Decorative Arts and Sculpture Conservation

Jane Bassett’s interests include the preventive care of tapestries, stained glass, and silver, and her research is focused on the technical study of European sculpture with an emphasis on French 16th through 19th-century works. She received her BA in art history from Stanford University and her MA and advanced certificate in art conservation from the Cooperstown/Buffalo Graduate Program. Jane is a founding member of the CAST:ING project (Copper Alloy Sculpture Techniques and history: an International iNterdisciplinary Group).

Madeline Corona’s areas of interest include preventive conservation, especially integrated pest management, textile collection care, and exhibition preparation. Her research is focused on in-depth technical study of European works of art across a variety of mediums. She earned a BA in chemistry and art history from Trinity University and a MS from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. She completed graduate internships at the Michael C. Carlos Museum and the Walters Art Museum, followed by a graduate internship at the Getty. Madeline obtained advanced training at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums.

BJ Farrar specializes in the application of 3-D scanning to seismic mountmaking. He has presented on various mountmaking topics often, including for the Advances in the Protection of Museum Collections from Earthquake Damage symposium series, the Western Association of Art Conservators annual conference, and the International Mountmaking Forum (of which he is a co-founder). BJ was a mountmaker in the Antiquities Conservation department from 2002–2015 and was a senior preparator in the Preparations Department from 1997–2002. Prior to the Getty, he worked at the Seattle Art Museum from 1989–1997 as a mountmaker/preparator.

Richard joined Decorative Arts and Sculpture Conservation in 2023 after spending eight years in Antiquities Conservation. With close to 30 years of experience in mountmaking and art handling, Richard has developed a thoughtful and innovative approach to ensuring the safety of culturally significant objects through seismic mount design and fabrication. He has been instrumental in the department’s use of 3D scanning technology for developing new approaches to mountmaking. Richard holds an MFA in painting and printmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BFA from Utah State University. His recent accomplishments include being lead mountmaker for the major loan exhibition Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas.

Arlen Heginbotham’s research interests include the history and analysis of 17th-century East Asian export lacquer, the history of metallurgy, the use of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy as a tool for studying copper and silver alloy artifacts, microscopic and chemical wood identification, and X-ray dendrochronology. He received his AB in East Asian studies from Stanford University and his MA in art conservation from the State University of New York at Buffalo and his PhD in earth sciences from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

Robert Price’s interests include modern and contemporary outdoor sculpture, with a focus on the technical study and treatment of steel, copper-alloys, and painted metal. In the past, Robert has studied and treated sculpture in a wide variety of materials, including glazed-terracotta, marble, and chocolate. He received a BA in cultural anthropology from Hamilton College and a dual MA/MSc in conservation for archaeology and museums from University College London before obtaining advanced training at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Julie Wolfe’s research has focused on fill materials for marble sculptures, the electrochemical cleaning of metal objects, and more recently, conservation techniques for outdoor sculpture treatment. She has written and lectured widely on the latter topic with an emphasis on Roy Lichtenstein's outdoor painted sculpture. She has a BFA in art history from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. She obtained an MA from the State University of New York at Buffalo specializing in objects conservation, and pursued advanced training at the Harvard University Art Museums.