Anita Dey is the Assistant Paper Conservator at the Yale Center for British Art, where she focuses on the treatment and research of 18th-century materials exchanged among British, Indian, and Chinese artists. She earned a Master of Arts in Paper Conservation from the Garman Art Conservation Department at SUNY Buffalo State, where her master’s project involved the identification and treatment of six varnished Tibetan Initiation Cards. Anita also holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences with a minor in Ancient Studies from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Anita previously worked at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C., where she conducted pigment analysis and treatment of Indian and Islamic paintings, including 14 oversized manuscripts from the Great Mongol Shahnama. Her experience also includes roles at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture, and the Conservation Center for Arts and Historical Artifacts.
Anita is dedicated to advancing diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility in the conservation field through advocacy, education, and systemic change. She is also the owner of Agents To Fight Deterioration, a small business that promotes art conservation, raises visibility in the field, and addresses issues of neutrality and inequality in conservation practices.