Case studies: Textile conservator: Sarah Glenn

Sarah has a BA Fashion Illustration (University for the Creative Arts), Postgraduate Diploma in the History of Art (Courtauld Institute) and an MA Textile Conservation (Textile Conservation Centre, University of Southampton). She works as a textile conservator for the V&A Museum, London.

During my Masters degree I completed work placements and internships at small private conservation studios and also at the V&A Museum , where I met other people in the profession and heard about the job from them.

My MA was vital in helping me secure my current position. I also completed a Chemistry for Conservators correspondence course before I studied. My history of art knowledge has also come in very useful for contextualising the objects I work on.

I don’t really have a typical working day, which is why I like my job. However, the biggest element is practical conservation. I work on objects for exhibitions, which can involve stitching, adhesive treatments, cleaning or mounting objects on mannequins. Some items can take months or even years of work to complete a successful treatment.

I carry out assessments for future displays or loans, carry out preventive conservation methods, like insect monitoring, and give advice to the public on caring for their objects. I also have to install exhibitions, write condition reports and give advice to curators and exhibition teams about the best way to handle and ensure the safety of the object during display or travel.

I have spent the first few years learning how the studio operates and working on small projects. I have gradually been given more challenging objects to work on and am now starting to take responsibility for exhibitions as the lead conservator. I am also beginning to publish work and speak at professional conferences in order to build my profile within the profession. I would like to carry on working on as many different objects as possible in order to build up my knowledge and become a senior conservator, perhaps even one day having a management role as head of a studio or department.

My job is fantastic and it is a great privilege to work with such amazing objects. We see a huge variety of textiles through the studio, spanning a large period in history. I can work on an object that is over 800 years old one day, such as a gold thread man’s doublet, and the next work on a contemporary object such as an Alexander McQueen designer dress straight from the catwalk. Textiles can cover a wide range of materials as well, for example wax, plastics, metal, wood, leather and fur. Collaborating with other conservation studios in the museum is also fun, and I certainly learn a great deal from my colleagues. Sometimes we get to act as museum couriers and have to travel abroad accompanying exhibitions or objects, which is hard work but fun nonetheless.

Thinking through the consequences of any work I propose is a challenge. It is obviously important that I don’t cause any more damage and so it can be quite daunting to work on a degraded object that is very fragile. Understanding the chemical processes of conservation can also be a challenge as I am not trained as a scientist.

My advice to other students is to volunteer at a museum so you can start to learn about conservation and what is involved. Practise creative skills, such as stitching and painting, to improve your manual dexterity, as some of the work we do can be extremely delicate.

Don’t be put off by the science aspect of the work; although a basic understanding of chemistry is needed, there are lots of different routes into a career in conservation.