Caterina Florio named Head of Conservation

The McCord Museum is delighted to welcome Caterina Florio as its new Head of Conservation. As the successor to Anne MacKay, she will oversee the department’s active treatment program, facilitate the display of the collection and plan its preservation.

With a diploma in Textile Conservation from the Institute for Art and Restoration, Palazzo Spinelli, in Florence, Italy, a bachelor’s degree in Art History and a master’s in Textile Conservation, both from the University of Florence, Italy, she was the Textile Conservator at the Canadian Museum of History for nearly a decade prior to joining the McCord. She also has extensive experience in the private sector, having worked as a textile conservator and consultant in Italy and Canada.

Caterina has taught university courses on textile conservation, given multiple lectures, and conducted workshops for various groups—conservators, allied professionals, and the public. In addition, she has researched and published on conservation practices as part of the museum experience and the influence of modern aesthetic expectations on the level of conservation intervention.

Anne MacKay: An exemplary collaborator

The Museum would like to warmly thank Anne MacKay for her 24 years of committed service as Head of the Conservation department. Throughout her tenure, she contributed greatly to the body of historical knowledge on the Museum’s collections, thanks to her research on the materiality of objects as sources of information. Furthermore, she made it her mission to share this expertise with the Museum team and promote it in her lectures and publications. She will continue to work with the Museum as an associate conservator.