Graduate's dream job combines art, history, chemistry

Most applicants to conservation schools are not admitted the first time they apply.\nIU graduate Preston H. Smith will find out in April if he has beaten the odds and been accepted on his first try. \nSmith applied to Buffalo State College in New York, one of three schools in the country that offer a conservation program.\nThe average age of conservation school applicants is about 30, Smith said.\n"I'm younger than that now, but let's just say I'm confident good will come of this," Smith said.\nConservation science is notoriously difficult, said Janet Kennedy, head of the Department of the History of Art. Applicants to conservation schools have to be very skilled in studio art, art history and chemistry, and they must have completed internships with professional conservators, Kennedy said.\nSmith was able to accomplish all of these things at IU.\n"I can't stress enough how fantastic IU is for this program," Smith said.\nSmith graduated from IU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting, a Bachelor of Arts in art history and a minor in chemistry. Bloomington is home to several conservators because of the IU Art Museum, Mathers Museum and Lilly Library. Smith worked under IU Art Museum Conservator Margaret Contompasis as a volunteer intern while working on his undergraduate degrees.\n"It was great to work alongside someone with so much knowledge and experience," Smith said.\nSmith has worked on several conservation projects to add to his portfolio. Last summer he worked with art conservator Tony Rajer to remove two murals painted on the walls of 100-year-old Brookside Elementary School in Indianapolis. The murals were painted directly onto the wall in 1921. Smith assisted architects, engineers, professional riggers and construction crews in treating and moving the two pieces -- 5 feet tall and 17 feet wide -- to their new location.\nThere is a lot of travel involved in conservatism, Smith said. Conservatism has taken him around the U.S. as well as to London, Italy, France and India.\nSmith worked with Rajer again, traveling to northern India where he worked on a project to evaluate the condition of a 25-acre sculpture park known as "Rock Garden" by Nek Chand.\n"It was like a handmade Disneyland," Smith said. "Over the course of 50 years the artist used anything you would normally throw out to assemble as people and other figures."\nFor three weeks Smith helped to survey and assess over 3,000 sculptures and train local volunteers in identifying damage patterns.\nSmith said figuring out what you want to do in life is a journey and a process, but it all works out in the end as long as you're doing what you want.\nSmith was a student in several of Kennedy's classes while he was at IU and she was able to get to know him during that time.\n"Preston has discovered something he wants to do and gone after it," Kennedy said.\nSmith said he is lucky to have found a career that involves art work in the way that conservatism does. \n"I chose conservation because I didn't want to work a day in my life," Smith said. "Being able to do the things I do is a dream, I love it"