Introduction by Sharra Grow

This past November, Apollo published the article “Should paintings be conserved in public?” written by Conservator Ian McClure and Curator Paul Taylor. The authors called into question the overall worth of such public displays of conservation suggesting that, rather than inspiring on-lookers, the main message the visiting public receives is that conservation work is tedious and boring. And while trying to show the candid daily work of the conservator, what visitors actually see is still carefully choreographed.