Biography

Pilar Brooks received her BA in art history with a minor in studio art from Rollins College in 2019, where she performed independent research on the ethical and technical challenges in the conservation of African objects. In 2022, Rollins nominated her to apply to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, and she became a Semifinalist for her oral history research proposal with the Ethnographic Museum of Rwanda. She hopes to reapply for the program in the future.

She has performed pre-program conservation work with Los Angeles Art Conservation, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Getty Research Institute, the University of Washington Libraries, the Minnesota History Center, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Some highlights of her experiences were analyzing and treating a PVC special effects sculpture from 1980’s B-horror movie The Stuff at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, executing binding repair and leather consolidation treatments on rare books at the UW Library, and co-presenting Contested Care: Two problematic monuments at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston at the 50^th AIC Annual Meeting.

At UCLA, she hopes to explore treatment options for preserving organic coatings in West African art, community-based participatory research, and environmental sustainability in museums.