“ The Art of Collecting”, a special section ofthe December 4, 2024 issue of The New York Times contains a profile of Suzanne Siano, conservator of modern and contemporary art titled “What the Art Doctor Says”. The article’s title comes from Siano’s description of conservators as “We’re doctors of art.” It’s not uncommon to see this description. Cash Brown, a conservator in Rye, Victoria, Australia calls her business The Art Doctor. A 2009 New Yorker profile of the conservator Christian Scheidemann was titled “The Art Doctor”. In the 2014 book by the anthropologist Paul Stoller (Yaya’s Story: the Quest for Well-Being in the World), Ag Gugul Ibegart who repairs masks and figurines broken in shipment from West Africa on their way to sale on New York City streets is called “the art doctor”. In their 2024 book, Cultural Heritage Conservation for Early Learners, Ellen Chase, Laura Hoffman and Matthew Lasnoski speak about introducing children to the concept of “an art doctor”. I understand the educational and outreach reasons for using the term, but I often wonder if conservators are art doctors or something else.
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