Congratulations to our Sidney S. Williston Memorial Fund Award recipients! For more information or to donate to the fund to supporting WCG emerging professionals, read more about the Williston fund.
Laura Bergemann
Laura Bergemann is a fourth-year graduate student in objects conservation at NYU, completing her final year placement at The Smithsonian Institution. She holds a BS in Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her past conservation research and experience includes internships at the Rijksmuseum, MIT Libraries, The Frick Collection, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Sotheby’s, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Through her studies, fellowships, and research work, she has developed a special interest in instrumental analysis for conservation.
Sejal Goel
My name is Sejal Goel, and I graduated from Durham University in 2023 with an MA in Conservation of Museum and Archaeological Objects. I started my career at a Kress Fellowship with the Missouri Historical Society working as the primary conservator for the Gateway to Pride exhibit, which had a focus on modern vernacular art and plastic objects. I am now working with the National Parks Service as a post-graduate fellow thanks to the Great Basin Institute. I am interested in almost all aspects of conservation including object and paper treatments, conservation science, and working with indigenous collections. However my current obsession is the conservation of foodstuffs.
Daniela González-Pruitt
Daniela earned a BA in art history with minors in studio art and Italian from the University of Toronto. Before starting her graduate studies, she was a conservation technician at LA Art Labs and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. She has held pre-program internships with the Getty multicultural internship program at LACMA and Scripps College. Daniela is currently a third-year student at SUNY Buffalo State University specializing in the conservation of paintings. She completed her first summer internship at the Dallas Museum of Art researching and treating paintings from the Spanish Americas. This summer Daniela interned at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid focusing on the treatment and research of Spanish panel paintings. She is currently completing her third-year internship at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
Efeh Ibojie
Efeh Ibojie is a senior enrolled in the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her area of concentration is in Cultural Heritage and Information Studies. She has completed training at the Greenwood Cemetery as a Masonry Restoration technician trainee, worked in the NYC Parks Art and Antiquities Department as a Monuments crew member, and has been a paper conservation intern at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. This fall, she has returned to the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives to complete a 7-month conservation internship.
Hannah Longbottom Estrada
Hannah Longbottom Estrada was born and raised in Southern California. She is pursuing a BA in fine arts with a minor in emergency health services, graduating from the George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in December of 2023. She currently holds a position as The Phillips Collection’s Conservation Fellow/Souls Grown Deep’s 2023–2024 intern, with interest in painting and paper conservation. As a queer artist, she is passionate about painting and printmaking and will further her practice at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center’s Keyholder Residency upon graduation.
