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In mid-September Martha Gyllenhaal, assistant professor of fine arts and art history at Bryn Athyn College, presented a paper at the conference entitled "Plaster Casts: Making, Collecting and Displaying From Classical Antiquity to the Present," which was hosted by Worcester College, Oxford University, England. Professor Gyllenhaal's talk, "Rembrandt's artful use of plaster casts: New insights into seventeenth-century studio practices and working methods," is also the topic of her doctoral dissertation, which will be completed within the year.

For centuries, plaster casts have served as important tools for creating and studying art, and this second conference on the topic gathered artists, archivists, and historians from countries around the world. The conference offered a unique chance for artists and art historians to communicate with one another about a wide variety of issues regarding plaster casts.

The four-day conference addressed topics such as the history of plaster casts, display and future use, current artistic techniques, and preservation tactics. The event also included trips to see the plaster cast collections of several museums, including the Ashmolean Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and a private collection near Oxford.

Glencairn Museum has a plaster cast collection housed in its archives. Professor Gyllenhaal says that the conference provided her with ideas about how to better care for and display Glencairn Museum's collection of plaster casts so that they will continue to provide valuable records of art history and education.

In addition to Professor Gyllenhaal's attendance at the plaster cast conference at Oxford University, several other Bryn Athyn College faculty members, Dr. Dan Synnestvedt and Dr. Jane Williams-Hogan have attended scholarly conferences recently. Professor Gyllenhaal says she enjoyed the opportunity to represent Bryn Athyn College faculty in the academic community, noting: "Bryn Athyn College faculty goes to conferences and presents papers more than ever in the history of the college, and each one is becoming known in their field."

For more information on the conference and a list of the presenters, visit http://www.plastercasts.org.