Textile Specialty Group Achievement Award

Purpose:

An award for outstanding contributions to the field of textile conservation by an individual or entity that has promoted, defended, and worked in support of the importance of textiles and their need for preservation.

Criteria:

Nominations must meet the following criteria.

Individual nominees should be or have been a Professional Associate or a Fellow of the American Institute for the Conservation. Dedication to the organization over their years of membership will be taken into consideration and those who are not Professional Associates or Fellows will be considered by the committee based on their individual merit. Those currently serving on AIC Boards/Committees may not receive awards during their tenure.

Note: Nominations may be resubmitted for three years running.

How to Nominate:

The Proposer (formerly called Nominator) must be an Associate, a Professional Associate or a Fellow of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. The Proposer completes the Nomination Form and also provides a written statement of the nominee’s commitment to the field in areas such as research, analysis, conservation, teaching, and support of the textile conservation community.
The Proposer also sends a copy of the the Nomination Form to a Sponsor and has that Sponsor return their separate written statement (providing evidence of the nominee’s commitment to the field in areas such as research, analysis, conservation, teaching, and support of the textile conservation community) to the Proposer in a PDF format.
The Sponsor must be an Associate, a Professional Associate or a Fellow of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
The Proposer submits the completed Nomination Form with the two separate written statements (all 3 in PDF format) to at awards@culturalheritage.org (in the email subject line: TSG Achievement Award Nomination: Name of Nominee) by February 15. An email confirmation of receipt will be sent to Proposers.
Questions about the award or the nomination process can be directed to Joanne Hackett, Achievement Award Committee Chair at j.hackett@vam.ac.uk

Achievement Award Committee:

The committee will be made up of four TSG members, three voting members and an alternate. They will be responsible for selecting awardees that have shown dedication, commitment, leadership and continuous contribution to the field of Textile Conservation. Each committee member will serve staggered four-year terms with one new member chosen and one finishing their tenure each year. The first year of their term, the member will serve as alternate and the last year as the committee chair. During this period, the members themselves will not be eligible to be nominated or to nominate a candidate.

Past Winners:

Past winners of the Achievement Award are listed below. Click on their names to read about their accomplishments.

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TSG Achievement Award Winners

2019: Vicki Cassman

Dr. Vicki Cassman has been committed to studying and conserving textiles, as well as teaching and mentoring students, for most of her adult life. She has inspired and fostered the growth of countless conservators, and has been a valuable resource to her colleagues through her extensive expertise and research on the preservation of both textiles and human remains.

After graduating from the Winterthur/University of Delaware program in Art Conservation in 1985, Dr. Cassman worked as a textile conservator in private practice and at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. In 1997 she received a PhD in Archaeology from Arizona State University and began teaching in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In 2006 she returned to the University of Delaware as a professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Art Conservation.

Dr. Cassman is the main editor for the book Human Remains Guide for Museums and Academic Institutions (AltaMira Press, 2007). She was the recipient of the 2012 College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Service Award, the 2012 University of Delaware Excellence in Advising and Mentoring Award, and the 2014 American Institute for Conservation Sheldon and Carolyn Keck Award.
2018: Margaret Anderson (formerly Margaret Fikioris)

AIC Fellow Margaret Anderson (formerly Margaret Fikioris) worked as a textile conservator from 1966 until 1990, and a conservation educator from 1974 to 1990. She had a special interest in preventive conservation throughout her career, and served as a mentor and advisor to many conservation students. Margaret received an MA in Art History at Columbia University in the early 1960s; her research focus was on a set of 16th century tapestries. At the suggestion of Sheldon Keck, Margaret trained in textile conservation at The Textile Museum under Joseph Columbus, Colonel Rice, and Louisa Bellinger in the mid-1960s. Florence and Charles Montgomery of the Winterthur Museum recruited Margaret to become Winterthur’s textile conservator in 1967 where she set up the museum's first textile conservation lab in the Louise du Pont Crowninshield Research Building (opened 1969). In 1974 when the Winterthur Museum and the University of Delaware accepted the first class into the Art Conservation Training Program (WUDPAC), Margaret became a conservation educator, serving on the admissions committee and training students in textile conservation. From 1978-1992 Margaret served in the 6-member Harper's Ferry Regional Textile Conservation Group with Kathleen Betts, Meg Loew Craft, Katherine Dirks, Jane Merritt, and Fonda Thompson, which grew from a small regional meeting to an international gathering. The HFRTG held 10 conferences with associated publications on various textile conservation topics. After leaving Winterthur in 1990, she continued to work until 2007 as a consultant for collections assessment and storage planning for institutions and small historical societies with textile collections.

Margaret has become a peace activist and is currently focusing on the preservation of the human spirit and Mother Earth instead of the preservation of material culture. Her decades of work within our field deserve to be recognized, especially her encouragement to those who wished to study textile conservation.
2017: Joy Gardiner

Joy Gardiner is Head of Conservation at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, where she has worked full-time since 1991. Before being appointed to her current position she served as Assistant Director of Conservation and Head of Textile Conservation, and was an Affiliated Assistant Professor in Art Conservation for the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Conservation. She has lectured on a variety of topics relating to textile conservation, with a number of these being written up in pre- and post-prints. She has been treasurer (1993-1994), vice-chair (1998-1999) and chair (1999-2000) of the Textile Specialty Group of AIC and since 2000 has been on the Steering Committee/Board of the North American Textile Conservation Conference (NATCC).
2016: Lucy Commoner

Lucy Commoner was the Senior Textile Conservator at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum since 1977 and was appointed Head of Conservation in 2004, a position she held until 2016, when she became Conservator Emerita at the museum. Previously, she was an Assistant Restorer for the Textile Conservation and Egyptian Departments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her areas of expertise include early Dynastic Egyptian textiles, folding fans (history and conservation), museum storage systems, fiber identification and microscopy, exhibition and mounting techniques for textiles, and the construction and maintenance of conservation environment.

Ms. Commoner has lectured and published widely including articles published by the Journal of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), the Textile Conservation Group, and the Smithsonian Institution Press. She has taught textile conservation classes for the Fashion Institute of Technology Textile Conservation Program, the Parsons School of Design, and is an adjunct professor for the New York University Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center.

She was also a founding member of the New York Textile Conservation Group and the New York Conservation Association and has served on their boards. She was elected a Fellow of AIC in 1987 and served as Chair of the Membership Committee. She has been an editor of the AIC Textile Conservation Catalogue since the project began. She also served on the Board of Advisors of the FIT Graduate Division for several years and has been a conservation grant reviewer for the NEH and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Ms. Commoner has served as a consulting conservator for numerous museums, including the Museum at FIT, the Queens Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, the New York Historical Society, the Morgan Library and the Museum of Modern Art.
2015: Harold F. Mailand

Harold F. Mailand is the Director of Textile Conservation Services, based in Indianapolis. He has lectured on preservation issues in England, Italy, Germany, Canada, and throughout the United States and since 2002 has been the instructor for “Care of Textiles” at the International Preservation Studies Center. He is the author, with Dorothy Alig, of Preserving Textiles: A Guide for the Nonspecialist (1999), a revision of his original 1978 text Considerations for the Care of Textiles and Costumes: A Handbook for the Non-Specialist.

In 2002 he was awarded a Samuel H. Kress Conservation Publication Fellowship to pursue research in the traditions of preserving textiles and costumes. In 2018, he received the Costume Society of America Fellow Award, which "recognizes the dedication, commitment, leadership, and outstanding contributions of CSA members to the Costume Society of America and to the field of costume."
2014: Patsy Orlofsky

Patsy Orlofsky is the founder and director of the Textile Conservation Workshop in South Salem, NY. A scholar and lecturer on the history and care of Judaic objects, American textiles and modern and contemporary art textiles, she is also the author of Quilts in America published in 1974, 1992. She is a Professional Associate of AIC and FAIC Samuel H. Kress Conservation Publications Fellowship Coordinator.
2013: Leslie Melville Smith

Leslie Melville Smith was a pioneer in the field of textile conservation. She attended Radcliffe College with the goal of becoming a chemist but by the time she graduated she had a degree in archaeology and a desire to work with ancient and historic textiles. This interest led her to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she began as a volunteer and eventually became Head of the Textile Conservation Workroom. During this time she helped set up the conservation program at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she lectured and taught a hands-on treatment workshop. In 1986, Leslie left the MFA to become the Head Textile Conservator at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. She retired in 1990.
2012: R. Bruce Hutchinson (awarded posthumously)

R. Bruce Hutchison was one of the most well-known and respected textile conservators of his generation. He began his conservation career in San Francisco in 1973, under the tutelage of Ms. Pat Reeves (visiting from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Hutchison worked closely with Anna and Ralph Bennett to establish a textile conservation facility at San Francisco's M.H. de Young Museum. There, he helped develop innovative techniques for tapestry and costume conservation that became models for other textile conservation practices throughout the country.

