Kate Seymour is an art historian (MA Hons, Aberdeen University 1993) who received a Masters of Arts in the Conservation of Easel Paintings from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle in 1999. She moved to the Netherlands in 1999 to work at the Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (SRAL), Maastricht (the Netherlands) as a painting conservator and is currently the Head of Education at this institution.

Her position entails supervising the practical and research work carried out at SRAL by (Erasmus) interns from many different conservation training programmes, as well as teaching and lecturing internationally on a variety of subjects, both academic and practical. She teaches at the University of Amsterdam Master programme for Conservation and introduces conservation science to Liberal Arts and Science Bachelor students at Maastricht University. She travels frequently abroad to give workshops on conservation practice and theory to mid-career conservators, integrating her material knowledge and practical skills with an ability to disseminate complex decision-making processes.

In the past five years, she has developed with support of the Getty’s Conserving Canvas initiative workshops to disseminate the Mist-Lining process and technique. Her interests include the structural treatment of both canvas and panel paintings, cleaning polychromed surfaces, filling and retouching systems and varnishing painted surfaces.

In addition, Kate Seymour is currently serving a second term on the ICOM-CC Directory Board (2020-2023) where she holds office as Chair. She was the Directory Board – Working Group Coordinator Liaison during the 2017-2020 triennium. She held the post of ICOM-CC Coordinator for the Working Group Sculpture, Polychromy, and Architectural Decoration (2008-2014), and Coordinator of the Education and Training in Conservation Working Group (2014-2017).