Documenting Collaborative Conservation

Kelly McHugh became the Head of Collections Care and Stewardship at the National Museum of the American Indian in 2018.  Previously, she served as an object conservator where she began working for the museum in 1996 at NMAI’s Research Branch facility in the Bronx, NY.  There she participated in a survey of the over 800,000 objects in the collection, prior to the collections move to the Cultural Resources Center in Maryland. As a conservator she played an active role in the development of collaborative conservation practices for the care of Native American collections.  She continues to broaden the scope of collaboration and partnership with the Museum’s constituency through collections access, cultural protocol policy and artistic revitilzation.  She received her MA Art History with a Certificate in Conservation from New York University, Institute of Fine Arts and her BA in Art History and Peace and Global Policy Studies again from New York University.

Landis Smith is an independent consultant and projects conservator based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The focus of her work over thirty years has been on the development of conservation and documentation methodologies that are collaborative with Native American artists, elders, scholars and leaders. Recent work includes co-facilitating the development and web publication of the Guidelines for Collaboration (www.guidelinesforcollaboration.info) with the Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research (SAR).  Landis is currently co-editing the Standards of Excellence for Museums with Native American Collections for the American Alliance of Museums and leading an IMLS-funded project to collaboratively document and conserve collections at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe. Landis’s previous work includes organizing and leading “place-based” educational programs in New Mexico for NMAI Fellows and staff in collaboration with Native communities and tribal museums. She was Anchorage Project Conservator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) Arctic Studies Center, working extensively with Alaska Native artists and elders. Landis has been a Research Associate with the National Museum of the American Indian and has served on several advisory boards including the Haak’u Museum at Acoma Pueblo and UCLA/Getty Mellon Opportunity for Diversity in Conservation.

Brad Epley joined the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs in July of 2022 as the Head of Conservation for the Museum Resources Division, and oversees the conservation activities across the state museums and historic sites. Prior to assuming his current position, he was at the Menil Collection in Houston for twenty three years, serving as its Chief Conservator from 2006. At the Menil Brad co-directed the Artists Documentation Program, a collaborative interview program with the Whitney Museum of American Art to recorded conversations between conservators and contemporary artists documenting the material and conceptual needs of artworks to create a ‘living will’ for their conservation.