FGCU Art Special Events

Michele Marincola: Cultural Heritage Conservation 2.0

Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of Conservation

Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

Restoration, conservation and preservation of art and artifacts have a long history. We associate these activities with the repair, cleaning, safe exhibition, and careful storage of artworks. While these actions remain important to the profession, recent decades have brought pressing new concerns. This lecture will review how conservation has responded to contemporary forms of artmaking, to social movements that call for community-based decision making, and to climate change.

Michele Marincola is Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of Conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Before joining the university’s faculty in 2002, she was Conservator for The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Professor Marincola’s research interests include the conservation and technical art history of polychrome wood sculpture, as well as the history and ethics of art conservation. She is the editor of a new edition and translation of Johannes Taubert’s Polychrome Sculpture, Meaning, Form, Conservation (Getty Publications, 2015) and co-author, with Lucretia Kargère, of The Conservation of Medieval Polychrome Wood Sculpture: History, Theory, Practice (Getty Publications 2020), which received the 2015 FAIC-Samuel H. Kress Publication Award and the 2023 AIC Publication Award. In 2021 Professor Marincola received the AIC Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2023 the CAA/FAIC Distinguished Scholarship in Conservation Award.

Sponsored by Alice and Dean Fjelstul.

This lecture is free and open to the public

Image credit: Institute of Fine Arts, NYU

Lessons from Eden: The Conservation of Tullio Lombardo’s Sculpture of Adam

George Wheeler, retired Director of Conservation, Historic Preservation Program, Columbia University

Less than an hour after the Metropolitan Museum of Art closed on October 6, 2002, the wooden base supporting the marble sculpture of Adam collapsed – shattering the sculpture and sending 28 large pieces and hundreds of smaller ones across the gallery floor. After mapping and collecting the fragments, a long journey of research and discovery ensued that resulted in a new body of knowledge for the conservation of sculpture and a tour-de-force reconstruction of Lombardo’s 1495 figure. This presentation by chief scientific advisor George Wheeler will show how a team of scientists and conservators developed that new knowledge and put it into practice.

Dr. George Wheeler is Senior Scientist at Highbridge Materials Consulting. Prior to retiring from fulltime teaching, he was Director of Conservation in the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University and Senior Scientist in the Department of Scientific Research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sponsored by Alice and Dean Fjelstul.

This lecture is free and open to the public

Images courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

23rd Annual Pottery Sale

For twenty-three years the FGCU Art Program has partnered with United Arts Collier to produce an annual pottery sale offering beautiful, functional, handmade ceramics while also benefiting the UAC’s arts and education programs. This year’s sale will feature work by Pottery Sale co-founder Rinny Ryan, wonderfully talented Art Program alumni Jordan Blankenship, Kel Campbell, Felipe Maldonado, Marcela Pulgarin, Dawn Ingram, Maria Dominguez, Heather Flowers, Justin Davis, Taylor Crato, and Annika Olson plus ten amazing students currently enrolled in ART 4928 Ceramics Workshop. Come at 10:00am for a free cup of coffee with the potters, and shop throughout the day!

18th Annual Empty Bowls Soup Lunch Fundraiser

In these challenging times, assistance with food insecurity has never been more important. Now in its 18^th year, the FGCU Empty Bowls Soup Lunch continues to support the food pantry at our partner organization, Interfaith Charities of South Lee. The Empty Bowls formula for fundraising is simple and sincere – potters make bowls, restaurants donate soup, the community comes together, and all proceeds are dedicated to feeding our neighbors in need.  For your $20.00 donation, visitors to the event will select a beautiful ceramic bowl handmade by FGCU students, faculty, alumni and collaborators, and choose a delicious hot soup to takeaway or to eat with friends outdoors on the grounds around the Arts Complex. Our soup offerings this year will feature Coconut Curry Soup from FGCU Chef Instructor James Fraser; Moroccan Harira from Chef Ruth Cohen and the Hope Clubhouse; Beef Barley and Twelve Seasons Farm Minestrone from Chef Andreas Singer at the Coconut Point Hyatt in Estero; Lobster and Crab Bisque from Connors Steak & Seafood at Gulf Coast Town Center; Fire Roasted Tomato Bisque and Aged Cheddar and Broccolini Soup from the Sunseeker Resort Port Charlotte; Bison Chili from Ted’s Montana Grill Coconut Point, and more with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options available.

For further information please contact: Patricia Fay at (239) 590-7229; pfay@fgcu.edu