Preventive Care Network: Virtual Happy Hour for Emerging Professionals

Co-author of the white paper- Cultural Heritage Emergency Preparedness and Response: Guidelines for the OEHS Professional.

Samantha Forsko is currently the Head Registrar at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. She has 15 years of experience working with collecting institutions across the United States to improve preservation practices and support conservation and collections care through institutional planning. In addition to numerous papers, advisories, and teaching and speaking engagements, Samantha has completed nearly 50 assessments for libraries, museums, archives, and other historic sites across nearly 40 of the United States.

Much of Samantha’s work has focused on making best practices in collections care and registration accessible and achievable, drawing on her deep experience caring for collections, managing high-level loans, leading teams of staff and contractors, implementing large-scale collection moves, and shaping strategic plans and processes. Prior roles include director of collections at the Art Institute of Chicago, collections manager at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and preservation specialist at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts.

Samantha is a current board member and former Vice President of the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists (ARCS), an active member of the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH)’s Field Services Alliance, and a collections assessor for the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC). Samantha holds a BA in Art History, with minors in Studio Art and Chemistry, from Willamette University, and an MA in Arts Management, specializing in archival and museum studies, from Claremont Graduate University. Additionally, she studied painting conservation at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy.