Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
STAFF NEWS
The NGV Conservation department is delighted to welcome conservation interns Alexandra Voll who will be working in the Objects lab and Merit Kahl to the Frames & Furniture lab until March next year. Both students come to us from the conservation and restoration program at the University of Applied Sciences and Art, Hildesheim, Germany. Marika Strohschnieder is currently on long service leave and we are looking forward to her return in February 2016.
MaryJo Lelyveld and husband Paul Garry welcomed gorgeous Campbell into the world on 4th September, and we all look forward to visits soon. Being the dynamo team they are, little Campbell will be attending his first AICCM conference in Hobart!
While MaryJo is on maternity leave we are grateful to have Sarah Brown keeping everything ship-shape filling in as Co-ordinating Conservator for the department.
In September the Paintings conservation studio farewelled Johanna Ellersdorfer, whose Hugh Williamson Fellowship culminated with her major treatment of Joshua Reynolds’ Lady Frances Finch. The treatment was an outstanding success and a fitting way to cap her fruitful two years with us. We wish her every bit of success in the next stage of her career.
We had the pleasure of having Glasgow University Textile Conservation student (TCC) Michelle Hunter for 3 months. Michelle assisted the textile conservation lab greatly and contributed to the NGV exhibition The Horse.
NSW
Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences
STAFF NEWS
In August the Conservation Unit at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) welcomed conservation photographer Emma Bjorndahl to our team. With an ever-increasing workload, Emma has provided some much needed assistance to our other conservation photographer, Michael Myers.
Since July, as part of the revamped MAAS internship program, the conservation team has been fortunate to have the presence and enthusiasm of intern Francesca Appio-Slezak. Francesca is currently studying Biology and Archaeology for a Bachelor of Arts at University of Sydney, and previously completed a Bachelor of Museums, Heritage and Conservation at the University of Canberra.
Preservation Australia and Conservation Resources
STAFF NEWS
Our intern Karina Lavings completed her time with us in August and will begin an internship in January at the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.
Tegan Anthes was out of action for a while when she was bowled over in the park by a dog. She broke her knee and was therefore relegated to the lower level studio for 7 weeks. She is now climbing the stairs again and enjoying the light of the upper level.
Preservation Australia and Conservation Resources will be having our usual end of year party on December 2nd – all are welcome, but please let us know if you are coming so we can cater!
ACT
National Library of Australia
STAFF NEWS
We have two new recruits who arrived in February to help with book and paper conservation just as we farewelled two of our fabulous members of the book team: Erika Mordek, who is now working in Reader Services, and Nellie Anderson, who is opening her own book-binding studio. And so we welcomed Rachel Sawicki, our incredible book conservator who trained at West Dean College, along with our lovely paper conservator who recently graduated from the University of Melbourne, Freya Merrell. We also had a recent University of Canberra graduate, Sarah Shepherd, join us in March to assist with our busy exhibitions program. With a larger team we were able to tackle the upcoming exhibitions and continue work with our other programs.
In August we said a sad farewell to the beloved Alexa McNaught-Reynolds, our exhibitions and collection maintenance conservator, who is now working on a contract at the British Library, and in September we congratulated and welcomed Karen Holloway as our new and enthusiastic permanent exhibitions conservator! We are all very glad she is here and excited to have her on board.
Jenna Vincent is a recent ANU Arts Graduate who joined the team in May and worked tirelessly on our rehousing backlog as well as assisting with some simple conservation treatments before she trekked off to Canada to complete an artist residency.
It was also a pleasure to welcome University of Melbourne student, Celeste Kuypers, who is studying a Master of Cultural Materials Conservation and completed a three week internship with us in June.
Patricia Crampin, our marvellous preventive conservation officer, has been working very hard on environmental monitoring of the Library’s collection areas and general maintenance of the data loggers.
The wonderful Susanne Wullen has recently been put in charge of our Digitisation program, and is working diligently to keep us on track of dividing our treatment time between the different collections of the Library. Paper lab staff contribute to the stabilisation treatment of items selected for Digitisation.
Further congratulations are in order, for Sara Freeman, who is currently working as our collection maintenance conservator while Alexa is away. Sara is doing a fantastic job updating and reorganising our workflows, to prioritise and organise material from all sections that require treatment.
BIRTHS DEATHS AND MARRIAGES
Mel Sorenson also did a fabulous job in the collection maintenance role while her baby bump grew bigger and bigger before she left for maternity leave and had a healthy happy baby boy named Darcy in August.