Textile Specialty Group Achievement Award

Kathy Francis is currently a conservator in private practice and owner of Francis Textile Conservation LLC, founded in 2003. She began her training as an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts Framingham, majoring in Clothing and Textiles and minoring in Sociology/Anthropology with special emphasis on textile techniques and the relationship between textiles and culture. She then held a working apprenticeship at the Textile Conservation Center in North Andover, Massachusetts, working her way up from that position to Chief Conservator. After fifteen years at the Center, she moved to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where she was the Associate and then Senior Conservator of textiles. Mid-career, she spent a year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Kathy’s contributions to the field are extensive. She has presented and published on such topics as tapestry conservation and the drying behavior of textiles, and is the author of Disaster Prevention, Preparedness and Recovery: Special Concerns for Museum Textile Collections. In addition, she was a major contributor to the TSG catalog, now part of the AIC Wiki, as both writer and editor. She has taught in the conservation programs at the NYU Institute of Fine Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology, and served as a guest lecturer at the Winterthur/University of Delaware program. Kathy has long been, and continues to be, a valued mentor to students and emerging professionals within our field. She is also an AIC Fellow and a long-time, dedicated member of the TSG community. She served as a member and Chair of the Scholarship Committee, as Treasurer, and twice as Vice Chair and then Chair. As Chair, she formalized the TSG archives and job descriptions and initiated the use of surplus funds for a TSG scholarship. After her second official tenure as Chair, she volunteered as the first Chair Emerita, guiding an incoming TSG board.

 

Christine Giuntini is a textile conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City. She initially worked for Nobuko Kajitani, Head Conservator, in the Department of Textile Conservation in the early 1980s while still a graduate student at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Art, New York University. In the late 1990s, Christine transitioned to working part-time within the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas (AAOA), serving as the department’s embedded textile and organic objects conservator. Her expertise and professional passion lie in developing engaging exhibition and mounting protocols for complex fabric and fiber objects and textiles. Her first Met assignment was the installation of such works within the Rockefeller Wing (opened 1982) and she was eventually responsible for 2-3 temporary exhibitions a year while working in AAOA.  Christine has also worked as a private textile conservator, contracting with institutions such as The Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The American Museum of Natural History, The Nelson Atkins Museum, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Smithsonian Freer Sackler Galleries, and Dumbarton Oaks, among other public institutions.

Before pursuing conservation, Christine took classes in textiles at the Tyler School of Arts and Temple University, both in Philadelphia, after double-majoring in Art History and Studio Arts at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Christine chose to attend The Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Art, New York University specifically because she wanted to study with Nobuko Kajitani at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In addition to her many responsibilities at the Met and to her other clients, Christine has been an active member of the textile conservation community, presenting and publishing within the ICOM Textile Group, the Textile Specialty Group (TSG) and the North American Textile Conservation Conference (NATCC). She has also contributed essays to Met exhibition catalogs and textile conservation publications. She served as AIC TSG program chair (2002) and chair (2003). She has been on the board of the NATCC since 2007, holding posts as treasurer, secretary, and communications liaison. Her generous guidance as a mentor has inspired many conservation students and young professionals as they pursue their own careers in textile conservation.

 

Denyse Montegut is Full Professor in the Fashion and Textile Studies master’s degree program at the Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY) where she has taught conservation science courses since 1991 and directed the academic evolution of the program as the Chair from 1996-2019. She has also taught specialty fiber identification workshops at NATCC and lectured for the past 15 years at the Conservation Center at the IFA, NYU. Her private conservation experiences are broad, with clients that range from personal collectors to her contract position at the Guggenheim Museum as their textile specialist. She was also the archivist at Calvin Klein, Inc. for 20 years from 1996-2017 helping to inaugurate the field of fashion archiving/collection management, in which many of her graduates hold leadership positions.

Denyse received her BA in Art History with a minor in Mathematics from Brooklyn College, and holds an MA in Art History and a Certificate in Conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is ABD in art conservation research at the University of Delaware, where her work centered on the authentication of thirteenth-century printed textile fragments. Her publications range over a number of historical and technical subjects and include several on the technical examination of metal threads from medieval to Sumatran; dye chemistry; byssus fibers; the characterization and identification of faux suede materials, and the technical analysis of regenerated protein fibers. Her current research has taken her back to the examination of metal threads through a book project with the Smithsonian Institution.

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.

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.
 

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).
 

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.
 

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." 
 

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.
 

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.
 

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.
 

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.
 

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.