Naomi Rosenkranz

Naomi Rosenkranz is a PhD student in the Conservation of Material Culture in the UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (2024–) and the Assistant Director of the Making and Knowing Project (2015–).

She studied physics at Barnard College (2011–2015), concentrating her research experiences in materials science and engineering (including synthesis and characterization of superconductors and photoconductive properties of organic nanorods). In 2014–15, she served as the inaugural Science Resident in Conservation with Columbia’s Ancient Ink Lab, identifying and characterizing ancient carbon-based inks. She continued her investigation of inks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, working with the departments of Scientific Research and Paper Conservation to examine medieval iron-tannate black inks through recipe reconstructions and spectral analysis of museum objects.

Since 2015, she has worked with the Making and Knowing Project (M&K) at Columbia to study Renaissance craft workshops through historical reconstruction to gain insights into the material, technical, and intellectual world of the past. She is an editor of both Secrets of Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition of BnF Ms. Fr. 640 and its Research and Teaching Companion that contains resources for teachers, researchers, and makers who wish to integrate hands-on and digital components in their practice.

She returned to school in 2024 to pursue her PhD at UCLA, working with Thiago Puglieri, to combine scientific analysis, historical reconstruction, and art historical research, focusing on dyes, paints, and pigments. Alongside her PhD studies, she continues to work with M&K from afar. She creates and leads hands-on workshops to share her passion for art, history, and science through making. She has also worked in university and research administration, and on grant writing and award management, digital humanities projects, sustainability initiatives, and technical art history research.

Contact: njr2128@gmail.com

Textiles and lake pigments prepared with cochineal insects following historical recipes