SF Art Conservation opens Paper Department

In September we added paper conservation to our other specialities of paintings, objects and sculpture. We hired Michelle Smith, a paper conservator, to lead our new paper & book department. Michelle C. Smith, Assistant Conservator of Paper and Books, received her masters degree from the Garman Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State College, where she was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Library and Archives Conservation. She moved to the Bay Area in 2017 to complete an advanced graduate internship at Stanford Libraries Conservation Services, where she prepared the Syriac Galen Palimpsest for imaging at the SLAC National Laboratory Synchrotron.

Michelle has expertise in the treatment of both works on paper and books, from ancient manuscripts to modern artworks. She has advanced training in the conservation of papyrus. She has completed internships at Emory University Libraries in Atlanta, the University of Washington Libraries in Seattle, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. In 2015, she investigated the conservation of artists’ books as a Catherine Baker Fellow in Conservation at the University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor. Michelle has a background in printmaking and bookbinding and continues her practice today. She is a member of the American Institute for Conservation, the Bay Area Art Conservation Guild, the Guild of Bookworkers, and the Hand Bookbinders of California.