David Miller
David Miller, the Mainardi project director, is the senior conservator of paintings for the Indianapolis Museum of Art and has worked as a paintings conservator at the IMA for 30 years. Originally from New York City, David received a B.A., cum laude, from Hofstra University in fine arts, with minors in art history and biology. Although he had initially thought about a career in medicine, years of childhood art training first led him towards medical illustration until he took an introductory class in art conservation at Hofstra and immediately knew that this was the perfect blend of science and art. After two years of apprenticing with a private conservator on Long Island and a year working as a paintings restorer in New York City, David was admitted to the masters degree program in art conservation at the State University of New York, then located in Cooperstown, New York (now part of Buffalo State College). He received an M.A. and Certificate of Advanced Study in paintings conservation, a two-year program of study, and then had a year’s internship at the National Gallery of Canada. David is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and was the founding president of the Midwest Regional Conservation Guild. He has lectured extensively and published on artists as diverse as Giovanni Bellini, Rembrandt, Georges Seurat and Richard Pousette-Dart.
Monica Griesbach
Mónica Griesbach, a specialist in the structural treatment of panel paintings, is a private conservator and the principal of Griesbach Studio, LLC, in New York City. She holds a B.A. in fine arts from the University of Texas in Austin and a master’s degree in architecture and Certificate of Historic Preservation, also from the University of Texas in Austin. Mónica was working in architectural conservation when a visit to the objects conservation laboratory at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Art changed her perspective and she decided on a career switch to fine art conservation. She went back to school and received an M.A. in the history of art and an Advanced Certificate in Conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Mónica is the recipient of a Kress Fellowship in panel paintings conservation and has studied with renowned conservators in Florence, Barcelona, and London, as well as at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She was hired by the IMA to come to Indianapolis to perform the structural treatment on the Mainardi panel.
Linda Witkowski
Linda Witkowski has worked at the Indianapolis Museum of Art for 22 years and is currently the senior conservator of paintings-regional services for the IMA. Originally from Westland, Michigan, she has a B.F.A. in studio art and art history from Michigan State University. Looking for a way to combine her love of studio art and art history, Linda made the decision to become an art conservator. . After working for two years in the conservation laboratory at the Edison Institute (Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village) in Dearborn, Michigan, she was accepted for the conservation program at Buffalo State College, and in 1984 she completed her M.A. with a Certificate of Advanced Study in the conservation of paintings. During that time she also began an additional specialization in the conservation of animation art, a topic on which she has lectured, consulted and published over the years. Linda completed an NEA Fellowship at the Intermuseum Conservation Laboratory (originally in Oberlin, Ohio, now located in Cleveland, Ohio) prior to joining the IMA conservation lab. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC). Throughout her tenure at the IMA, Linda has had the opportunity to be involved in some of the IMA’s special exhibitions, including The Passage, Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and A Shared Heritage. Within this context she is excited about participating on the Madonna and Child panel painting by Mainardi and glad to be part of the conservation team. Linda’s favorite color is Blue.
Christina Milton O’Connell
Christina Milton O’Connell is assistant conservator of paintings for the IMA’s Regional Conservation Services Program, where she has worked for three years. Christina’s first introduction to the field of art conservation occurred during a family vacation in Hawaii when she was thirteen. She happened upon a conservator treating mural paintings in a small missionary church on Maui. Christina always knew she wanted a career in the arts and she kept conservation in mind as she studied studio art, art history and chemistry at James Madison University in Virginia, where she graduated cum laude with a B.A. in studio art and a minor in art history. She also had internships in private conservation studios in the Washington, D.C., area during her undergraduate studies. After graduation, she interned in the painting conservation department of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Christina received her M.S. in art conservation from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. Her conservation experiences include an internship in France, where she worked on a private collection at the Château de Parentignat (funding from the Annette Kade Charitable Trust); the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (funding from the Kress Foundation); and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. While at the IMA, Christina had the opportunity to present the complex treatment of Joan Miró’s Portrait d’ une Jeun Fille at the Modern Paints Uncovered Symposium at the Tate Modern in London in 2006.
Kathryn Campbell
Kathryn Campbell is a third-year graduate program intern in paintings conservation at the Buffalo State College. She is studying at the Indianapolis Museum of Art to fulfill her degree requirements for an M.A. in art conservation and a Certificate of Advanced Study. Kathryn holds a B.A in fine arts from The College of William and Mary and has worked as a pre-program intern for a Washington, D.C., private conservation studio and for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Recovery Project as part of a team of conservators treating objects damaged by Hurricane Katrina.