ABOUT

I first learned about conservation from a chemistry professor at Wheaton College. She was very interested in the connection between art and science, and I soon became intrigued by the subject as well. I was lucky enough to take a semester-long course at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, during which we covered a different type of art each week, looking at the materials used to make the art. In my next years of college, I continued to take art history, studio art, and chemistry classes.

I looked into internships at surrounding museums and was fortunate to find one at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, overseen by objects Conservator Holly Salmon. After graduation, I was offered and took a part time conservation technician position at the Gardner Muesum. In addition, I worked with Angela Chang, objects conservator at the Straus Center, Harvard Art Museums rehousing several different types of art for an upcoming move. Finally, I worked with Gianfranco Pocobene, a paintings conservator in private practice. I believe that the combination of this pre-program experience helped me to gain admission to the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation one year after graduating from college.

I started graduate school at WUDPAC in 2007. During my first year of school I had a difficult time deciding whether to specialize in objects or painting conservation. I am naturally drawn to the challenging aspects of treating and scientifically examining painted works of art. However, I also like the variety of different materials that fall under objects conservation, which is what I decided to specialize in. I was able to treat several painted objects during my first summer internship and my second year of study, which further solidified my interest in these types of objects. Following my technical investigation and treatment of a painted and gilded Javanese shadow puppet, I presented a paper at the Association of North American Graduate Program in Art Conservation conference in Buffalo, in 2009. Also. during my second year of study, I took a class in glass blowing at East Falls Glassworks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This helped me tremendously when I was treating an English drinking vessel during the WUDPAC program.

My third-year internship and my post-graduate fellowship at the National Gallery of Art, supervised by Shelley Sturman, gave me an appreciation for working with a large group of conservators and conservation scientists. Given my background in chemistry, I eagerly learned about and performed certain types of analysis to learn more about my projects. While I did treat a number of different types of objects, I was also challenged with the opportunity of treating a painted terra-cotta sculpture and a large painted wood altarpiece. I utilized all available resources to me, both in the NGA and from other institutions.

During my third-year internship I took a class in basic mosaic construction. During the nine weeks of the class, I created a mosaic using traditional methods. This helped me when the National Gallery of Art received a gift of a Marc Chagall mosaic that had to be deinstalled from its original location before traveling to the NGA. I also participated in a three-day Modular Cleaning Program workshop, taught by Chris Stravroudis and Tiarna Dougherty. While working at the Gallery, I was also able to help mentor a pre-program technician in the objects conservation department, who eventually went on to study at the Getty Conservation Institute.

After a period away from the conservation job field, I began working at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in early 2020. I assisted with the examination, documentation, and treatment of over 500 objects planned to be installed into newly renovated galleries for Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine art, a project led by associate objects conservator LeeAnn Barnes Gordon. Although temporary closure of the museum due to the pandemic delayed our work for several months, the project successfully continued and the galleries will open in late December 2021. The objects included in the galleries range from small gold and silver plaques and earrings, to numerous ceramic vessels, to large scale marble and bronze sculptures. The majority of treatments I completed included a combination of surface cleaning, consolidation and stabilization, minor repairs, loss filling, and inpainting. Throughout my time at the MFA, I gained valuable experience working in a team setting, collaborating with other conservators, mountmakers, conservation engineers, curators, and designers.

During the summer of 2022, I began a new job as an associate objects conservator at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center (WAAC) in Williamstown, MA. WAAC works with art museums, historical societies, and private collections, mostly in the New York and New England areas. I completed a high number of conservation treatments on objects including ancient bronzes; broken glass and ceramic objects; soapstone, alabaster, and marble sculptures; modern painted wood and ceramic sculptures; and numerous large-scale outdoor sculptures. Highlights include a George Rickey kinetic sculpture, a Paul Feeley painted wood sculpture, mold-stained marble busts, a large buffalo hide robe, a Tiffany favrile lamp, a broken ceramic sculpture of a horse, and a large paper mache cow painted purple.

I designed several simple mounts and crates for objects that I treated, with the assistance of the lab technician and art handler at the center, including mounts for a historic microphone from the Baseball Hall of Fame and a buffalo hide robe, and crates for marble busts and a modern ceramic sculpture.

In addition to in-lab bench treatment, I also completed several on-site projects to clean and perform annual preventive maintenance on outdoor sculpture, as well as multiple trips to an Abbey to repair outdoor mosaics.