In 1975 he was awarded a National Endowment for the Art Fellowship which enabled him to spend a year to work and study textile conservation at ateliers in Denmark, Sweden, England, and Switzerland. Upon his return to the U.S., Hutchison became Textile Conservator for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He was instrumental in preparing two major exhibitions -- "Five Centuries of Tapestry" and "A Century of Brides"--and contributed to the training of numerous textile department interns and volunteers. From 1979 to 1982, Hutchison established a freelance conservation practice in San Francisco.

From 1982 to 1992, Hutchison was Textile Conservator for the Textile Conservation Laboratory of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York City, where he worked to develop a full service facility with an emphasis on large scale tapestries and textiles. In 1992, Bruce returned to San Francisco, to re-establish a freelance conservation practice.

Hutchison played an active part in the formation and development of several professional associations. From 1986 to 1988, he was President of the Textile Conservation Group, N.Y.C. He also helped to establish the Textile Specialty Group of A.I.C. He served as an officer for the BAACG and was a regular participant in WAAC activities. In 1987 he was asked to deliver a paper at "The Conservation of Tapestries and Embroideries" meeting at the IRPA, Brussels (his paper was Gluttony and Avarice: Two Different Approaches). Throughout his career, he was committed to the training of students, and was known for emphasizing meticulous care and craftsmanship in all aspects of studio work.
2011: Mary Ballard

For more than 40 years, Mary Ballard has been a strong and active member of the textile conservation profession and of AIC and the Textile Specialty Group. After her studies at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center (from which she received her MA and Certificate in Conservation in 1979), Mary was the textile conservator at the Detroit Institute of Arts from 1977-1984. Since 1984, she has been the textile conservator at the Museum Conservation Institute of the Smithsonian Institution, through all of its name changes.

Mary has written or co-written nearly 50 papers on archaeological textiles; the museum environment; textile treatment issues, materials, and techniques; dyes and pigments in conservation; and laboratory protocols. The range of fields in which she has published shows the range of her interests and knowledge.

Mary and Gail Ni’inima co-founded the "texcons" distlist in 1997. Mary has always been willing to share information in other less formal ways. Many conservators have benefited from her giving references and advice via telephone conversations, letters, and emails.

Mary has served as a mentor to many beginning textile conservators and hosted workshops and courses at Suitland for textile conservators for many years. Working within AIC/TSG, Mary served as TSG Vice Chair and then Chair both in the mid ‘80s and 2006-08. She was an active member and then chair of the AIC Health and Safety Committee in the early 2000s. She has been a Fellow of AIC for many, many years.

Mary is anything but provincial in her approach to conservation. She is a Fellow of IIC, a senior member of AAATC, a member of CIETA, and an active member of ICOM-CC, for which she served as Coordinator of the Textile Working Group.
2010: Jane Merritt

Jane Merritt’s career in textile conservation spans more than 30 years, during which she worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Textile Conservation Department, the Textile Museum in Washington, DC, the Association pour l’Etude et la Documentation des Textiles d’Asie in Paris, France, and at the National Park Service’s Harpers Ferry Center, Harpers Ferry, WV. She has served as a consultant to many private and public institutions, published extensively in the area of textile conservation and history, and lectured widely.

Jane received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Museum Professionals to do field research in Indonesia, was a Brunschwig et Fils Scholar at the Attingham Summer School on the British Country house, and was a 2002 recipient of the Samuel H. Kress Conservation Publication Fellowship from the Foundation for the American Institute for Conservation. The book that resulted from that award, Preventive Conservation for Historic House Museums, (co-authored with Julie Reilly) was published in 2010 by Altamira Press.

In her positions at the Textile Museum and Harpers Ferry, Jane trained and supervised staff and interns. At least three now-professional textile conservators did graduate school internships or post-graduate fellowships with her at Harpers Ferry.

Jane was an active member of the HFRTG, a group that organized and presented textile conservation programs biennially between 1978 and 1992 in Washington, DC. After that group disbanded, Jane was the one to propose what has now become NATCC. NATCC has developed into a successful organization that, since its first conference in 1997, draws together textile conservators for biennial conferences and workshops to share expertise.

Working within AIC/TSG, Jane served as TSG Vice Chair and Chair in the mid-1990’s. She was a longtime editor of the Textile Conservation Catalogue (now on the AIC Wiki), responsible for co-editing five chapters and the Statement of Purpose and for reorganizing the outline of the entire Catalogue. She also co-edited Vols. 10-12 of the TSG Postprints.