Elle Friedberg
June 2021 - August 2021
First Summer Internship Placement
Primary Supervisor
Adam Jenkins, Objects Conservator
Below are the major projects from my first-year summer internship. Please click the "Learn More" buttons for more information on each project.
For ten weeks in the summer of 2021, I worked with Adam Jenkins in his private conservation studio in Philadelphia, PA. Adam's active and fast-paced treatment project schedule brought us to private collections and historic sites in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C, and Pennsylvania. My summer work was divided into three main topics: ​​
Photo: Alisa Vignalo
1. Outdoor sculpture. We treated 8 outdoor sculptures in private collections including Untitled (1026) by Ellsworth Kelly and Raking Air by Ursula von Rydingsvard. I assisted in carrying out treatment steps including washing, oiling, cold waxing, and hot waxing.
2. Assisting with the treatment of two large-scale plaster maquettes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The treatment consisted of filling losses from previously removed fills with Polyfilla, a vinyl-based spackling material, and inpainting losses with Golden acrylics. ​
​3. Treatment of a plaster maquette.
This maquette was used in the design of the elevator doors of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The maquette was in an unstable structural condition with three large diagonal cracks that extended the depth of the plaster.