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West Dean is part of a registered charity and relies on the support of generous donors, friends, legacies to help us deliver world-class education in conservation and the creative arts and maintain our award-winning gardens.
West Dean Alumni Association
Stay in touch
Keep connected with West Dean College and stay up to date with
past and present students. Regular alumni newsletters detail what
students are now doing in the world of conservation and visual
arts.
Update your details: email admissions@westdean.org.uk
or call 01243 818291
Find a Friend
If you would like help finding a friend, a classmate or a tutor from West Dean College please contact the Registry Office on admissions@westdean.org.uk or 01243 818291.
Recent Alumni
Recent alumni discuss working at the Smithsonian Library, the British Museum, a BBC interview and more...
William Bennett at the Smithsonian Library. Conservation of Books and Library Materials 2012-2014
William returned to the US and his home near Washing, DC, after graduating from West Dean College. Starting in January 2014, he began a contract position as a conservator with Gale Cengage, an e-learning company that coordinates digitization efforts with various institutions in order to create digital collections that can be used to supplement university coursework.
Working onsite at the Smithsonian Libraries (the library arm of the US national museums), the position involved assessing collections pulled for digitization, treating items in need of intervention, supervising scanners vis-à-vis handling of items, and coordinating logistics. This eventually led to a permanent position in August 2014 at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, which houses records of the Smithsonian from its inception to the present, where William participates in treatments, environmental monitoring, collection assessments, and outreach efforts to the public.
Elizabeth Belcher, Conservation of Ceramics and Related Materials 2010-2011.
"After leaving West Dean College I went on to work for a year at the British Museum in a collection management position. Here I was able to add onto the skills and knowledge I gained whilst at West Dean, to not only carry out basic conservation, but to care for the art collection through handling, packing for travel, creating functional and safe mounts, installing and rotating exhibitions, and addressing storage issues.
I now have returned to the US where I work as a collections manager and conservator for a large corporate art collection. I am responsible for developing access programmes and installing exhibitions throughout four large corporate buildings within the city, creating a conservation lab from the ground up, preforming basic cleaning and repairs on objects which are both historic and modern, and developing photography and a database for a long neglected art collection.
I hope to soon be able to start a local association for art carers within the corporate world so that we may possibly develop an exchange programme for our collections, assist each other with emergency planning, and provide advice to each other on daily care."
Mary French discusses naked scientists. Conservation of Books and Library Materials 2011-2013
'I'm am working on the Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection and am
working on Hebrew manuscript fragments from Egypt, many of which
are about 1,000 years old. Really exciting stuff! Lucy Cheng,
another West Dean books graduate, and I were recently interviewed
for a programme on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire called the Naked
Scientists. We talked about the conservation techniques that we use
for the Genizah fragments. The podcast can be found here and our
segment starts at the 31:26 mark -
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/interviews/interview/1000501/
Tiago Oliviera faces his fears. Conservation of
Ceramics and Related Materials 2010-2012
"My degree from West Dean led me to investigate whether a stone
mortar used in conservation in the UK could be applied to the
conservation of Portuguese historic tiles - Azulejos. This link
between my studies in the UK and my roots in Portugal had always
been my goal. I gave a talk at my previous university in Porto,
Escola das Artes, Universidade Católica Portuguesa called
Conservation of Architectural Decorative Arts. It was rewarding,
though a bit scary, to have feedback from conservators at the
event.
I talked at the ICON Positive Futures in an Uncertain World
conference in Glasgow about a project I started at West Dean and
have written about here. I was always encouraged to speak in public
when at West Dean and, despite public speaking giving me sleepless
nights, I am keen to continue doing so. Recently I have been
accepted to a HLF/ICON internship at Sarah Peek's Ltd. Conservation
Studio. I will be doing what I came to the UK to study and work
on-ceramics and glass conservation-restoration. The diverse
portfolio I was able to build up while a student plus the good
teaching at West Dean helped when applying for this
internship."
Lynn Nicholls - an adventure in Xilitla.
Creative writing 2011-2014
"Just before Christmas 2011, I learned I had been awarded a
scholarship to visit Xilitla as writer in residence. At that time I
couldn't even pronounce the word - try it - he-lit-la and throw the
first syllable up to the roof of your mouth. Edward James made his
home there, building his surreal gardens over a 40 year period from
the 1940s to the 1980s. In the summer of 2012 I spent a month
staying at the house he lived in, when he wasn't sleeping outside
in his beloved jungle. It is still owned by the Gasteleum family,
and run by Plutaco Gastelum's daughter, who grew up calling Edward
James 'Uncle Edward'. The house is extraordinary, well named El
Castillo, it is rambling, huge, eccentric and beautiful and full of
surprises. I spent a lot of time writing on the various terraces,
and cooling off in the pool. Whilst there I experienced several
tropical storms, had my senses completely soaked in vibrant colour,
ate guacamole, enchiladas and eggs fried with chillies, drank
gallons of Coca-Cola (which together with Camey soap and Kellogg's
cornflakes has made its way up the mountains), made lots of
friends, wrote a series of short stories, which I called Postcards
from Xilitla and got bitten by a venomous spider!
Xilitla is beautiful, exotic and unlike anywhere else you would
see. I kept a travel blog which you can still read." Read my travel
blog here www.lynninxilitla.wordpress.com