About

Art Conservation de Rigueur et Anoxia Abatement Solutions announces the expansion of our private practice. We are now providing Emergency and Disaster Preparedness and Recovery, Conservation Museum Assessment, Integrated Pest Management, Mold and Microbial Abatement and Remediation both in quarantined in-situ environments and remote. These complement the other complete conservation services we offer for the care and presentation of a wide variety of historic objects, antiques and contemporary Textiles, Paintings, Sculpture, Rare Books, and Works on Paper. Our new conservation studio offers a greater capacity to work concurrently on multiple projects and accommodate objects of a much larger scale. Our practice serves museums, historical and cultural institutions, private collectors, galleries, architects, and designers in the U.S. and internationally. Uniquely, we work in close collaboration with custom mount crafters, framers, curators, research historians, ASA appraisers and other specialized conservators to meet the specific needs of each client.

Conservation is the application of technical, scientific, and artistic analysis to the preservation and treatment of Textiles, Paintings, Sculpture, Rare Books, and Works on Paper, and Historical Objects and Artifacts. Art Conservation de Rigueur provides professionally skilled care for collectors and institutions, some of these service include, but are not limited to, condition surveys, treatment recommendations, repairs, exhibition and display design, mount preparation and fabrication, cleaning, restoration, archival storage and environmental management. We consult with architects in the design of exhibit and storage facilities, lighting, HVAC systems and other aspects as they pertain to the housing and display of artistic and historic works. Our experienced approach combine the finest traditional materials, old world craftsmanship, and aesthetic sensibilities, with state of the art archival and conservation science and technology methods to produce truly museum quality conservation and restoration for a broad classification and origin of artistic works.

Deterioration, degradation and damage due to age, environment, accident, or mishandling is a fact of life with all artwork, as it is with all physical objects. Conservation treatments are a means by which these detrimental processes can be slowed down in an attempt to preserve the cultural heritage and significance of an object for the benefit of present and future generations. Damage and neglect disfigure art. While, restorative treatments return objects to their former integrity. The best way to sustain and extend the life of any valuable is to improve its environment. Our projects range from the minute to the grand, whether you possess a single work, family heirloom or are the caretaker of a comprehensive collection, we will work with you to devise a practical conservation strategy.

Selected Clients and Workshop Participants

500 Capp Street Foundation
Atthowe – Fine Art Handlers
Bamboula Arts Foundation
BAMPFA, UC Berkeley Museum of Art
Bank of America – Fine Art Collections
Beverley Birks, Haute Couture Collections
Blackfriars Gallery
Blackhawk Museum
California Historical Society
California Indian Museum
Cantor Arts Center
Catherine Clarke Gallery
Chalk-Vermillion Galleries
Charles Schultz Museum
City and County of San Francisco
Connect Art International
Dagmar Dolby – Fine Art Collections
Dan Scheinman, Historic Baseball Uniform Collection
de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University
Ellen Michelson Fine Art Collections
Filoli Estate ~ National Historic Trust
Fine Art Conservation Labs
Gallo Family Estates
Hoover Institute, Stanford University
HSH Interior Design
Japantown Cultural Community Center of Norther California – Historic Archives
Jessica Silverman Gallery
Karen Nelson and Delphine Hirasuna, The Art of Gaman
Kit and Linda Hinrichs, Stars and Stripes Collection
Lawrence Fine Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Marin History Museum
Mark Blackburn Collections
Martha Angus Design
McEvoy Foundation for the Arts
Mendocino County Museum
Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo, Vestment Collection
Mission Santa Ines, Vestment Collection
Museo Italiano Americano
Museum of Craft and Folk Art
National Park Service: John Muir House, Rosie the Riveter Museum, Eugene O’Neil House, Port of Chicago Historic Site
Nevada Museum of Art
Objects of Arts Shows
Orlando Bravo Winery Collections
Pixar Studios
Placer County Museum
Presidio Trust
Pritzker Fine Art Collections
San Antonio Art Museum
San Francisco Exploratorium
San Francisco Historical Society
San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design
San Francisco Museum of Performance+Design
San Francisco Tribal & Textile Show
Sherry Morse Interiors
Ship Art International
Sotheby’s New York
Sterling Art Services
The Eames Library
The Hearst Foundation
The Mendocino County Historical Society
The Painters Place, Custom Fine Art Picture Framers
The San Francisco Public Art Alliance
Thomas Murray Asiatica
UOVO – Fine Art Handlers
Urban Chateau, Fine European Antiques
Ventura County Museum
Weinstein Gallery
Wild King Vintage Museum
William H. Hannon Library, Archive Special Collections, Loyola University
Zlot – Buell – Fine Art Associates


