Ms. Smita Singh
Joint Secretary (TCRC)
Smita Singh is an Independent Textile Conservation Consultant and researcher. Her area of research interest is to examine the material and techniques of the textiles and the aesthetics, wondrous and artful uses to which textiles were directed in the social, political, and religious life of early modern South Asia. She has a Master’s Degree in ‘Conservation of Art Objects’ from the National Museum Institute (NMI), New Delhi, India. She is UGC- NET qualified and has specialization in Conservation of Traditional Painted Textiles from British Museum London, UK. Currently, she is working on conservation project for the painted textile at Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, The City Palace Jaipur, conservation of textile collection of the belongings of Shree Ma Anandmayee from the repository of Matri Smriti Museum and Research Centre, Ma Anandamayee Ashram, Kankhal and also heading a project for the conservation and display of the textile collection at The Tibet Museum, Dharamshala. She is also associated with the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation (MMCF), The City Palace Museum, Udaipur as a Textile Conservation Consultant, since 2014, for the documentation, conservation and storage of collection of The Royal Mewar Textiles.
Her latest publication as contributing author is the ‘Royal Textiles of Mewar- The City Palace Museum, Udaipur’ edited by Ms Rosemary Crill and published by Harper Collins India Private Limited (April 2021). She recently concluded conservation of textiles and costumes project with Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur for the ‘Peacock in the Desert: Royal Arts of Jodhpur’ exhibition held in collaboration with Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the conservation of the ‘Nineteenth Century Elephant and Horse Armour’ at MSMS II Museum, Jaipur. She is also a visiting faculty at the ‘National Museum Institute’, New Delhi. She has worked with many institutions independently for over a decade and has specialization in the conservation and preservation of the textile objects, survey and documentation of textile collections, designing storage for the collections, and establishment of the conservation laboratories.
Her eighteen years of body of work includes a long association with Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), New Delhi; National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property (NRLC) Lucknow; The City Palace Udaipur; President House Museum, New Delhi; Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur; School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, Gyan Museum, Jaipur and Srinivas Malliah Memorial Theatre Crafts Trust and Museum, New Delhi; which has the theatre costumes, puppets, masks collection collected by Smt. Kamladevi Chattopadhyay. During her association with INTACH Art Conservation Centre as Senior Conservator/Centre Coordinator, she has executed numerous conservation projects and training programs. She has also established and headed the ‘Specialized Textile Conservation Unit’ INTACH, New Delhi, in2010.
She was a recipient of the Merit cum means scholarship National Museum Institute 2001, Nehru Trust Scholarship in 2004, ICCROM Bursary in 2008; Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT) scholarship in 2010; Eurasia- Pacific UNINET scholarship through NMI to visit University of Applied Arts, Vienna for Indo-Austrian Workshop on Conservation of Textiles in 2014, and training in Textile and Costume Conservation at Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD), Florence, Italy offered by ITP- International Training Projects in October 2019.She has written and presented various papers in National and International Conferences and was the editor of ‘Conservation Issues in Asia’ a conference proceeding of Asian Regional Cooperation Conference published in 2009. She is also a Founder member & Chief Editor of Textiles and Clothing Research Centre (TCRC) a society registered to promote textile research programs in India since 2015.
