Vivian van Saaze (1975) graduated on a study into the iconology of materials used in contemporary art from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, in 1998. During her studies she undertook several internships in contemporary art museums, worked as an artist’s assistant and followed history of art classes at the University of Hull (U.K.). In 2001, she started to work for the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN) (now part of the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency RCE) and participated in several international research projects concerning the conservation of contemporary art carried out by the Dutch Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (SBMK), the Netherlands Media Art Institute/ Montevideo (NIMk) and RCE. In 2003 she rejoined the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in Maastricht to work on a Ph.D. research, a joint project with RCE. Her thesis Doing Artworks. A Study into the Conservation and Preservation of Installation Artworks (completed in 2009) is a theoretical exploration of the working practices of contemporary art museums and their approach to presenting and preserving installation artworks. The thesis is published under the title Installation Art and the Museum. Presentation and Conservation of Changing Artworks (Amsterdam University Press 2013) and is accesible through the Open Access Library of the Amsterdam University press. 

Besides doing research, she co-coordinated and lectured both bachelor and master courses at FASoS, co-organised several international expert meetings, and co-authored the project proposal ‘New Strategies in the Conservation of Contemporary Art’, a collaboration of FASoS, RCE and the University of Amsterdam (UvA), coordinated bij Prof. dr. R. van de Vall. In 2009 she became postdoctoral researcher at FASoS within this research project. Her postdoctoral research - funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) - analyzed the relationship between knowledge transfer and procedures of documentation in the re-execution of contemporary artworks and resulted in several publications (see publication list).  

During her postdoc period, she founded the ‘International Network for Ph.D. Researchers and Postdoctoral Researchers in the Field of Contemporary Art Conservation’ (https://www.incca.org/phdandpostdocnetwork), was co-founder of and investigator for ‘Collecting the Performative’, a research network examining emerging practices for collecting and conserving performance-based art funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/collecting-performative), and co-coordinator of ‘The Network for Conservation of Contemporary Arts Research’ (NeCCAR) (http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/neccar-network-conservation-contemporary-art-research) supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. In addition, she was program committee member of several international symposiums including ‘Authenticity in Transition’ (Glasgow, December 2014), ‘Performing Documentation’ (Lisbon, June 2013), and ‘Contemporary Art: Who Cares?’ (Amsterdam, June 2010) as well as co-organiser of ‘Whose Culture is it? On Cultures of Authenticity and ownership in art and cultural heritage’ (Maastricht, March 2014) and ‘Artful Encounters', a two-days symposium on art, ethnography and conservation (Maastricht, November 2010).

Since 2015, Vivian van Saaze is Assistant Professor at FASoS. Besides teaching and research, she has coordinated the development of a new center of expertise: the Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH) for which she is now Managing Director. (www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/macch)