Current Memberships & Professional Affiliations

  • AAM – American Association of Museums
  • AASLH – American Association for State and Local History
  • AIC – American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
    • EO – Ethnographic Objects Group
    • OSG – Objects Specialty Group
    • PSG – Painting Specialty Group
    • TSG – Textile Specialty Group
    • WAG – Wood Art Objects Group
  • BAACG – Bay Area Art Conservation Guild, Current Elected Board of Directors 2015-2018, 2018-2021
  • CAM – California Association of Museums
  • CCHS – Conference of California History Societies
  • CIPP – Conservators in Private Practice
  • COMPT – Committee on Museum Professional Training
  • CSA – Costume Society of America – Western Regional Board of Directors, Program & Events Chair 2009-2018
  • CURCOM – Curators Committee
  • IIC – International Institute for Conservation
  • ICOM-CC – International Council on Museums-Conservation Committee, Textile Working Group, Paintings Working Group, New Materials
  • REGST – Registrars Committee
  • TAC – Textile Arts Council, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
  • TEPIC – Traveling Exhibits Professional Interest Committee
  • TSA – Textile Society of America
  • WAAC – Western Association for Art Conservation

Related Links

The American Association of Museums (AAM)
The American Institute For the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC)
Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists (ARCS)
Conservators in Private Practice (CIPP)
Conservation Online (CoOL)
The Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI)
The Bay Area Art Conservation Guild (BAACG)
The Western Association of Art conservation (WAAC)
Heritage Preservation, the National Institute for Conservation
The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI)
The American Society of Appraisers (ASA)
The Costume Society of America (CSA)
The Textile Society of America (TSA)

 

About The American Institute for Conservation (AIC)

The leading membership association for current and aspiring conservators and allied professionals who preserve cultural heritage.

Represents more than 3,500 individuals in more than forty countries around the world working in the domains of science, art, and history through treatment, research, collections care, education, and more. All of them have the same goal: preserve our cultural heritage so we can learn from it today and appreciate it in the future.

The primary goal of conservation professionals, individuals with extensive training and special expertise, is the preservation of cultural property. Cultural property consists of individual objects, structures, or aggregate collections. It is material which has significance that may be artistic, historical, scientific, religious, or social, and it is an invaluable and irreplaceable legacy that must be preserved for future generations.

In striving to achieve this goal, conservation professionals assume certain obligations to the cultural property, to its owners and custodians, to the conservation profession, and to society as a whole. This document, the Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), sets forth the principles that guide conservation professionals and others who are involved in the care of cultural property.  The conservation professional should use the following guidelines and supplemental commentaries together with the code in the pursuit of ethical practice. The commentaries are separate documents that amplify the code and accommodate growth and change in the field.

Elise Rousseau – Director and Principal Conservator

Elise Yvonne Rousseau is the Director and Principal Conservator at ACdR Conservation in San Francisco. She did her graduate studies in Conservation Sciences abroad in Brussels, Belgium at the Institute Royal de Patrimoine Artistique (IRPA- KIK) Cultural Heritage and further Textile Disciplines at the Karlshrue Archdiocese Schule der Künste in Ettlingen, Germany. She also has a M.A. in Museum Studies, and 18.5 post graduate credits focused in Mycology from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Albany, New York, at the 6th Annual International Scientific Conference on Bioaerosols, Fungi, Bacteria, Mycotoxins in Indoor & Outdoor Environments and Human Health.

In 1999 she established the atelier Art Conservation de Rigueur et Anoxia Abatement Solutions, now simply ACdR Conservation this large multi-disciplinary conservation practice in San Francisco specializing Textiles, Paintings, Historic Objects, Decorative Arts, Books and Paper. Providing Emergency and Disaster Preparedness, Conservation Assessment, Integrated Pest Management, Mold and Microbial Abatement, Remediation and Recovery both in quarantined environments in-situ and remote. These complement the other complete conservation services for the cleaning, care, repair, preservation and presentation of a wide variety of artifacts and objects. Ms. Rousseau and her staff mentor and train 4-6 pre-program and post graduate interns from around the globe, each year for the past decade in their nine month hands-on experience practicum program. Ms. Rousseau is also a guest instructor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, teaching textile conservation and collections care in the William H. Hannon Library and Archives Special Collections. Elise is currently serving her third elected term of office on the Costume Society of America’s Western Region Boards of Directors and her second term with the Board of the Bay Area Art Conservation Guild.

 
Click here to view our newsletters.

Do you have a textile, historic or decorative arts object you would like conserved and displayed? Are you working with a client on the design display and installation of an artistic work?

We can provide the expertise in this highly specialized field.

Our projects range from the minute to the grand.

Preserving the cultural heritage and significance of art and objects.

We will work with you to devise a practical conservation strategy.

Consult us with your projects.