Making London Porcelain

Dr Lucia Burgio is Senior Conservation Scientist at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, where she manages the V&A Science Lab, leading the analysis and technical examination of museum objects. She assists the Museum’s curators and conservators in the examination and understanding of the objects, and also in their dating and authentication. She facilitates and participates in collaborative research projects that involve the V&A, but also other collections and institutions. She graduated in Chemistry summa cum laude from the University of Palermo, Italy, and completed a PhD degree in Chemistry at University College London. She has been at the V&A since 2000, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, has been an Honorary Research Fellow at UCL since 2001 and has been chairing the AMC Heritage Science Expert Working Group, Royal Society of Chemistry, since 2014. A recipient of the Theobald Lectureship from the Analytical Methods Committee (RSC), her main interests include pigments and other artists’ materials as well as oriental and American lacquer. Read less

Dr Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth is the Curator of 17th- and 18th-Century Ceramics and Glass in the Department of Decorative Art and Sculpture at the V&A and Tutor in History of Design with the V&A/Royal College of Art. She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Leeds, where she is currently a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies. McCaffrey-Howarth is lead on the public engagement programme along with Dr Haseldine; she will deliver the introduction to 18th-century ceramics, object handling sessions for workshop participants, training for Newham Archives’ team and co-curate the Making East London Porcelain exhibition for Newham Heritage Month. Read less

Dr Georgia Haseldine is V&A East and VARI Public Engagement Fellow. She is leading the V&A’s The Question of Clay research project in collaboration with renowned Chicago-based artist and VARI Emeritus Fellow, Theaster Gates. The Question of Clay explores the history, significance and meaning of clay and ceramics, and innovative ways of opening up the V&A’s collections to new audiences. Her practice-led public engagement projects have included setting up a brickworks in East London with Brickfield and UEL as well as working with anti-racism activists and students in Stoke-on-Trent to re-evaluate and re-make Wedgwood’s anti-slavery medallion. Read less

Dr Kelly Domoney is Conservation Manager (Preventive, Science and Technical) at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Her research and publications centre on the application of non-destructive analytical techniques to the study of archaeological and historical objects in order to answer questions on manufacturing, technology, conservation, restoration and dating. She specialises in compositional characterisation of 18th and 19th century European porcelain and its decorative components using X-ray Fluorescence. Read less