Our Committee

Ann French is a founder member of the Icon Textile Group, having worked in the field of Textile Conservation for over thirty years.  She trained at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and has worked for a variety of institutions including Glasgow Museums, the South West Museums Service and the National Trust.  She has been employed at the Whitworth, the University of Manchester since 2002 as Conservator (Textiles), being responsible for all textile based material in its collections encompassing post-Pharaonic textiles from Egypt to contemporary art textiles.   Since 2011 she has combined this role with that of Collection Care Manager which ranges from management of the Collections Care & Access Team and the conservation studio, dealing with exhibitions and loans, to environmental and insect pest monitoring. 

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Emily studied Costume Design at undergraduate level at Edinburgh College of Art, and began her textile conservation career studying MPhil Textile Conservation at the Centre for Textile Conservation, University of Glasgow.  After graduating in 2014, she gained a place as an Icon intern for a one year post at The Bowes Museum in County Durham. Following this, she held a short post at Imperial War Museums as the sole conservator preparing textile objects for the opening of the new American Air Museum based at IWM Duxford, and worked in Doha, Qatar for 18 months preparing objects for the new national museum and working on several projects within the wider Qatar Museums institution.  Since returning to the UK, she has held several short term positions including at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and as a freelance conservator in collaboration with Zenzie Tinker Conservation Ltd and Plowden and Smith Ltd. She started her current role as textile conservator at the Museum of London in April 2018.

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Kim is originally from Hamburg in Germany and studied at the Textile Conservation Centre, graduating in 2000. She has worked at the National Trust Textile Conservation Studio, Clίodna Devitt private textile conservation studio in Dublin and on a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at the British Museum, conserving Chinese textiles belonging to the Stein Collection.

Email:

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Email:

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Email:

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Elizabeth-Anne studied an MA in Conservation from the Royal College of Art/Victoria and Albert Museum Conservation Course in 1999. Following this she completed a one-year internship at Glasgow Museums, and worked on contract at the National Museums of Scotland and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco before taking up a permanent post at the V&A in 2002.  Elizabeth-Anne has been a member of the editorial team that produces the V&A Conservation Journal since 2006 and is a regular guest lecturer at the Centre for Textile Conservation at Glasgow University.

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Viola Nicastro obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degree in textile conservation from Centro Conservazione e Restauro la Venaria Reale, University of Turin, Italy (2007-2013).  During her studies she worked both at university as well as during summer work placements in Italian Institutions (ISCR and Quirinale Palace - Rome). Following her training, Viola worked at the Centro Conservazione e Restauro la Venaria Reale in Turin and at the Museo del Tessuto of Prato as a freelance textile conservator, as well as contributing to installation of costumes and other objects for exhibition. In April 2014, she joined the Vatican Museum textile conservation studio, where she worked as an intern focusing mainly on tapestry conservation. In September 2014 she joined Historic Royal Palaces where she currently works. She is now part of the costume team since 2017, focusing mainly on exhibition work as well as treatment of costumes.

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Hannah graduated from the Centre for Textile Conservation, University of Glasgow, in 2016. She completed a Clothworkers/Historic Royal Palaces internship in tapestry conservation, before staying on at Hampton Court Palace to cover a maternity contract in the tapestry and furnishings teams. Hannah was then awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and, on route back to London, participated in a tapestry knowledge exchange project in Brussels. These international experiences brought home to Hannah the key role which social media plays in opening up events and discussions across physical borders and time zones. Hannah worked as a freelance conservator before taking up her current role.

Email:

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Email:

[email protected]