Taking Care: Collections Conversations

Claire Kenny, Associate Conservator of Paper and Photographs, University of Washington Libraries/Henry Art Gallery

Claire Kenny is the Associate Conservator for Paper and Photographs at the University of Washington. She works in support of an initiative to build collaborative conservation services at the UW, conserving collections at UW Libraries, Henry Art Gallery, and Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Claire received an MA in Conservation of Fine Art with a specialization in paper conservation from Northumbria University, UK.

J. Claire Dean, Owner of Dean & Associates Conservation Services

J. Claire Dean is a professional art conservator in private practice, based out of Portland, Oregon. She has a B.A. Hons. in archaeology from the University of Leicester, England, and a postgraduate degree in conservation from the University of Durham, England. She has been an accredited conservator in Europe, is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation, a past president of the Western Association for Art Conservation, and has been a working conservator for almost 40 years. Claire has developed a diverse practice that includes most aspects of the conservation of archaeological and ethnographic materials, rock art, public art, and general museum and gallery collections. She works nationally and internationally and her clients include federal, state, city and tribal agencies, tribal cultural centers and museums, local museums large and small, and private collections. She is also a conservator for Arts-WA (the Washington State Arts Commission) carrying out treatments on their collection and conservation assessments for new commissions, and she serves on the Board of Directors of two art and science focused non-profit organizations.

Nicholas Dorman, Jane Lang Davis Chief Conservator, Seattle Art Museum

Born in England and trained in the UK, Nick came to SAM from Munich in 2001, where he worked as a paintings conservator at the Doerner Institut and taught at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen. His training also included a two-year apprenticeship at the Doerner Institut, and a two-year Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. At SAM, Nick established the museum’s first in-house conservation department in 2001, and designed and built the Neukom Conservation Studio at SAM downtown and the Atsuhiko and Ina Goodwin Tateuchi Conservation Center at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. He oversees conservation and preservation activities of the conservators and the collections care team at SAM’s three museum sites.