A High-Tech Art Restoration at Middlebury’s Makerspace

An ailing artwork from the early 20th century—recently donated to the College—took on new life when the Middlebury Makerspace used 3D printing to recreate heads and body parts that had gone missing over the years. The plaster relief had seen better days when Victoria Perez Hidalgo ’27 set to work building a backing structure to stabilize the piece. Other students worked with Middlebury Makerspace manager Daniel Houghton to develop 3D scans that could be printed and used as casts in order to recreate the missing parts with the same material as the original. The restored artwork now hangs at the College’s arts center.