Carmen Vida Email & Phone Number

London, Gb

London, Gb

London, England, United Kingdom

I am the Project Conservator for the "Re:Entanglements" AHRC and HLF funded project between UCL, SOAS, Cambridge University, and the South London Gallery among other partners (https://re-entanglements.net/). My main responsibilities are:1. To carry out or supervise the conservation for exhibition of 30 objects from the N.W. Thomas Collection (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Cambridge - MAA), ensuring work and documentation standards.2. To teach and supervise UCL's MSc Year 1 Conservation students in their practical work on Thomas Collection objects, which is part of their assessed work for the degree.3. To lead and supervise the MSc Year 1 conservation students involved in any of the engagement and training “Pod Projects” for the "Re:Entanglements" project. 4. To plan and deliver six museum/heritage skills training sessions for South London Gallery's Art Assassins youth group. 5. The publication of the conservation work carried out, through a series of blogs on the project’s website.6. To be UCL’s Conservation lab liaison with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Cambridge regarding object loans, object deliveries and returns, documentation, and transport for the Thomas Collection objects.7. To be the liaison between UCL and other project partners, attending partner meetings as required.8. To be responsible for budget control and justification of project conservation expenditure to the budget holder.

Knole Conservation Studio - Sevenoaks

As the objects and decorative surface conservator, my role involved five different areas: 1. To set up, manage and deliver the object conservation programme for the Knole collection;2. To contribute to the development of the Studio’s reputation by developing conservation training and partnerships;3. To play an active part in visitor, volunteer and non-specialist engagement;4. To help set up a professional Conservation Studio open to the public. My most relevant achievements in the role were the successful delivery of all programmed object conservation, over 115 objects many of which are of international significance; to have collaborated in setting up a new multidisciplinary conservation facility that is unique in the degree of conservation engagement it offers; to have initiated and arranged a partnership with UCL’s Institute of Archaeology so that I was able to offer volunteering opportunities to 14 conservation students, whom I also supervised and taught on the job, and to set up and supervise two five month internships for 2 MSc Conservation students; and to have co-authored a contribution to a book on the Knole Project detailing the conservation carried out on the Knole Sofa.

Institute Of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London Wc1H 0Py

As Conservation Researcher I worked on several conservation research projects:• Transitional Objects Project: Documentation and assessment of a private collection of 79 objects with a view to its accession. I conducted the examination and entry level conservation documentation, created and maintained the collection’s database, prepared 5 objects for temporary loan, and wrote and published an article. • Coming Clean Project, UCL Qatar: Research conducted for UCL and the National Trust on changing attitudes and visitors’ perceptions of conservation cleaning.• “Identification of adhesives in the textiles from the Spangled Bed in Knole”: Analytical Research and Technical report for the National Trust.• “Testing for Hazardous Substances on the Skin Throws from Nunnington Hall”: Analytical Research and Technical report for the National Trust.My role as Teaching Assistant involved, among other things, the practical training and supervision of the students’ object work, teaching, preparing and delivering lab demonstrations and lab skill sessions, and marking course and object work. I was also in charge of the student’s blog and of community engagement conservation activities .I was Teaching Assistant for the following conservation core courses in the Conservation MA and MSc: Skills for Conservation Management (MA Principles of Conservation 2014); Conservation Processes, and Conservation Studies (MSc Conservation for Archaeology and Museums 2014-2016). I also lectured on the undergraduate course Conservation for Archaeologists.

Sittingbourne, England, United Kingdom

I managed this small project for the award-winning CSI lab set up as an open conservation facility within a shopping centre. The project focused on the micro-excavation and conservation to archive standard of the finds from two high status Roman graves in Kent. The finds were mostly ceramics, Roman glass vessels, and metal finds.As the project manager and main conservator I was responsible for:• Project preparation: source materials, plan work programme, and recruitment of student volunteers to ensure delivery. • Training and supervision of students and other local volunteers. • Micro-excavation of lifted blocks and conservation of the finds to archive standard. • Engagement with the members of the public. • Write up all treatment documentation.

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

I was part of a team of three exhibition conservators, and worked across the University’s museums to prepare a large loan of ethnographic, scientific and social history objects to go to the Discoveries Exhibition (Two Temple Place, London, 31st Jan - 27th Apr 2014). In this role I had to: • Establish and follow work programmes so as to deliver all necessary conservation within the tight deadlines. • Assess, condition report and conserve objects from the Archaeology and Anthropology Museum and from the Whipple Museum of the History of Science: object movement, condition reporting, photography, interventive conservation, documentation and treatment report writing, completion of loan forms, and packaging of objects to make ready for transport. • Liaise work with the other two exhibition conservators, and report to staff conservators within each museum as necessary.

London, England, United Kingdom

I worked with conservator Barbara Wills on the Clothworkers funded project “Safeguarding a Body of Evidence: Researching and Conserving a Group of Exceptional Naturally-Mummified Nilotic Human Remains”. The project aimed to reveal, clean, stabilise, and facilitate the study of over 40 naturally mummified medieval bodies from the 4th Cataract region of the Nile. Work was extremely delicate because of the very fragile nature of the material. My tasks involved:• Research into mounting materials and design and implementation of mounting solutions.• Local environmental monitoring.• Micro-excavation of some of the individuals and sampling of materials and textiles.• Investigation and recording.• Dry cleaning of the remains, leather and textiles present.• Transfer and reinstallation of two Gebelein pre-dynastic Egyptian mummies in the galleries: removal and return to storage of female mummy from temporary exhibition, and re-installation of Gebelein man following a CT scan and research into cause of death. Reinstallation involved working in a large team of museum assistants, curators, the communications team that filmed the whole process, and a senior conservator and I who transferred and installed the remains.• I received specialised training on the ethical, health and safety, and practical aspects of working with human remains.