Help preserve our future
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.
Elizabeth Neville MA ACR
Head of School of Conservation
Elizabeth Neville has over thirty years' experience as a book conservator, interspersed with teaching and supervising on the Graduate Diploma in Books and Library Materials and MA Conservation Studies courses at West Dean (2004-10), and the MA in Paper Conservation at Camberwell School of Arts and Craft (1996-7).
Elizabeth returned to West Dean following eight years in the private sector, running HLF funded, work-based traineeships for junior professionals in book and archive conservation. She has held significant positions of responsibility with the Institute of Conservation (Icon) and the Institute of Paper Conservation (IPC) with a strong emphasis on training and professional development. Elizabeth is an accredited member of Icon. She has an MA in Conservation Studies from the University of Sussex and is a V&A assessor for the level 4, Conservation and Collections Care Technicians Diploma.
"I came to conservation via an early career in archaeology. This was where I first experienced that sense of amazement at holding in your hands something that is a physical link with the past, made and used by people I could never know, yet providing a window onto how things were. Being a conservator is a continuous process of discovery, investigation and application of technique, all undertaken for the purposes of helping people to understand and appreciate history and preserving what is valued today for future generations."
Research interests: conservation ethics and decision-making, work-based learning, and artists' books.