Costume Institute Conservation Team

Kaelyn Garcia, who joined The Costume Institute in 2024, manages the conservation of new acquisitions and contributes to departmental exhibitions. She received her BFA in fashion design with a minor in art history from Columbia College Chicago and her MA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in textile conservation. Kaelyn was previously the Polaire Weissman Fund Fellow in conservation at The Costume Institute and a post-graduate fellow in Costumes and Textile Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has held contract conservation positions at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Arts and Design, and the Museum of the City of New York, and was also an assistant professor of textile conservation in the graduate program at FIT.

Christopher Mazza has worked at the Costume Institute since 2015. In addition to his work on in-house exhibitions, he focuses on the preventative care of the costume collection. He holds an MA in fashion and textile studies: history, theory, and museum practice from the Fashion Institute of Technology and an MFA in writing from the University of Alaska. Prior to joining The Met, he was the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow for Advanced Training in Textile Conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Glenn Petersen oversees The Costume Institute’s conservation activities for the care and preservation of its collection. His professional practice has focused on the specific issues of costume and its treatment, display, and preservation since entering the field in 1991. Prior to joining the department in 2012, Glenn held staff positions at the Museum at FIT, the Brooklyn Museum Mellon Costume Documentation Project, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He received his BA in mathematics and art history from Wesleyan University and his MA in museum studies: costume and textiles conservation from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Elizabeth Shaeffer is responsible for conservation advisement on outgoing loans, in addition to working on internal exhibitions. She has contributed essays to the Sleeping Beauties (2024) and Women Dressing Women (2023) catalogues. Before joining The Met in 2019, she was associate conservator at the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington DC, and Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Textiles Conservation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Elizabeth is a board member of the North American Textile Conservation Conference. She holds an MS from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.