Journal of the American Institute for Conservation

Julio M. del Hoyo-Meléndez holds a PhD in science and conservation of cultural heritage from the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. He received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico and the University of Houston, respectively. He was a graduate intern in the Museum Research Laboratory of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, USA from 2005 to 2006. In 2007, he was awarded a predoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute in Maryland (USA) for conducting research on the action of light on cultural heritage materials. He is the Head the Laboratory of Analysis and Non-Destructive Investigation of Heritage Objects of the National Museum in Krakow in Poland. 

email me

Carmina joined us in 2016. She works with Bonnie Naugle to coordinate the production of AIC News and JAIC, and serves as point person for advertising and member email communications. Prior to joining our team, she worked at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco where she was involved in the preparation of all communications material and coordination of media and public relations for the opening of main temporary art exhibits. She brings over 10 years of experience, part of which was with the United Nations. She has an MA in Organizational Communications from the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises (France) and a BA in Broadcasting Journalism from American University (US).

email me

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.

email me

Brenna Campbell is Associate Director for Conservation & Exhibition Strategies at Yale University Library. She was previously Head of the Preservation & Conservation Department at Princeton University Library. She has an MS in Information Studies and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Library and Archives Conservation from The University of Texas at Austin. She completed an internships and fellowships at Harvard University Library’s Weissman Preservation Center, The Morgan Library & Museum, and The Museum of Modern Art, and was Assistant Conservator at The University of Iowa Libraries. She has a bachelor’s degree in Art History from Wellesley College.

email me

Claudia Chemello is Principal and Senior Conservator of Terra Mare Conservation, LLC a private conservation practice specializing in the conservation of archaeological, architectural fine art and industrial cultural heritage. Prior to starting a private practice, Claudia was senior conservator at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan and a conservator for the Agora Excavations, Greece. She has a graduate degree in conservation from the University of Western Sydney, Australia, and is a Fellow of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC). Her primary interests are the conservation of archaeological materials, particularly metals, field conservation methods and the integration of conservation and archaeology. She has provided conservation for numerous excavations in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Central America, and Asia. She is Coordinator of the ICOM-CC Metals Working Group and a former co-chair of the Archaeological Discussion Group of the AIC.

email me

Professor Coughlin is a 2005 graduate of the University of Delaware Winterthur Program in Art Conservation where she specialized in Objects Conservation. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Mary Washington University with a BA in Historic Preservation. Beginning as a graduate intern in the Objects Laboratory at the National Museum of American History, Professor Coughlin has also served as a Samuel H. Kress Fellow, a Smithsonian Postgraduate Conservation Fellow, and most recently as an Objects Conservator, all at NMAH. She also interned at English Heritage in London and the National Park Service’s Textile and Objects Laboratories in Harper’s Ferry. While at NMAH, Professor Coughlin conserved objects as diverse as FDR’s leg braces to Star War’s C-3PO. She has given conference presentation and published articles on the conservation challenges of contemporary museum collections, particularly with respect to plastic. 

Professor Coughlin has taught conservation classes in the Museum Studies Program since 2006, both on campus and through our Distance Education Museum Collections Management and Care Certificate program.

email me

Lee Ann Daffner is the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Conservator of Photographs at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1998 and is responsible for all aspects of the preservation, conservation and materials research for photographs in all the Museum’s collections.  She is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation.  Lee Ann received a Master of Arts and Certificate of Advanced Study in the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Artifacts State University College at Buffalo with subsequent training and work experience at The George Eastman House, The Better Image, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Archives in Washington D.C. and the Houghton Library at Harvard University.    The Thomas Walther Collection project, funded in part by a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is a new model for collaborative materials-based research between fields of conservation and art history.

