President

F. Carey Howlett is a conservator with more than 45 years of experience in the conservation of historic furniture and architectural interiors. He is president and chief conservator of F. Carey Howlett & Associates, a firm providing services to museums, historic sites and private clients. He is a graduate of the Smithsonian Program in Furniture Conservation and served in the conservation department at Colonial Williamsburg for fourteen years, where he was director of conservation from 1998-2001.

Secretary

Claire Martin has just started as the conservation technician for furniture and frames at Williamstown Art Conservation. She was formally a Marshal Steel Post Graduate Fellow in the Furniture and the Archaeology lab at Colonial Williamsburg. She graduated from West Dean College with a post graduate degree in Conservation of Furniture and Wooden Objects in 2019 and has an undergraduate degree in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware.

Treasurer

Amy Byrne began her lifelong passion in art conservation in 1985 when she began the PreConservation Program at Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated with a BA in Art History. Amy held pre-program positions at Richmond Conservation Studio and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts which eventually lead to getting a Master of Arts Degree and Certificate of Conservation from Buffalo State College. Post graduate positions included the National Park Service, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. In 2002 Amy started Amy Fernandez, Inc., a private practice specializing in Fine Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Easel Paintings, Polychromed Objects, and Historic Collections. Amy is a Professional Associate in the AIC and has been a member of the VCA since 1989. Amy lives on a small farm in Shepherdstown, WV with her husband Greg, where they enjoy gardening and entertaining along with their two dogs, two cats and five chickens.

Membership

Elizabeth Robson is now the Paintings Conservator for the State of New York's Bureau of Historic Sites. Previously, she has held fellowships at the Chrysler Museum of Art/Hampton University Museum and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. She received her Master’s degree from SUNY Buffalo State College after completing an internship at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL. She also volunteered in Colonial Williamsburg’s conservation labs as well as at The Mariners' Museum and Curtis Fine Art Conservation pre-program. She will miss the pleasant Virginia autumns and winters this year but is remaining on the Board to ensure a smooth transition with the new website.

Programs

Marla Curtis is Senior Painting Conservator and owner of Curtis Fine Art Conservation, LLC, in Williamsburg. She has worked in the field for over 30 years. Marla earned her Master of Arts degree and Certificate of Advanced Study in Art Conservation from Buffalo State College and also holds a Master of Arts in Art History from Virginia Commonwealth University. After completing her graduate coursework, Marla worked for ten years in the Painting Conservation studios of several art museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Phillips Collection, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. She started her private practice in 2010 and conserves easel paintings from museum and individual clients.

Publications

Jackie Peterson-Grace is the Associate Textile Conservator at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. She completed a Master of Science from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation in 2018 with concentrations in textile and preventive conservation and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Conservation Studies from Marist College. As a graduate student, she completed internships in the textile conservation labs at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Peebles Island Resource Center. She worked closely with collections care staff at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia from 2018 to 2020 to address textile preservation needs.