Vitale Art Conservation & Digital Imaging

Specialties

Vitale Art Conservation provides conservation treatment of all types of works on paper and photographs. Works on paper includes prints, drawings, watercolors, pastels, documents, maps, oriental screens and scrolls. We treat parchment artifacts such as the California State Constitution at the Golden State Museum. The treatment of photographs is a specialty, having been trained by one of the greats in the field. Tim Vitale has over decades of experience treating all types of flat art materials. He has worked for major institutions such as the Smithsonian and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

History

Established in 1998.

Tim Vitale was trained at the Winterthur Museum Conservation Training Program, graduating in 1977. After spending about 20 years working at major institution on the east coast, he returned to the Bay Area in 1994. Working with a colleague for a few years in the South Bay, he opened his Emeryville studio in 1998. He has work for all the major Bay Area Museums including the Oakland Museum and the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco (deYoung). Beginning in 2000, he started recreating historic wallpaper digitally and digital facsimiles of original art works. Wallpaper projects have been done for the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA) and the historic home for Louise May Alcott (Concord, MA).

Meet the Business Owner

Tim V.

Business Owner

Tim Vitale is a conservator in private practice in Emeryville, CA, with over 35 years of experience treating works on paper, photographs and electronic media. He received a Master of Science degree in Art Conservation from Winterthur Museum/​University of Delaware in 1977 and a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and Chemistry from San Jose State University in 1974. His current areas of interest include the treatment of works on paper and photographs and electronic media conservation; digital imaging; video preservation and conservation research. Vitale has worked on the effects of drying and flattening on surface texture; science of albumen prints, including the Albumen website; digital migration from video, including the VideoPreservation Website; and digital surrogates created from artworks and wallpaper.