About KCI Conservation
KCI Conservation Firm
KCI Conservation is a professional art conservation firm that specializes in the treatment and care of sculpture and objects. We maintain a beautifully equipped conservation facility in the Twin Cities. KCI’s three conservators are Laura Kubick, Kristin Cheronis, and Nicole Flam. As a team, we have almost 50 years of combined experience in object and sculpture conservation. Our work includes carrying out design phase assessments, conservation condition assessments, collections surveys, cultural resource documentation, hands-on treatment work, art restoration, and historic remediation projects.
The diverse repertoire of artworks treated by KCI includes public art, traditional sculpture, contemporary art, decorative arts objects, ancient artifacts, non-Western and Indigenous cultural heritage objects, historic artifacts, monuments, fountains, mosaics, multi-media art, kinetic art, and electronic media art. We have treated objects made from stone, masonry, concrete, metals, ceramic tile, terracotta, wood, plaster, terrazzo, linoleum, glass, bone, paper, plastics and resins, wax, botanical materials and more. However, we have become especially well known and respected for the conservation of modern and contemporary art, as well as outdoor sculpture and public art.
All of KCI Conservation’s work is carried out following the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and the Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice of the American Institute for Conservation. For a list of KCI’s clients, click here.
KCI Conservation is a woman-owned, small business. We are a MnUCP certified DBE business.
KCI Conservators
Laura Kubick, conservator
Laura Kubick is an Object and Sculpture Conservator and a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). She frequently works with a wide range of objects and materials, including fine art, historic objects, public art, and outdoor sculpture, however she has developed particular expertise in the conservation of contemporary art and the conservation of painted outdoor sculpture. Laura joined KCI Conservation in 2014 and took over ownership of the firm in 2019. Before joining KCI, Laura was the Assistant Conservator of Objects and Variable Art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and a Post-Graduate Conservation Fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Lunder Conservation Center. She holds a Master of Science degree from the Winterthur/ University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. Kubick completed further art conservation training at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and at the Shangri-La Center for Islamic Arts and Cultures in Honolulu, HI.
Kristin Cheronis, Conservator
Kristin Cheronis has been a practicing Object and Sculpture Conservator since 1986. She has been a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation since 1989. She works on a wide variety of projects including contemporary fine art sculptures, decorative arts, and historic artifacts from museums and private collections. Kristin has special expertise in the assessment and treatment of public art, including pre-fabrication reviews, on-site installation oversight, preparation of maintenance plans and onsite treatments of collections of public art.
Prior to founding KCI in 2001, Kristin worked for 15 years as the Senior Objects and Sculpture Conservator for the regional conservation center at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MACC).
Nicole Flam, Conservator
Nicole Flam joined KCI Conservation as an Object and Sculpture Conservator in 2020. She has a Master of Arts degree with a Certificate of Advanced Study in Art Conservation from the SUNY Buffalo State College Art Conservation Program and is a member of the American Institute for Conservation. Nicole has years of experience with the conservation treatment of public art, and has also worked with objects ranging from ancient artifacts to 21st century sculpture. She has recently been developing her expertise in the conservation of outdoor stone and has become certified as a Jahn Restoration Mortar Installer. Before joining KCI Conservation, she spent a year with the Baltimore Museum of Art conserving ancient Roman mosaics and other works of art in the institution’s encyclopedic collection. Additionally, Nicole received conservation training at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence, Italy.
Selected Clients
3M, Minneapolis, MN
Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Brucemore, Cedar Rapids, IA
Burnet Fine Art Gallery, Wayzata, MN
Carleton College, Northfield, MN
City of Appleton, WI
City of Bloomington, MN
City of Duluth, MN
City of Fort Dodge, IA
City of Minneapolis, MN
City of Waconia, MN
City of Saint Paul Parks & Recreation, St. Paul, MN
Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, St. Paul, MN
Concordia University, St. Paul, MN
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
General Mills, Golden Valley, MN
Hennepin County Libraries, Minnetonka, MN
Hennepin Healthcare Foundation, Minneapolis, MN
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, IN
Mayo Civic Center, Rochester, MN
Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, MN
Metro Transit, St. Paul, MN
Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska, MN
Minnesota Museum of American Art (The M), St. Paul, MN
Minnesota State Arts Board, St. Paul, MN
MSP Airport- Arts@MSP, St. Paul, MN
Public Art Saint Paul, St. Paul, MN
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, Notre Dame, IN
Target Corporation, Minneapolis, MN
Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
University of Saint Thomas, St. Paul, MN
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN