RON BARBAGALLO is an art conservator specializing in the ethical repair and preservation of animation art. Barbagallo’s work in conservation has included preserving and archiving major collections of production art from the animated film, as well as having worked on the conservation of the Mary Grandpre pastels created for Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter films. Barbagallo created a toy archive for Warner Bros. Consumer Products. He has also done conservation for the various Bat Suits used to make the Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan Batman movies and conducted the first comprehensive study for the preservation of the puppets created for Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Tim Burton's Corspe Bride. He is currently handling the preservation of the animation artifacts that survived the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.
In 1995, Barbagallo addressed an international assembly at the Winter meeting of The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works at The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. on March 4th, 1995. His talk was entitled “Mickey, Donald, Goofy & Pluto - What’s Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine?”
Barbagallo has also written many articles on the artists and business people working in animation. Barbagallo conducted the final print interview with WB director Chuck Jones; this interview appears in the University Press of Mississippi book: Chuck Jones: Conversations (Conversations With Comic Artists Series).
Many of his published articles and articles created solely for his web site can be see online at: www.animationartconservation.com. Barbagallo’s web site is the only web site of its type to have been a license by the Walt Disney Studio.
From Animation Magazine (2003):
Animation Art Conservation director Ron Barbagallo has launched the new web site www.animationartconservation.com. The site is the first to have authorized use of copyrighted Disney images and discuss conservation issues unique to animation art.