In the News: Patrick Ravines on Buffalo Rising’s ‘Buffalo…Who Knew’ Podcast

Buffalo Rising’s Buffalo…..Who Knew? podcast series, hosted by Newell Nussbaumer and Frits Abell, highlights the often underappreciated, previously unearthed assets of Buffalo. The August 14 episode welcomed Patrick Ravines, director of Buffalo State’s University’s Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman Art Conservation Department.

“A Conversation with Patrick Ravines, Director of the Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State” details the department’s founding and history, some of the recent items the program has treated, and how it became one of the leading programs of its kind in North America.

Ravines, who has been in his position for 14 years, said the Garman Art Conservation Department’s mission is to educate and train young conservators to preserve art and cultural heritage. The department is selective—the program only has capacity for 10 students—and applicants must possess a variety of qualities and skills. 

“The student has to know their art, has to know their craft, has to know how to make art, the materials that are used to make it, but also the science, the technology, the craft, the eye-hand coordination,” Ravines said. “I always tell the students basically, ‘We are the doctors of art.’”

Buffalo State’s Garman art conservation program takes three years to complete: First-year students receive a broad background in conservation treatment, imaging, and science. In the second year, they focus on one of four specializations—objects, paintings, paper and its subspecialties, or book and photograph conservation. Students complete a third-year internship at a museum, library, archive, or other cultural heritage institution under the mentorship of a professional conservator. Ravines said students are currently placed with many prestigious institutions, including the Smithsonian Museum and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Pictured: Patrick Ravines works on opening an early nineteenth-century platinotype paper canister. 

Photo by Buffalo State Marketing and Communications.