High schoolers learn the art of preservation

When Cleaster Graves noticed some crumbling mortar around the foundation of her family’s aging Brooklyn brownstone, she turned to an unusual expert for help: her 17-year-old daughter, Corrie Thomas.

“She said, ‘You know what to do with this stuff. Go on and fix it!’ ” Thomas said.

Asking the teenager to restore the foundation wasn’t just wishful thinking. Thomas happens to be a fairly skilled preserver, as are all of her classmates in the Preservation Arts and Technology program at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts.

The program, founded in 2000, is believed to be the first and only preservation arts program in the country. It aims to prepare students for jobs in restoration crafts or in related fields such as conservation and architecture. Students learn about engineering and city planning and also take part in hands-on classes and internships in stone masonry, stained-glass restoration and timber-framing.

Because the High School of the Arts is so new, students find their way there largely by chance, Principal Robert Finley said. They come to the school wanting to be actors and dancers, then realize there are different careers related to the arts that might be meaningful. Almost all students go to college.

The school uses an interdisciplinary approach to preservation arts, so all 650 students are introduced to the basic ideas of preservation technology.

Kate Ottavino, director of preservation technology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said there’s an increasing interest in preservation arts as Americans realize that the country is full of crumbling historic buildings and few people know how to fix them.

“It’s absolutely a crisis situation,” Ottavino said. “I’m one of the youngest people in the industry, and I’m 48 years old.”

Although most parents don’t encourage their children to go into crafts, the timber-framers and restorers who teach master classes at the high school are quick to point out that restoration trades can be very lucrative.

“That’s what gets the kids really excited,” history teacher Mark Watson said. “They can make $100,000 a year, and there are jobs forever.”

Even if they don’t go on to high-paying jobs, students in the program say a greater awareness of what preservation arts teachers call “the built environment” is invaluable.