Join us for our eighth annual Adopt-a-Book event, featuring some of the most important books and objects in our collections that are in need of conservation. This event is open to all and is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Athenaeum’s historical collections.

The event will include remarks by Kayla Malouin-Fletcher, curator of The Caproni Collection, and conservator Lisa Benson, who will talk about the Athenaeum’s plaster busts and their conservation plan. The Caproni Collection produces and sells plaster reproductions of famous sculptures. Every piece is made in-house and by-hand. They use many of the original castings made by P.P. Caproni and Brother over 100 years ago to create their reproductions. During his time, master craftsman Pietro Caproni was granted permission by museums in Europe such as the Louvre, the Accademia and the British Museum to make molds directly from the museums’ famous sculptures—an honor unheard of today. Using these molds, he was able to recreate the world’s finest masterpieces with unrivaled accuracy. The Caproni Collection continues this tradition today.

Kayla Malouin-Fletcher is the curator and an administrator of the Caproni Collection. She is cataloging the Collection’s casts for the first time in its history and shares interesting facts, history, and stories on the Caproni website and social media platforms. She holds a Master’s in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s in art history from Wheaton College in Massachusetts.

Lisa Benson is a conservator and manager for the Caproni Collection. She has over ten years’ experience in sculpture restoration, conservation, and preservation. Projects include the cast collection at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Providence Athenaeum, and the Massachusetts State House Library. She holds a Master’s in Sculpture from New York Academy of Art and a Bachelor’s in fine arts from Wheaton College in Massachusetts.