email me

bio coming soon

email me

Joshua Freedland has extensive experience with materials conservation of historic buildings. His work has included materials analysis, building documentation, facade investigations, preservation recommendations, and construction observations. Mr. Freedland has worked with a wide variety of materials, including granite, marble, limestone, brick masonry, terra cotta, stucco, plaster, and architectural metals. Mr. Freedland has provided preservation recommendations for hundreds of buildings, monuments, and sculptures, including many listed on the National Register of Historic Places and local registers. Multiple local and national organizations have recognized his preservation work for excellence. Numerous archaeological sites in the United States and abroad have benefitted from Mr. Freedland’s conservation consulting services. He has published and presented extensively on materials and site conservation, including laboratory studies on desalination efficiency, stone consolidants, and masonry cleaning and preservation. He has a BA in history from Brandeis University (1995), a MS in historic preservation (1999) and an Advanced Certificate in architectural conservation (2000) from the University of Pennsylvania.

email me

Clara Granzotto is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Conservation Scientist in the Department of Conservation and Science of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work focuses on the characterization of traditional binding media in works of art by mass spectrometry, with a focus on polysaccharides and proteins, as a way to understand techniques employed by artists and appearance when evaluating condition of artworks.

email me

Joanne Hackett ACR graduated with an MS from the Winterthur/University of Delaware programme in Art Conservation in 1998. After graduation she worked as a textile conservator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and then at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  In 2006 she returned to the UK to become a Senior Textile Conservator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, becoming Head of Textile and Fashion Conservation there in 2015.  She joined the University of Glasgow as Lecturer in Textile Conservation in 2021.  She is a fellow of AIC and IIC.

email me

Arlen Heginbotham is currently Conservator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the J. Paul Getty Museum.  He received his A.B. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University, his M.A. in Art Conservation from Buffalo State College, and his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.  Arlen’s research interests include the technical study of Asian export lacquer, wood identification by chemical analysis, the use of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy as a tool for studying copper alloy artifacts and their patinas, and digital X-radiography for conservation.  He has authored over 40 peer reviewed publications and has co-authored, with Gillian Wilson, the catalog French Rococo Ébénisterie in the J. Paul Getty Museum and is an editor and author of the recently published Guidelines for the Technical Examination of Bronze Sculpture from Getty Publications.

email me

Paul Himmelstein has been a partner in the New York conservation firm of Appelbaum and Himmelstein since 1972.  The firm carries out conservation treatments on paintings and painted textiles, and consults for institutions and private collectors on matters related to collections care, including lighting, environmental control, and building renovation and construction. Mr. Himmelstein received his conservation training at the Intermuseum Laboratory, Oberlin, Ohio, and was a consultant conservator at the Brooklyn Museum for seven years. He is a past president of the American Institute for Conservation, and was the co-organizer of three symposia co-sponsored by the Association for Preservation Technology and the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) dealing with the problems of housing collections in historic buildings. He serves on the ASHRAE Committee on Museums, Archives and Libraries, and on the Illuminating Engineering Society Committee on Museums and Art Galleries. Recent projects include the relighting of the interior of the Hyde Collection, conservation consultation on large projects for Clemson University and the National Park Service, Calumet Michigan. He was a presenter at the Building Museums Conference 2011 in San Francisco and at the North Carolina Museums Association in 2013.

email me

Clara Granzotto is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Conservation Scientist in the Department of Conservation and Science of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work focuses on the characterization of traditional binding media in works of art by mass spectrometry, with a focus on polysaccharides and proteins, as a way to understand techniques employed by artists and appearance when evaluating condition of artworks.

email me

Julie A. Reilly received a BA, Magna cum Laude, in Anthropology from Towson State University with minors in Art and Mathematics and an MA in Anthropology from George Washington University concentrating in Ethnographic and Archeological Conservation and Applied Science. She completed a pre-program internship at the Baltimore Museum of Art and a post graduate internship at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum.

Julie has worked as objects conservator for the Smithsonian’s American History Museum; the NPS Applied Archeology Center; the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; and the Winterthur Museum and Gardens. She served as Adjunct Associate Professor for the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation and Adjunct Professor for the Museum Studies Department, University of Nebraska. She was Associate Director for the Nebraska State Historical Society for fourteen years where she served as Chief Conservator and founding director of the regional Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center. Reilly served as Development Director for KANEKO, a nonprofit that explores and encourages human creativity in all its facets; Executive Director of the Joslyn Castle, an urban historic mansion with over 5 acres of gardens and grounds; Executive Director of Omaha by Design, an urban design and policy nonprofit; and Executive Director of the Intermuseum Conservation Association and the Williamstown+Atlanta Art Conservation Center. 

