Paintings Specialty Group

Ellen Davis is Associate Paintings Conservator at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Study at the Harvard Art Museums. Previously she was a Fellow in Paintings Conservation at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She earned her M.A., C.A.S. in Art Conservation from Buffalo State, S.U.N.Y. in 2015 and her M.A. from Wesleyan University in 2007. Ellen completed her third-year graduate internship at MoMA and additional graduate internships at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Barnes Foundation, and the Judd Foundation in NYC. Ellen has a particular interest in the treatment of non-traditional modern and contemporary paintings, as well as the influence of prior conservation interventions on those treatments.

Adriana was introduced to conservation during her junior year of high school and was able to focus her undergraduate studies on conservation. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Towson University with a B.A. in Art History and Studio Arts as well as minors in Chemistry and German. Her senior thesis focused on the conservation of Thomas Eakins’s The Gross Clinic. After her graduation in 2019, she began training under Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner at Winterthur’s painting conservation studio and undertook the conservation of Lincoln University’s Portrait of Reverend Irving Underhill by Laura Wheeler Waring. In addition to cleaning and inpainting, the portrait required a modified Heiber technique to mend a large tear. Next, she interned at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. In the paintings studio she wrote a condition report and documentation on a panel painting and worked on its initial cleaning. She then interned in the objects lab conditioning and cleaning a 19th-century enameled glass vase cover. During and after her time at the Walters she also worked in an archival frame shop in Baltimore where she was exposed to artworks including antique Chinese silks, rugs, pins, embroideries, and antique prints. In her free time, she listens to podcasts, takes care of her cats, and plays video games or Dungeons and Dragons with her friends.

Brianna is currently the Conserving Canvas Project Fellow at the National Gallery of Art. She graduated from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation in 2024, specializing in paintings conservation. She has previous experience working at The Cleveland Museum of Art, Frans Hals Museum (NL), and Smithsonian American Art Museum, as well in the private practice studios of Cynthia Kuniej Berry and West Lake Conservators.

Victoria Ward is the Migelien Gerritzen Fellow for Conservation and Scientific Research at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam where she is developing greener cleaning methods, inspired by historical-recipes and biomaterials for treating traditional oil paintings. Victoria holds a BA in the History of Art (first class) from University College London (UCL) and an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London specialising in the Conservation of Easel Paintings. Victoria is interested in sustainability and innovative conservation techniques for cultural heritage and has published on these topics and presented her work at the 2026 AIC Conference in Montreal, Canada (Paintings Specialty Group).

Laura Richter Le is a Paintings Conservator at Green Mountain Art Conservation.

Gregory Bailey graduated in 2011 from Buffalo State College with an M.A. and C.A.S. in Art Conservation with a focus on the conservation of objects. Since that time, he has been awarded a Kress Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a Mellon Fellowship at the Walters Art Museum, where he also went on to work as Associate Conservator. He is the 2016-2017 recipient of the Booth Family Rome Prize in Historic Preservation and Conservation.  From 2017 to 2019, Greg served as Objects Conservator for the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery.  Greg returned to the Walters Art Museum in 2019 as Senior Objects Conservator.  Greg is a Professional Member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), for which he also serves on the Board of Directors. Greg is Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC) as well as Associate Editor for Studies in Conservation.

After graduating from Mary Washington College with a BA in art history and historic preservation, Ryan moved to DC, where he got his first job working for a small association management firm. After that he worked at a national arts advocacy organization before coming to AIC as a Membership Assistant. He is currently the Membership Manager. Ryan likes living in DC where he enjoys learning about its history, its local politics, and its public transportation system. In his spare time, he likes to cook, travel, and finish the many DIY projects he has going on in his apartment.