(WAG Lecture Series) Upholstery Conservation: Introductions and Case Studies

Nadine Kilchhofer combines practical and theoretical knowledge through her apprenticeship as an upholsterer and her studies in textile conservation. She completed her studies in 2005 at the Abegg-Stiftung and the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. In 2006-2008 she acquired knowledge of upholstery conservation through a fellowship and a subsequent project position with Nancy Britton, Emeritus Upholstery Conservator, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After working as a freelance textile and upholstery conservator in Bern, she returned to the Abegg-Stiftung, a renowned textile museum, in 2021. There she works as a conservator in the textile studio as part of the management team and as a lecturer. At the same time, she is building up a group of experts consisting of conservators and upholsterers in German-speaking countries who deal with historical upholstery.

Heather Porter is a freelance upholstery conservator in London. Since graduating in 2001 with an MA in Upholstery Conservation from the Royal College of Art/Victoria & Albert Museum Conservation programme she has held various positions in institutions in America and the UK, including the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, returning to the UK to the Victoria & Albert Museum and The National Trust. She also spent 5 years in the upholstery trade. She has published, presented, given tours and teaches the ICON Back-to-Basics Upholstery Course for conservators

Cathy Silverman is Associate Conservator of Furniture and Wooden Objects at Yale University Art Gallery. She holds an MA in Furniture Conservation from West Dean College, England. After graduating, Cathy moved to the US where she initially worked in private practice in New York, before beginning a two-year fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has worked at Yale University Art Gallery since 2018.