Frequently Asked Questions: Preservation

Conservation training can begin at the college/university level, where students have the greatest access to the required cross-disciplinary coursework for admittance to conservation graduate school. Following graduate school, conservators often complete one or two post-graduate fellowships for a total of 3-7 or more years of graduate and post-graduate training. For more information about becoming a conservator, including a list of the graduate schools in North America and the different kinds of work conservators do, see Become a Conservator, put together by the American Institute for Conservation, the national professional association for conservators in the U.S.

For a list of training opportunities in conservation, preservation, preservation administration, architectural preservation, and in related fields, see Art Conservation Training: Sources for Degrees, Seminars, and Mid-Career Training (Smithsonian Institution).