Jennifer has had a long involvement with conserving, studying and writing about stone sculpture. She is also a conservation consultant, concerned with providing advice, training, and assessment of collections and objects and the environments in which they are housed for museums, galleries, churches and private collectors in Britain and elsewhere. The work involves an understanding of materials and how they change over time, the risks that objects may be exposed to and how these can be managed, as well as knowing the benefits and limitations of conservation interventions. She also works on exhibitions and installations and one of her current projects concerns the touring programme for the Wave and the Weeping Window, sculptures drawn from the work, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, displayed at the Tower of London in 2014.
EMPLOYMENT
- Halahan Associates Conservation Consultants. Involvement since 1996.
- Freelance consultant in the conservation and care of objects and collections. Involvement in providing a range of professional services to public and private sector clients including surveys, training, environmental monitoring, conservation management plans and preventive conservation.
- City & Guilds of London Art School,
- Stone conservation module leader and tutor, 2008-present
- Involved with the development and delivery of curriculum related to stone conservation, coordination of other stone conservation teaching staff, student assessment.
- Tutor and then Head of Department, Conservation Studies course. January 1993-July 1999.Responsible for course administration, development and delivery of syllabus, particularly relating to stone conservation, recruitment of teaching staff, student recruitment, timetabling, and assessment of students. Compiled BA (Hons) course validation documentation
- British Museum, September 1985-January 1993
- Senior Conservator, Stone, Wall Paintings and Mosaics Conservation Section
- Involved with carrying out conservation treatments, developing treatments, supervising students and interns, staff appraisal, assessment of objects for loan and exhibition, collection surveys
Victoria and Albert Museum, September 1982-August 1985
Student, Sculpture Conservation section
EDUCATION
- Recipient for 1995 of the Gabo Trust Travelling Scholarship for Sculpture Conservation.
- Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in the Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works, Wilmington. 1980-1983. MSc awarded in 1983. Specialisation in objects conservation.
- Temple University, Philadelphia. BA in history awarded Summa Cum Laude in 1977.
PUBLICATIONS
- Book review of Stone Conservation. An Overview of Current Research by Eric Doehne and Clifford A. Price, 2nd edition, Getty Conservation Institute, 2010. Published in Journal of Architectural Conservation, July 2011
- Claire Fry, Amber Xavier-Rowe, Frances Halahan and Jennifer Dinsmore
- ‘What’s causing the damage! The use of a combined solution-based risk assessment and condition audit’ ICOM Museum Microclimates conference, Copenhagen, 2007
- Jennifer Dinsmore, ‘Lichfield Angel condition assessment’, http://www.lichfield-cathedral.org/images/stories/about-us/angel-files/condition_assessment.pdf. 2006
- Contributor of entries on stone, plaster and gemstones to the Dictionary of Materials and Techniques in the Decorative Arts. Published by John Murray in May 2000.
- Member of the editorial board for From Marble to Chocolate. Conservation of Modern Sculpture. Tate Gallery, London, 1995.
- J. K. Dinsmore, ‘Conservation and storage: stone’ in The Manual of Curatorship, 2nd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1992.
- S.B. Hanna and J.K. Dinsmore, ‘Conservation of Central Asian wall painting fragments from the Stein Collection in the British Museum’ in S. Cather, ed., The Conservation of Wall Paintings, J. Paul Getty Trust, London 1991.
- J. Dinsmore and V. Munday, ‘Stone, Wall Paintings and Mosaics’ in S. Bradley, ed., A Guide to Storage, Exhibition and Handling of Antiquities, Ethnographia and Pictorial Art. British Museum Press, OP66, London 1990.
- J. Dinsmore and H. Howard, ‘The treatment of an eighteenth dynasty wall painting fragment at the British Museum’ in S. Watkins and C. Brown, eds., Conservation of Ancient Egyptian Materials. UKIC Archaeology Section, London, 1988.
- J. Dinsmore, ‘Considerations of adhesion in the use of silanes’ in The Conservator, volume 11, 1987
- J. Larson and J. Dinsmore. ‘The treatment of polychrome mediaeval English stone sculpture in the museum environment’ in Bromelle , Pye, Smith and Thomson, eds., Adhesives and Consolidants. IIC, London, 1984.
- G. Wheeler, J. Dinsmore, L. Ransick A. Charola and R. Koestler, ‘Treatment of the Abydos reliefs: consolidation and cleaning’ in Studies in Conservation, volume 29 (1984) 1.