Reilly is a consultant; has spoken and published widely. She is coauthor of Preventive Conservation for Historic House Museums, an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, and a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation. She has served as a member of the AIC Collections Care Professional Task Force; was a Peer Professional for the General Services Administration’s Building Services Excellence in Architecture Program; and served for many years on the Board of Heritage Preservation. She has helped found a 20th century architecture preservation group, an annual historic preservation conference, and has served on several nonprofit boards. Julie grew up and traveled overseas for over fourteen years as the daughter of a State Department officer, living in Korea, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Kenya.

email me

Corina E. Rogge is the Director of Conservation at the Menil Collection. She earned a B.A. in chemistry from Bryn Mawr College, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center (Houston). Before joining the Menil Collection, she was the Andrew W.Mellon Research Scientist at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Menil collection from 2013-2023, and  the Andrew W. Mellon assistant professor in Conservation Science in the Department of Art Conservation at State University of New York Buffalo State from 2010-2013. She is currently serving as the Vice-President of the American Institute for Conservation and is a Fellow of that organization and an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation.

email me

Katie Sanderson is a Conservator in the Department of Photograph Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. After receiving her B.A. from Wesleyan University in American Studies and Material Culture, she spent several years as a Collections Care Specialist at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston before beginning her graduate training. She received her M.A. in art history and Advanced Certificate in conservation with a specialization in photographs from the Conservation Center at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, followed by two years as the Research Scholar in Photograph Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art where her research focused on the study of color change in photographs over time.  This work is ongoing with the ultimate goal of obtaining more object-specific predictions of longevity and to refine exhibition policies for a variety of photographic processes.  Her other main research interest involves the use of economic theory to more broadly assess how museums use their collections and how use affects the longevity of the art objects in their care. She is a Professional Member of AIC and has served as AIC's Poster Session chair and PMG's Program Chair.

email me

Sarah Scaturro is the Eric and Jane Nord Chief Conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art where she is charge of the conservation and technical research areas. She was the Head Conservator of The Costume Institute in the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 2012 - 2020 and the Textile Conservator and Assistant Curator of Fashion at the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum from 2006 - 2012. She publishes on the theory and history of textile and fashion conservation and specializes in synthetic materials used in fashion and textiles. She received an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, and Museum Practice from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and MPhil in Design History and Material Culture Studies from Bard Graduate Center, where she is currently a PhD candidate writing her dissertation on the professionalization of fashion and textile conservation.

email me

Gregory Dale Smith received a B.S. degree from Centre College of Kentucky in anthropology/sociology and chemistry before pursuing graduate studies at Duke University as an NSF graduate fellow in time-domain vibrational spectroscopy and archaeological fieldwork. His postgraduate training included investigations of pigment degradation processes and palette studies of illuminated manuscripts at the British Library and the V & A Museum, development of synchrotron infrared microscopy facilities at the National Synchrotron Light Source, and researching cleaning issues related to artists’ acrylic emulsion paints at the National Gallery of Art. In 2004, Dr. Smith joined the faculty of the conservation training program at Buffalo State College as the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Conservation Science. In 2010 Dr. Smith was hired as the Otto N. Frenzel III Senior Conservation Scientist at the Indianapolis Museum of Art where he constructed and now operates a state-of-the-art research facility to study and preserve the museum’s encyclopedic collection of nearly 50,000 works of art. Dr. Smith’s research interests include undergraduate education at the Arts-Science interface, assessing pollution off-gassing of museum construction materials, and understanding the chemical degradation of artists’ materials. Greg is a Professional Member of AIC and has serves as an associate editor of JAIC .

