Judy Walsh joined the department in Fall 2005 as Associate Professor in Paper Conservation. She was promoted to full Professor in Spring 2009. She earned her B.A. at Trinity College in Washington D.C., then received her M.A. degree and Certificate of Advanced Studies in Art Conservation from this program in 1977 when it was part of the Cooperstown Graduate Programs, SUNY College at Oneonta.

Judy gave a lecture at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX in October 2007 at a symposium held in conjunction with the exhibition, Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth’s Late Paintings of Lancaster. Her talk was: “In an American Manner: Modernist Watercolor Technique” in which she argued that the modernist watercolor of O’Keeffe, Demuth, Hartley and Marin sought to be “American” as well as “modern.”  In the watercolor technique of Winslow Homer the artists of the Stieglitz circle found both attributes. Judy described Homer’s technique showing that elements of it were displayed in American, but not European modern works. The symposium was organized by Claire Barry ('81), conservator at the Kimbell art Museum and featured Stephen Kornhauser ('75) from the Wadsworth Atheneaum and Dale Kronkright, Head of Conservation at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, as speakers.

This February, Judy lectured at The Art Institute of Chicago on Winslow Homer's use of the color theories of Michel Chevreul in conjunction with the exhibit, Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light, showing at the Art Institute of Chicago exclusively from February 16–May 10, 2008. Judy also wrote two essays for the exhibition catalogue entitled, "More Skillful, More Refined, More Delicate: England" and "Winslow Homer and the Color Theories of Michel-Eugène Chereul". The catalogue is published by The Art Institute of Chicago and distributed by Yale University Press and is now available. For more information on the exhibit, check out The Art Institute of Chicago's calendar. In addition, Judy is featured in the movie, "Winslow Homer: Society and Solitude" by Steve Ross that will premiere at The Art Institute of Chicago this February. Click here for showtimes.

Before coming to our program, Judy spent fourteen years as Senior Paper Conservator at the National Gallery of Art. While at the National Gallery, Judy was instrumental in the creation of the Paper Sample Collection, an archive and associated database of approximately 40,000 examples of papers manufactured from 1830 to the present. Prior to that, Judy worked at the Worcester Museum of Art and in private practice in Portland, Maine.

Judy, a Fellow of the American Institute of Conservation, has been a Visiting Research Scholar at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and has taught at the New York University School of Continuing Education, the Clark Art Institute Art History Program, and the Campbell Center for Preservation Studies in Mt. Carroll, Illinois. Judy has presented lectures in a variety of venues, including the Book and Paper Group of the American Institute for Conservation, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She has conducted extensive research on Winslow Homer and Georgia O’Keefe and has published on those artists as well as on Japanese woodblock prints, paper splitting, printing inks, and other topics.

Judy was also elected to the Print Council of America in Fall 2005. The Print Council of America is an incorporated nonprofit organization with elected membership, officers, and a board of directors. Membership in the council is achieved through a process of nomination by existing council members and review / approval by the board of directors at their semiannual meetings.