Warwick library hosts medieval tapestry conservation program on March 20

Warwick - The Albert Wisner Public Library will present the “Restoration of the Cloisters’ Redemption Tapestry” on Sunday March 20, at 2 p.m. in the Community Room. Warwick resident Tina Kane will discuss the landmark medieval tapestry conservation project she managed for the Metropolitan Museum. In 1973, the curators of the Cloisters, in conjunction with the conservator in charge of Textile Conservation, took the decision to restore a severely damaged tapestry panel that had been purchased for the opening of the Cloisters Museum in 1938. Kane will describe this project from its inception to its final completion in 2009 and touch on ethical issues considered by conservators when they decide that restoration, rather than conservation, is the preferred program of preservation treatment for a work of art. The presentation will include slides of the tapestry. Tina Kane is a textile conservator in private practice, Conservator in the Textile Department of the Metropolitan Museum (retired) and instructor at Vassar College. For 23 years she managed the conservation program of an early 16th century Brussels tapestry from the Cloisters’ collection entitled “Christ is Born as Man’s Redeemer.” In 2010 she published a book entitled “The Troyes Mémoire: The Making of a Medieval Tapestry.”