email me

Catherine H. Stephens holds a PhD in macromolecular science and engineering and BA degrees in both chemistry and art history. She is currently the Sally and Michael Gordon Conservation Scientist in the David Booth Conservation Department at the Museum of Modern Art. Previously, she worked in the department of Scientific Research at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2016-2021). She worked with Paul Whitmore at both the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at Yale University (2013 - 2016) and the Art Conservation Research Center at Carnegie Mellon University (2004 - 2013). Her specialties include: studying the degradation mechanisms and structure-property relationships of polymeric materials (e.g., paper, cellulose acetate, foamed epoxies) found in museums. Her work at The Met focused on evaluating environmental conditions, identifying potentially hazardous chemical compounds found in materials proposed for use in display, storage and transport, and developing novel analytical techniques that ensure the longevity of collections. At MoMA she works on analyzing the collection and evaluating environmental conditions to protect the collection.

email me

E. Keats Webb is an imaging scientist at the Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute (MCI). Her recent research has been investigating the optimization of spectral and 3D imaging for cultural heritage documentation using consumer imaging systems. Her work at MCI includes using scientific and computational imaging to aid in the research and conservation of the Smithsonian collections. Her specializations include spectral imaging and image-based 3D reconstruction. Keats received a PhD from the University of Brighton (2020) and an MRes from University College of London (2015) as part of the UK Science and Engineering in Arts Heritage and Archaeology (SEAHA) Centre for Doctoral Training.

email me

Claire Cuyaubère is a Ceramics, Glass and Enameled Objects conservator at the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF) in Paris, who trained at the Institut National du Patrimoine (INP). She was an Object Conservation fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art  (Freer/Sackler Galleries) in Washington, DC, between 2012 and 2017, then worked free-lance for various museums in France. In this capacity, she led the emergency recovery project and two glass conservation campaigns at the American University of Beirut Archaeological Museum following the August 4, 2020 explosion, and was the Beirut Glass Project conservator at the British Museum in 2022. Claire also teaches at INP. She joined the JAIC French language translation team in 2016.

email me

Beatriz Haspo is a PhD Candidate in Museology at the University of Lusofona, Portugal, with a scholarship from UNESCO-Dept for Education & Citizenship.She works at the Library of Congress as the current Head of Logistics and Facilities Management (NLS) and former Collections Officer. She is as Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland since 2017. She is a guest professor at Universidad Pable Olavide (Spain), teaching emergency preparedness and response. She is a Fellow of the IIC (International Institute for Conservation). Senior conservator specialized in collections management, and disaster preparedness and response, logistics, space management, team building and communication.  She has certificates in book, paper and painting conservation from Brazil, United States and Japan. Her major education includes M.A. in Art History (Brazil); B.A. in Simultaneous Translation in German-Spanish-Portuguese (Austria); Civil Engineering (Brazil), and Classical Music/Piano (Academy Music of Vienna). She is fluent in five languages. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, she entered the Library of Congress in January 2000, as the first preventive conservation fellow in the Conservation Division, where she worked during six years as preservation specialist. Since December 2023 she serves as the Head of Logistics and Facilities Management of the Library of Congress National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disable. From 2006 to 2023 she served as the Collections Officer in the Collections Management Division responsible for the care, security and preservation of the General Collections. She is also actively involved in design, construction, space management, logistics, and transfer of collections to LC off-site storage facilities such as Fort Meade and Cabin Branch. As COR level 3 she manages several contracts for services, supplies and equipment for preservation, access, and security of Library’s collections, She coordinates library-wide programs, such as Additional Service Copy Surplus Book Program, NARA transfer and the 2015 Junior Fellows Program. She is a member of library-wide committees addressing Digitization Projects, Collections Storage and Management, and Emergency Preparedness and Response. Haspo has been board member of the Editorial Board of the American Institute for Conservation since 2003; she was board member and president of Coral Cantigas (2005-2010). Since 2006 she has been serving as volunteer manager of APOYOnline - Association for Heritage Preservation of the Americas (www.apoyonline.org), promoting communication, knowledge exchange and professional development in the field of heritage preservation in the Americas and in Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries around the world.

email me

bio coming soon

email me

bio coming soon

email me