Marta is a restorer at the Italian Ministry of Culture and is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Florence. Her research concerns preventive conservation and risk management of contemporary-art collections. After studying art history at the universities of Valladolid in Spain and Pisa in Italy, Marta focused on heritage conservation, studying at the Italian Ministry of Culture’s Opificio delle Pietre Dure de Florencia (OPD), where she specialized in sculpture restoration. Since obtaining her master’s degree, she has specialized in the management and conservation of contemporary art. Marta has worked assiduously with conservation institutions at an international level. With the OPD, she participated in the restoration of sculptures and reliefs by Miguel Ángel, Jacopo della Quercia and Nicolò Tribolo, among others. At the Venaria Reale Foundation, as project coordinator, she worked on conservation projects at sites such as the Palazzo Madama in Turin and the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua. In collaboration with the Spanish Institute of Heritage and Culture (IPCE), she directed the restoration of the Portico of Glory at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. She has held various research positions at the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, the National Plan for Heritage Conservation at the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and at the universities of Pisa and Florence. Her field of study is based in the risk assessment of contemporary-art collections in public spaces. She has worked for many years with both public and private institutions involved in the conservation and management of such collections. Marta’s research findings have been published in monographs and specialist journals, and she has acted as reviewer for various restoration journals. She is coordinator of the rocky materials group at the Italian IGIIC and cofounder of the CONL’Arte Association for the conservation of contemporary art.

Christina is a Professional Associate of the AIC, and holds an M.S. in Historic Preservation with a concentration in Materials Conservation from Columbia University. A specialist in architectural and public art conservation, Christina is RLA’s lead professional for all projects west of the Mississippi River, including Hawaii and Alaska. She is a specialist in modern architectural materials, such as linoleum and synthetic finishes, outdoor sculpture planning, treatment, and surveys, as well as large-scale mosaics conservation and architecture surveys, testing, and specification development. Prior to joining RLA, Christina worked with the Central Park Conservancy in New York City and with Jablonski Building Conservation.

ROBERT WALLER is President and Senior Risk Analyst with Protect Heritage Corp., a firm dedicated to helping institutions and organizations improve heritage management. His career included 33 years with the Canadian Museum of Nature serving periods as Chief of Conservation and as Managing Director of the Collection Services Division. He holds a B.Sc. from the University of Manitoba, a Ph.D. in Conservation on cultural property risk analysis from Göteborg University and Professional Accreditation with the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators. His research interest is risk analysis approaches to rational decision making for collection management and preservation. Author of numerous papers and book chapters on conservation, Robert Waller has taught, lectured, and served as a consultant at museums and universities throughout North America, Asia, Europe and elsewhere. A Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation, he received the Carolyn Rose Award in 2010 from the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections for lifetime achievement and, in 2016, the Sheldon and Caroline Keck award for education of conservation professionals from the American Institute for Conservation.

Marianne Webb is an independent conservator and researcher on the west coast of Canada. For 29 years she was the Decorative Arts Conservator at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto where she developed her keen interest in Asian and western lacquer. Currently she is collaborating with the Getty Conservation Institute on their research into the characterization of Asian lacquer and developing cleaning techniques for these complicated surfaces. Marianne received an honor’s degree in Fine Art from the University of Toronto and a diploma in Art Conservation Techniques from Sir Sanford Fleming College. A founding member of the ICOM- Committee for Conservation - Working Group on Lacquer, she served as its coordinator for 12 years. She received the Samuel H. Kress Publication Fellowship in 1997 from the American Institute of Conservation. The resulting manuscript was published in 2000 as Lacquer: Technology and Conservation. In 2020 she received the Charles Mervin Ruggles Award from the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property.

Dr. Wei (1955) is a senior conservation scientist in the Research Department of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE - Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed). He has a B.S.E. in mechanical engineering from Princeton University (1977) and a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1983). Before working in the cultural heritage field, he spent more than fifteen years in industrial research and development in the areas of advanced materials, mechanical properties, fracture mechanics and fatigue, and corrosion. He has been conducting research into and consulting on the effects of vibrations and mechanical stresses on the condition of fragile works of art and cultural heritage for more than twenty years. He also conducts research into the effects of cleaning and treatments of objects on their appearance, including: - The use of non-contact roughness measurements to study surface changes, as well as for the identification of objects using “fingerprints”. - The effect of aging and cleaning on the surface, appearance and perception of face-mounted photographs, daguerreotypes, paintings, and outdoor sculpture. - Effect of dust on the condition and perception of objects. A major area of interest is how conservation decisions are influenced by the differing perception of objects by art historians, conservation scientists, conservators, curators, directors, and other collections staff. Dr. Wei has trained as a Socratic dialogue moderator and has organized and moderated over fifty dialogues in the past decade, to help museums and conservation professionals understand each other’s and their own views on issues such as conservation ethics for moveable and immovable cultural heritage; the value of conservation and the profession; the conservation of photographs, contemporary art, and digitization; the value of archaeological work; and the subject of dust in museums.

Steven Weintraub specializes in the preservation of museum collections. He is a graduate of the Conservation program at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. After graduation, he worked in Objects Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among his many activities at the MMA, he supervised the conservation and installation of the American Wing (1977-1979). He left the MMA to pursue his interests in preservation research at the Getty Conservation Institute. Eventually, Weintraub established Art Preservation Services, a company focusing on museum preservation projects where he consults with many museums throughout the country. Between 1990-1993, he set up and supervised conservation activities for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In 2002, the Port Authority of NY&NJ brought him on as consultant for the preservation of their World Trade Center artifacts. Subsequently, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum brought him on as their conservation consultant. Currently, he is working with the Frick Collection on the development of new methods for illumination of works of art. Steven has lectured and organized workshops on preventive conservation in the US and abroad. He has been teaching “Preventive Conservation” as adjunct lecturer at the Conservation Center, IFA, NYU for over ten years, and in the Fall of 2021, he held the Judith Praska Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Conservation and Technical Studies. Weintraub has been actively involved in innovative research on color perception and illumination of museum collections throughout his career. His publications include a study done with the National Institute for Standards and Technology on the “Perception of correlated color temperature: The color of white”. He is a co-author of the chapter on Preservation of Light-Sensitive Materials for the Illuminating Engineering Society’s Recommended Practice for Museum Lighting publication.

Talia Weiss received an MA in managing archaeological sites – focusing on built heritage, and recently completed an MSc in Conservation, with a focus in sustainable building conservation. Both Masters degrees were completed at the University College London. Talia previously worked in art and architectural conservation at Evergreene Architectural Arts in Washington, DC and now works for Cliveden Conservation, in Bath, England. Through archaeology and conservation, Talia has worked in America, Israel, Italy, the Cook Islands and now England. She is interested in material and social sustainability through values and peoples-based conservation projects.

Lynda Zycherman is a Sculpture Conservator at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and was trained at the Conservation Center (NYU) and the Metropolitan Museum. As Conservator at the Freer Gallery of Art, she specialized in technical examination of ancient Chinese material, especially the techniques of ceremonial bronze manufacture and ancient pigments. She made a 3,000-year leap from ancient technology to modern and contemporary sculpture when she joined the Sculpture Conservation Laboratory at the Museum of Modern Art. Lynda’s current research focuses on artists’ practices and materials, especially those of Brancusi, Dubuffet, Giacometti, Matisse, and Picasso.