Education
University College London MSc Conservation for Archaeology and Museums - Graduation with Merit 2015
University College London MA Principles of Conservation - Graduation with Merit 2013
University of Delaware BA Art Conservation, Minors in Art History and Italian Language. GPA 3.6 2009
Interests and Focuses
Organic Material - wooden artifacts, leather, basketry
Furniture Conservation
Gilded Surfaces
Export Lacquer Conservation
Preventive Conservation - IPM, Environmental Monitoring, Archival Storage
General Objects Conservation
Skills
Public Outreach
Teaching and Education Programs
Object Handling
Woodworking - Carving, machine milling, hand joinery
Memberships and Associations
AIC - 2010 - present
WAG Assistant Program Chair 2020-21
ICON - 2015 - present
Museums Association - 2013 - 2015
Liz Peirce has had a passion for Art Conservation since 2005 when she was first introduced to the field. She obtained her B.A. in Art Conservation with minors in Italian Language and Art History from the University of Delaware in 2009. During her undergraduate experience, she interned in the Paintings Conservation Lab at Winterthur Museum; treated and recreated Russian Icons; and worked to rehouse one of the first casts of "Lucy."
After graduation she spent the summer at Winterthur surveying the collection of over 1,400 pieces of silver, assessing the condition of the Agateen lacquer coatings in preparation for an IMLS grant. Her final pre-program experience was spent in the Furniture Lab examining Chinese export lacquer in the collection as well as treating and documenting objects. She also assisted the second year Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) students with machine woodworking - skills she learned as a woodworker and cabinetmaker in Newtown, PA.
Her love of travel and new experiences took her to study abroad in Siena, Italy, and to London, England for her MA and MSc. While in London, she interned at the Natural History Museum rehousing human remains from the Poundbury archaeological site; the National Maritime Museum working with their organic artefact conservation team on shipmodels, navigational equipment, and ethnographic collection; and the Wallace Collection in their furniture conservation department. She also was the Sherman Fairchild Intern in Conservation at The Frick Collection in the summer of 2014, conserving a series of gilded frames that were part of a travelling exhibition to the Mauritshuis.
After completing her MSc in 2015, Liz returned to the US as the Samuel H. Kress Fellow in Conservation at Winterthur Museum. Her Fellowship was divided between Preventive Conservation and the Conservation of Chinese export lacquer. Her preventive work included developing a preventive conservation table for the museum's monthly Conservation Clinic, providing advice on the storage and display of private materials for the public. Additionally, she designed and supervised an undergraduate course and internship in archival storage in which the students performed basic stabilization of objects as well as built custom archival storage for two multi-object collections from the Library and Archives. The lacquer aspect of the fellowship focused on the treatment of a six-paneled lacquer screen, the results of which were presented at the 2017 AIC annual conference in Chicago.
In 2016, Liz moved to New England to become the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Conservation with Historic New England. Her work focused on the treatment of furniture and objects within the collection as well as visits to the historic homes for on site treatment. Her major research project centered around the treatment of an 1820s couch from the Otis House in Boston, working on reversible gilding techniques and recreation of grain painting for an exhibition on the work of Isaac Vose at the Massachusetts Historical Society in 2018.
In 2017, Liz was hired on contract as Assistant Conservator of Furniture and Woodwork at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is focusing on the treatment of early American furniture in preparation for the museum’s first catalog on their collection and gallery reinstallation opening Spring 2021.
In her down time, Liz enjoys reading, knitting, and baking. She also enjoys getting out of the lab into nature to hike and take in the world around her.