Since graduating with a BA in Fine Art from Liverpool Hope University and an MA in Art History from Manchester University, Heather has gained experience with museums and institutions including the Royal Academy of Art, the British Museum, the Whitworth Art Gallery and Liverpool Central Library, as well as in the practice of an independent paper conservator. She is committed to a career in paper conservation and her QEST funding is supporting her MA course in Conservation of Fine Art at Northumbria University.
Heather believes that investing in the study and practice of paper conservation is beneficial not only to guarantee that works of art on paper are preserved for future generations but also to ensure that the connoisseurial eye for the material and technical properties of art is not lost to the digital image. Having witnessed an ever-increasing emphasis on digital collections within museums and galleries, she believes it is vital to sustain the craft of paper conservation as a means of preserving, researching and understanding works of art on paper, and to bring greater attention to the materiality of the work of art as a physical object and not simply an object of interpretation.
