar on Italian Renaissance Drawings, 2016. Drawings Study Center, The Morgan Library & Museum © The Morgan Library & Museum. Photography by Jennifer Tonkovich, 2016.