Speakers
Emily O’Reilly ACR
Session 3: Building Positive Resilience
A Freelance Perspective: 2020, a curate's egg?
As we all know March 2020 to the present has been a very strange time. With 60% of conservators working in some form of private practice, this paper/discussion will look at some of the challenges that the past year has presented to those who work outside the structures of museums, galleries, archives and education. As freelance conservators working in different specialisms with differing business set-ups, Peter as a public limited company and Emily as a sole trader, both have experienced the difficulties that a country wide pandemic results in. In a year like no other both have received different supports from the Welsh Government funds (there are still over three million people countrywide that have had no help) and experienced turbulent workflows. This paper will discuss their experiences, how they have adapted their work practices by ‘pivoting’, and how working with each other and other conservators, has helped them get through. Looking forward, they consider what the future might hold, and how they can adapt to the broader challenges that coming out of lockdown are likely to present.
Peter J David ACR pete@pjdceramics.co.uk
Emily O’Reilly ACR emily@emilyoreilly.co.uk
Emily graduated from Camberwell College of Art in 1995 with a BA(HONS) in Paper Conservation – specialising in works of art on paper. Since then, she has worked as a Paper Conservator at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, State Records of NSW, Australia and Museum Conservation Services Ltd in Duxford.
In 2017 Emily set up her own studio and started working as a freelance Paper Conservator. Clients include private individuals with one-off objects to collectors and dealers needing repeat work undertaken. Emily has also worked for the National Trust and other public organisations, carrying out surveys and large-scale practical treatments.
Operating a busy private practice, Emily has to juggle the treatment of objects beginning with quotations with the day-to-day operational business development tasks such as website and online social media presence.
Having trained at West Dean, Peter became a freelance ceramic conservator/restorer in 1982 and has applied both his conservation skills and knowledge of ceramic history since this time. He has built longstanding working relationships, with clients from the public and private sectors, and has a national and international client base, with projects ranging from individual objects to whole collections, conservation surveys and redevelopment projects.
With skills ranging from the conservation and restoration of applied art objects, through to environment and project management, he has worked in both the Museum and private sectors in a freelance capacity.
Peter is a former winner of the Nigel Williams Prize (2014), for his joint project with Judy Pinkham ACR (National Museums of Wales) for the Conservation of Teresa Margoles’ ‘32 Aňos’.
With over 40 years of experience, he has seen developments and witnessed many of the changes in conservation and the way it is practiced over that time.