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.