Genevieve Mary Tobin

I am a conservator specialising in gilded and painted decorative wood.

I have a background as a paintings conservator working in private practice whilst completing MA of Cultural Materials Conservation at the University of Melbourne.

In 2019 I began work as a frame conservator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, under the professional mentorship of then Head of Frames Conservation Dr. Malgorzata Sawicki where I worked to prepare frames for loans and exhibition, examined proposed acquisitions, couriered exhibitions and carried out materials research into developing treatment practices for treating historic picture frames. I have delivered presentations in Australia and research articles internationally, consulting on the Getty Conservation Institute Cleaning Gilded Wooden Surfaces project (2023) https://www.getty.edu/conservation/our_projects/education/cleaning_wooden_gilded/

I was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Conservation and Scientific Research at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C, USA from 2023-2025 and am currently the frame conservator at the National Museum of Art, Design and Architecture (Nasjonalmuseet) in Oslo, Norway where I treat the frame collections, advise and direct on appropriate reproduction frames and continue to carry out practice-led research into developing materials for cleaning gilded wood and materials research into gilding techniques and frame making in Scandinavia and Northern Europe.