To make your research easier, below you will find some conservation web sites we recommend you visit first. As with all web sites, check the date of the information you are reading.

Some people become textile conservators after working in related fields such as costume design, textile science, archaeology or historic preservation. Others decide early enough to design their undergraduate work with the aim of entering immediately into a conservation graduate training program. Regardless of whether you are program trained or apprenticeship trained, every textile conservator needs the same basic skills:

• Aptitude for working hands-on with delicate historic materials
• Comprehensive understanding of textile structures and techniques
• Interest in textile history and art history
• Excellent sewing skills and eyesight (or vision correction)
• At least a basic understanding of organic chemistry or materials science
• Clear, descriptive writing skills
• Patience, concentration and curiosity

The classic approach to a career in art conservation was to volunteer, or apprentice, with a museum or private art conservator. If you showed the right skills you could work your way up to a steady job. If you showed interest in professional development, education, and participating in the field, you could have a long satisfying career. This is still a viable route to take.

A faster way to acquire the theory, philosophy, skills, and credentials for art conservation (though not necessarily the experience) is through a graduate training program. There are still relatively few places in the US to study art conservation, and fewer still that have strong programs in textile conservation. However there are now more undergraduate programs available to prepare for advanced graduate work.

You can read more about becoming a conservator in a document available at: http://aic.stanford.edu/education/becoming/contrain.pdf. This lists nine institutions in the US and Canada offering graduate training in art conservation. All provide a general education in art conservation and several (notably NYU, Buffalo State, and University of Delaware) have strong support for those specializing in textiles. In reality there are more Master’s programs, including two that have been training textile conservators since the 1980s:

Fashion Institute of Technology, NY. MA recently renamed “Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice.” ARTICLE LINK

University of Rhode Island. MS in “Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design.” http://www.uri.edu/hss/tmd/MSTMD.html

More MA programs for this list are forthcoming.

Websites: