Conservators at Work: Caring for Your Family Textiles Workshop
In addition to conserving the Cathedral’s tapestries and working on projects of varying scope in the Lab, conservators from the Textile Conservation Laboratory teach classes throughout the New York City area on many aspects of their trade. Recently, conservator Valerie Soll partnered with the Museum of Chinese in America to teach a class for community members called on how to care for their own family textiles called “Caring for your Family Textiles: Materials, Handling & Storage.”
Valerie worked through common storage problems, explained how to create a safe environment for textiles, and demonstrated how to fold and roll every day and costume pieces as a part of MOCA’s Our Family Treasures Series, which, in addition to workshops on preserving family heritage materials, includes Digitization Days and an annual Family Treasures Day.
In addition to teaching community workshops, many conservators at the Lab teach in textile conservation training programs and give lessons to young trainees as a part of the Lab’s mission to help train new generations of textile conservators.