Use this search tool to find a conservator near you. Work with your teacher, counselor, or parent to email or call them to see if they'll answer your questions about what being a conservator is like!

Career

Interview a conservator!

Art Historians study and conserve artworks so that they can be enjoyed by future generations. Learn more about the history of art and see old artworks that have been preserved for centuries.

Education

Learn about art history at Khan Academy.

Removing old varnish, repairing cracks--watch a damaged painting from 1660 get restored at a museum in New York. Does this super-detailed work look like something you'd like to do?

Watch a 355-year-old painting get restored!

Museum Conservators

Restore, maintain, or prepare objects in museum collections for storage, research, or exhibit. May work with specimens such as fossils, skeletal parts, or botanicals; or artifacts, textiles, or art. May identify and record objects or install and arrange them in exhibits. Includes book or document conservators.

Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Realistic

Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Artistic

Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Investigative

Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Conventional

Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Enterprising

Second Interest High-Point

Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Social

First Interest High-Point

Third Interest High-Point

Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Museum Technicians and Conservators

Archivists, Curators, and Museum Technicians

Education, Training, and Library Occupations

Librarians, Curators, and Archivists

Install, arrange, assemble, and prepare artifacts for exhibition, ensuring the artifacts' safety, reporting their status and condition, and identifying and correcting any problems with the set up.

Coordinate exhibit installations, assisting with design, constructing displays, dioramas, display cases, and models, and ensuring the availability of necessary materials.

Determine whether objects need repair and choose the safest and most effective method of repair.

Clean objects, such as paper, textiles, wood, metal, glass, rock, pottery, and furniture, using cleansers, solvents, soap solutions, and polishes.

Prepare artifacts for storage and shipping.

Specialize in particular materials or types of object, such as documents and books, paintings, decorative arts, textiles, metals, or architectural materials.

Recommend preservation procedures, such as control of temperature and humidity, to curatorial and building staff.

Classify and assign registration numbers to artifacts and supervise inventory control.

Perform on-site field work which may involve interviewing people, inspecting and identifying artifacts, note-taking, viewing sites and collections, and repainting exhibition spaces.

Repair, restore, and reassemble artifacts, designing and fabricating missing or broken parts, to restore them to their original appearance and prevent deterioration.

Prepare reports on the operation of conservation laboratories, documenting the condition of artifacts, treatment options, and the methods of preservation and repair used.

Study object documentation or conduct standard chemical and physical tests to ascertain the object's age, composition, original appearance, need for treatment or restoration, and appropriate preservation method.

Cut and weld metal sections in reconstruction or renovation of exterior structural sections and accessories of exhibits.

Perform tests and examinations to establish storage and conservation requirements, policies, and procedures.

Plan and conduct research to develop and improve methods of restoring and preserving specimens.

Notify superior when restoration of artifacts requires outside experts.

Preserve or direct preservation of objects, using plaster, resin, sealants, hardeners, and shellac.

Build, repair, and install wooden steps, scaffolds, and walkways to gain access to or permit improved view of exhibited equipment.

Construct skeletal mounts of fossils, replicas of archaeological artifacts, or duplicate specimens, using a variety of materials and hand tools.

Direct and supervise curatorial, technical, and student staff in the handling, mounting, care, and storage of art objects.

Lead tours and teach educational courses to students and the general public.

Enter information about museum collections into computer databases.

Adjustable widemouth pliers

Air abrasive tools

Binocular light compound microscopes

Brazing equipment

Carpenters' chisels

Claw hammers

Cold chisels

Cordless drills

Dental explorers

Desktop computers

Digital cameras

Digital micrometers

Digitizers

Dusting brushes

Handheld digital thermometers

Hygrometers

Infrared cameras

Laboratory scalpels

Laptop computers

Mallets

Oxyacetylene welding equipment

Personal computers

Photocopying equipment

Power saws

Soldering irons

Stereo microscopes

Temperature sensors

Ultraviolet UV examination lights

Vacuum cleaner micro-tools

Vacuum cleaners

Wire cutters

Wire strippers

X ray examination equipment

Adobe Systems Adobe Photoshop

Gallery Systems EmbARK

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Visual FoxPro

Microsoft Word

PastPerfect Software PastPerfect

Questor Systems ARGUS

Questor Systems QScan32

Conservator

<p>In Philadelphia, the Roadtrip Nation team climbs to the top of the clock tower at city hall to meet Andrew Lins, a conservation preserver working on restoring the Liberty Bell. Next up is an interview with Billy King, team president of the Philadelphia 76ers. After traveling to New York, they interview "Cousin" Jeff Johnson, a social and political activist with his own show on BET.</p>

Andrew Lins

Conservator

Videos

Andrew Lins

Milestones

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Design

Science

Building Things

Interviewed By

What Drives You