Sue Jackson applies gold leaf to a frame in her studio. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Susan Jackson of Littleton County Road has succeeded in combining her passion for art and her knack for business to form a successful and rewarding career. Jackson is the founder of Harvard Art, a business devoted to the conservation and restoration of gilded artwork, particularly frames.

Since its initiation in 1989, Harvard Art has grown to include a team of professionals, led by Jackson, who service a large variety of clients, from individual art enthusiasts to institutions as prestigious as the U.S. Senate. One of the studio’s most recent projects was the restoration of the gold frame displaying Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington, considered one of the Senate’s most prized pieces of artwork.

Jackson’s interest in gilded frames began in 1989 when she attended a weekend workshop on gilding in Cape Cod. “The workshop was in conjunction with an exhibit on frames, and I really took an interest in the work,” she recalls. “Afterwards I asked the woman who ran the workshop if she needed an apprentice.” For the next year and a half, Jackson commuted from her home in Harvard to the Cape once a week to learn the trade, and not long after she had jumped into her own business.

“I’ve always admired artists the most, but I didn’t think I’d be able to [pursue art as a career],” explains Jackson. “I can’t draw really well or anything, but I’ve always been good with my hands, so this was a way for me to fit into the art world.”

Just out of college, Jackson first ran a stained glass business. “I knew I liked the hands-on business,” she says. However, after a few years she decided that stained glass was not the most practical career choice for her financially, so she ventured into the world of computer graphics, where she worked as an accounting associate. Though she loved the business aspect of her new career, she grew tired of it after a while and began working as an art dealer.

Buying and selling artwork was not a job that suited her personality, she says, but the job did offer her great exposure to the world of art: “I learned a lot about artwork, and made connections with other art dealers who later became some of my first clients [for my frame business].”

At first, her clientele mainly consisted of private owners wishing to restore pieces of sentimental value. Since then, her market has shifted as Harvard Art developed more of a reputation. A lot of this is communicated simply by word of mouth, and Jackson modestly says that the work her company does is considered to be the high end in the gilding community. In recent years Jackson’s talents have been sought out by prestigious institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Massachusetts State House, to name a few. This September, Harvard Art will take on another large project commissioned by the U.S. Senate.

Although many of Jackson’s previous careers have been temporary, she says she can’t foresee a time when she will grow tired of her gilding career. “I really do feel fortunate that I found a career that I really love to do that contributes to the needs of the art world.”