Kaelyn Garcia

Assistant Professor | Fashion and Textile Studies

Education

BFA, Columbia College

Biography

Kaelyn Garcia is the Polaire Weissman Fund Fellow in conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, where she is researching synthetic materials and developing cold storage and anoxic procedures for plastics in the collection. From 2018–2019, she was the post-graduate fellow in conservation in the Costumes and Textile Conservation department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has previously held graduate conservation internships with the Textile Conservation Laboratory at The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Hispanic Society of America.

Garcia is currently an adjunct instructor in FIT’s Master of Arts program in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice. She has worked as a fashion and textile designer and textile instructor in New York for more than 10 years, specializing in weaving, knitting, embroidery, and bobbin lace. She frequently lectures and facilitates workshops at the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Folk Art, and the Textile Art Center.

Garcia holds an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies with a concentration in conservation from FIT and a BFA in Fashion Design and Art History from Columbia College Chicago. She currently serves as co-editor to the American Institute for Conservation Textile Specialty Group Wiki.

Selected Publications

Materia: Journal of Technical Art History (peer-reviewed). “Plastics de Schiaparelli: The Scientific Analysis and Material Study of Early Synthetics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Collection,” co-authors: Adriana Rizzo and Adam Hayes, accepted, to be published November 2022.

Conferences and Presentations

"The Plastics Age: Long-term Storage Practices in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Spring Fellows Cooloquia. New York, New York. Presented May 24, 2022.

"Elsa Schiaparelli’s Pressing Buttons: The Scientific Assessment and Material Study of Synthetic Fasteners," poster session. The American Institute of Conservation 50th Annual Meeting. Los Angeles, California. Presented May 15 & 16, 2022.

"Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1930s Painted-plastic Designs: A Scientific Assessment and Implications for Preservations," with co-author Adriana Rizzo. The Association of Dress International Conference and the Centro Conservazione Restauro (CCR). "La Venaria Reale." Venaria Reale, Italy. Presented October 22, 2021.

"Pressing Buttons: The Scientific Analysis and Material Study of Synthetic Fasteners." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Spring Fellows Colloquia. New York, NY. Presented May 24, 2021.

Plastic Challenges in Cultural and Ecological Preservation: “Fashion’s Plastic Problem: Preventive Conservation for Synthetic Materials,” with co-authors Sarah Scaturro and Marina Hays. The American Institute of Conservation 48th Annual Meeting (virtual). Salt Lake City, Utah. Presented June 25, 2020.