Meet Maggie
I am Maggie Barkovic Everhart, a paintings conservator and the founder of Everhart Conservation, an independent practice dedicated to the care and preservation of artworks and collections. Through Everhart Conservation, I offer on-site consultation, practical conservation treatment, collection surveys, and advisory services. Working throughout the Northeast, my work is grounded in material understanding and a deep respect for the layered histories held within paintings. Everhart Conservation provides extensive experience treating paintings from the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries, with particular expertise in structural stabilization, complex surface challenges, and the reassessment of earlier restoration campaigns. A strong, research-driven sensibility is integrated into this practice with experience in oil, acrylic, and mixed media paintings, as well as a wide range of support types, formats, and structures. Each process is guided by testing, documentation, and ethical standards that prioritize reversibility and material integrity. Everhart Conservation also values working directly with living artists and enjoys thoughtful conversations about materials, surface behavior, varnish, and the evolving challenges of contemporary practice. I hold a Postgraduate Diploma in the Conservation of Paintings from The Courtauld Institute of Art, an MA in Art History from George Mason University, and a BA in Chemistry from Virginia Tech. I am a Professional Member of the American Institute for Conservation.Art conservation begins with study and close engagement with an artwork’s materials, history, and condition. Through observation, research, and material analysis, conservators develop evidence-based understandings of how objects were made, how they have changed over time, and what those changes reveal about their making, meaning, and material history. This inquiry informs all aspects of conservation, from thoughtful collecting and long-term care to, when appropriate, treatment.Paintings and other cultural objects are composed of materials that naturally age and respond to their environments; they may crack, fade, tear, or become damaged by light, humidity, handling, or past repairs. Conservators work to slow deterioration, stabilize change, and address damage in ways that respect an artwork’s material nature, lived history, and the many people who value and care for it. Conservation matters because artworks hold cultural memory, meaning, and knowledge, and preserving them allows future generations to continue learning from and connecting with them.