May Berkouwer ACR
About Me
Conservator
May Berkouwer is an ICON PACR Accredited Textile Conservator with over thirty years’ experience of professional practice. May offers a full range of textile conservation services with treatment and advice on a wide range of historic textile objects, including tapestries, embroideries, upholstery, furnishing fabrics, flags, banners, ecclesiastical textiles, costumes and vestments. Clients include the National Trust, Victoria & Albert Museum, National Museums of Scotland, Coventry Cathedral, Cambridge University Library, The Churches Conservation Trust, and many private individuals.
May was PACR Accredited in 1999. She is also a committee member of the ICON Historic Interiors Section.
PACR Assessor
May has been an Assessor for the Accreditation Scheme within PACR ICON since 2000; helping to share her wealth of experience with professionals acquiring accreditation.
Consultant
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Researcher
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Presenter and Publicist
Talking on textile conservation, previously conserved objects through to Gainsborough's paintings of fabrics, May gives enlightened, entertaining and informative presentations to a wide-range of establishments.
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Project Management
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Training
Trained as a Textile Conservator at Opleiding Restauratoren (State School for Conservation), Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Assistant Textile Conservator, Levy Textile Workroom of the National Trust, High Wycombe. A two-month internship, Textile Conservation Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum. Internships in the Netherlands at Stichting Antiek Textiel, Keizersgracht 1, Amsterdam; Museum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Centraal Laboratorium, Amsterdam; Historisch Museum, Rotterdam and the Menkemaborg, Groningen.
Became an Accredited Member of the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation ACR (Accredited Conservator-Restorer).
Became an Assessor for the Accreditation Scheme within PACR ICON for PACR (Professional Accreditation of Conservator-Restorers).
Work History
Working at the National Trust’s Levy Textile Workroom.
Consultant for the Regional Project for Cultural Heritage and Development UNDP/UNESCO, Lima, Peru.
Working at Ksynia Marko’s Textile Conservation Studio, London.
Freelance textile conservator and consultant, London; mainly contract, on site and consultancy work; including lead textile conservator for Brodsworth Hall, English Heritage, and assisting in its re-opening in 1995.
Freelance studio, initially in south Suffolk then relocating in 2007 to current day larger premises in Sudbury.
