Rachel Freeman is a conservator of paper and Asian art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO. Prior to moving to Missouri, she worked for The Art Institute of Chicago and the Balboa Art Conservation Center, San Diego, CA. Rachel’s previous publications and research interests include South and South East Asian palm leaf manuscripts, the papers and a printing matrix by Jose Guadalupe Posada, Edouard Manet’s prints, drawings and pastels, and Chinese New Year’s prints. She is currently part of a team of conservators and curators writing for an online catalogue of the French paintings and pastels at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Rachel is a 2004 (MA) graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo’s training program in art conservation (internships included the Balboa Art Conservation Center, Museums of New Mexico, and Heugh-Edmonson Conservation Services).
There was a long hiatus between entering graduate school and earing her BA at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. During those years she worked in Japan; studied in Florence, Italy; and enjoyed a fabulous introduction to paper conservation and preservation as a technician at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin.
Rachel is a Professional Member of the American Institute for Conservation and was co-chair for Art on Paper Discussion Group (2016-2017) and the Book and Paper Group Paper Conservation Wiki (2013-2014).