The TC Foundation

 The lasting benefit of the TC Foundation’s support

Bursaries to students on the MPhil Textile Conservation and now also the MPhil Book and Paper Conservation programmes might support one individual, but the legacy of that support is wide-ranging, with many institutions and their textile collections benefitting from their expertise and care.

This section highlights the impressive achievements of just a few of the Textile Conservators who, as students, were able to complete their studies thanks to the TC Foundation’s support and the support of our many funders.

Lorna Rowley, Textile Conservator at the National Museum of Ireland
Graduated in 2017

Since completing the MPhil in Textile Conservation programme in 2017, I have worked in the private and public sectors in both the UK and Ireland and have also worked in Taiwan and Canada.

My first job was at the Institute of Heritage Preservation Research, Taiwan, where I was Project Conservator for the Great Dragon Banner project. In January 2020, I became Textile Conservator at the National Museum of Ireland (NMI), and work as part of the small, multi-disciplinary conservation team. I am the only Textile Conservator working across four NMI sites and several storage facilities.

I care passionately about textiles and their impact on cultural heritage both living and historic. I am keen to share my knowledge and experience. I am very proud of my achievements to date, but am acutely aware that I would never have had the opportunity to develop a career in Textile Conservation without the financial support of the TC Foundation which awarded me the Drapers’ Company Bursary. I will be forever grateful to the TCF and the Drapers.

Signe Thøgersen, Textile Conservator, The Museum Centre in Hordaland, Norway

Graduated 2021

I am much indebted to the TCF for the generous support I received during my years in Glasgow from 2019-2021.  Very soon after graduation I gained a permanent position at Bevaringstenestene, the Conservation Centre associated with the Museum Centre Hordaland (MUHO) in Bergen, the main hub for cultural heritage preservation and collections care in western Norway - an area of more than 33,000 km2 - which also provides services for private clients and heritage institutions across the country. I work hands on as a textile conservator and provide exhibition support. I also participate in the of training museum employees in remote locations, and I especially enjoy teaching workshops and developing written material on best practice in the preservation of textiles and plastics in collections.

Working in Norway comes with extreme weather conditions and colourful folklore, resulting in unique conservation challenges. These have involved emptying a historic building by boat during a snowstorm and mounting a child’s 1940’s dress with damage to the thin fabric from an alleged eagle attack (see image above).  Textile conservation is an international profession, so from being a Danish expat in Glasgow I have become an expat in Norway. I never cease to find my work here hugely rewarding, and I never forget that the TC Foundation helped pave my way.

LYNN MCCLEAN
PRINCIPAL TEXTILE CONSERVATOR, NATIONAL MUSEUMS OF SCOTLAND
GRADUATED 1993

 As a textile conservation student at the Textile Conservation Centre at Hampton Court Palace, I was hugely grateful to the TCF for a bursary which enabled me to complete the course. After graduating I completed a one-year internship at the National Trust Textile Conservation Studio, an experience which led to a career-long desire to set up an internship programme at National Museums Scotland, where I have worked for over 30 years and am now Principal Textile Conservator. Over the years we have taken MPhil Textile Conservation students on short summer placements between their first and second years and I have long wanted to set up 12-month internships for new graduates. These allow the student to experience a museum workplace and help them to consolidate some of the treatments and methods they have been taught in their first year. The students  also bring current thinking and practise to our team so there is real mutual benefit to hosting such placements.

In 2022 thanks to funding from Leslie B Durst and from The Clothworkers’ Foundation we were able to offer three 12-month internships. Interns follow all our working practices and undertake a range of treatments for purposes like exhibitions, loans and storage. Time is built in for a project of their choosing which they feel will most develop their skills. All three of our interns to date have been graduates of the course and it has been wonderful to see both them and their careers develop after their year with us.

Thanks to further amazing generosity of our donors, Leslie B Durst and The Clothworkers’ Foundation we can offer a further five internships between from 2025-2031.