The Conservation Department's objectives are the conservation, study, and presentation of the Yale Art Gallery collections. Staff conservators care for paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, Asian, African, Ancient art and numismatics, while works of art on paper are cared for by paper conservators at the Yale Center for British Art.

The department works closely with Gallery colleagues to evaluate and monitor environments for works of art on display, in storage, and during travel to other institutions for exhibitions. Current projects include historic interiors, murals from the Huntington mansion, ancient mosaics and collaborations with curators, architects, and designers for the reinstallation of Ancient, American, European, and Modern and Contemporary collections in the Swartwout and Street Halls.

The Conservation Department is also a center for research and teaching. Conservators investigate materials and techniques using such means as microscopy, x-radiography, and infrared reflectography and work alongside their curatorial colleagues to improve scholarship of the collections. Courses in conservation, connoisseurship and technical art history are taught using Gallery collections and facilities. The department is involved in developing plans for a conservation and analytical research facility at West Campus for all Yale collections.

		Ian McClure ian.mcclure@yale.edu Ian McClure, the Susan Morse Hilles Chief Conservator, is a graduate of Bristol University and Edinburgh University. While a curator in the Fine Art Department of Glasgow Art Gallery and Museums, he trained as a paintings conservator and was appointed Head of Paintings Conservation in1978. He became Director at the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Hamilton Kerr Institute in 1983 and Assistant Director for Conservation at the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2004. Appointed Chief Conservator at the Yale University Art Gallery and to the staff of the British Art Center in July 2008, he has been working under the direction of the Deputy Provost for the Arts and with the Head of Preservation at the Yale University Library to plan and develop a new conservation facility at the University’s West Campus. Download curriculum vitae
		Carol Snow carol.snow@yale.edu Carol Snow, Object Conservator, is a graduate of Skidmore College and the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. Prior to joining the Conservation Department in September 2008, she worked at the Walters Art Museum and then as a conservator in private practice, primarily for Boston area museums. As an object conservator, she has treated a wide range of materials from ancient bronzes to modern plastics. She has also worked on archaeological projects around the Mediterranean and received a Fulbright Scholarship to work in Turkey. Research interests include technical analysis of fabrication techniques, copies, and forgeries. Download curriculum vitae
		Patricia Sherwin Garland patricia.garland@yale.edu Patricia Sherwin Garland received her degree in the history of art, with a minor in fine arts, from Connecticut College. She received her conservation training as an apprentice and subsequently worked for 20 years at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. Presently the Gallery's Senior Conservator of Paintings, she is particularly interested in the research, study and treatment of easel paintings. She has been a lecturer in the History of Art Department, teaching classes on the History of Materials and Techniques, Technical Art History and Modern Materials. Download curriculum vitae
		Irma Passeri irma.passeri@yale.edu Irma Passeri, Assistant Painting Conservator, received her training at the conservation school of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence Italy where she received her degree in the Conservation of Easel Paintings in 1998. After working in the laboratory of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Irma was invited by the Yale University Art Gallery in 2001 to restore the large dossal depicting the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Leonard and Peter by the Master of the Magdalene. Two years later she was asked to restore the Portrait of Alessandro de Medici by Pontormo at the Philadelphia Art Museum. In 2004 she returned to the Gallery to join the conservation staff full-time. Download curriculum vitae