Textile Conservation Staff

Janina Poskrobko has an M.A. in Preservation and Conservation of Cultural Heritage with a major in Conservation Management, from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland (1986) and an M.A. in Textile and Costume Conservation from the Museum Studies program at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (1997). She completed her PhD at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland in 2019. Her research of cross-cultural, artistic and technical aspects of 16th-18th century Eastern textiles including Persian, Turkish-Armenian and Polish silk sashes has appeared in numerous articles.

Alexandra Barlow is the liaison textile conservator for the American Wing. She joined The Met in 2015 to work on the conservation treatment of 16th-century and 17th-century tapestries for the renovation of the British Galleries. Alexandra received her BA in Anthropology from San Francisco State University and an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies with a focus on conservation from the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York. While a student at FIT during which she held a graduate internship position in the conservation laboratory of The Met's Costume Institute.

Antonia Capasso joined The Met in October 2021. In her current role, her primary responsibilities involve the financial and administrative aspects of the department, assisting in the management of operations, and coordinating all departmental events. Before coming to The Met, she spent 8 years working in apparel production, fabric sourcing, and textile manufacturing. Antonia studied Fashion Merchandising Management and International Trade & Marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology, earning her BS in 2012. She went on to receive an MA in Italian Literature at Hunter College in 2022.

Julia Carlson started work at the Met as a Conservation Assistant for the re-opening of the ALTICALSA galleries. She is currently the Islamic Art liaison conservator. Her interests include Islamic textiles and dress, Modern textiles, weaving, and conservation cleaning methods. From 2018 - 2020, she was the Program Chair and then Chair of the Textile specialty group of AIC. Julia Carlson holds a BA in Art History and Studio Art from Skidmore College and an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York.

Cristina Balloffet Carr received a BA in the History of Art and Architecture from Barnard College in New York City and joined the Department of Textile Conservation in 1979. She has worked with textiles belonging to most of the curatorial departments, was liaison conservator for the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department from 2005–2017, and is currently the liaison conservator for the Robert Lehman Collection.

Carr is the originator and editor of the Department of Textile Conservation Newsletter and initiated the department's popular Pinterest.

Giulia Chiostrini began working in the Department in 2010 after the completion of a two-year Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, during which she focused on medieval tapestry conservation techniques. She is currently the liaison textile conservator for the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Textiles Collection. Giulia is also collaborating in the conservation, preservation, and mounting of historic textiles from Medieval Art, Islamic Art, and Robert Lehman curatorial departments for display, storage, and travel. In 2001, Giulia graduated from the Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Italy, in Restoration and Conservation of Ancient Textiles. In 2016, she earned an MA degree in Medieval and Renaissance Studies program at Columbia University, New York.

Kathrin Colburn is responsible for the textiles and tapestries held by the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, as well as The Met's holdings of late antique textiles. She received her training at the Abegg-Stiftung in Switzerland and began working at The Met in 1990 after serving as a conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Kathrin's research includes the conservation and technological aspects of medieval textiles and tapestries, as well as late antique and early medieval textiles from Egypt. Kathrin recently contributed technical entries to a digital catalogue of textiles in the Byzantine Collection at Dumbarton Oaks, a collaborative project that drew together an international group of textile specialists. Her contributions were also an integral part of exhibitions such as Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt (2019-20), Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity (2016), and New Discoveries: Early Liturgical Textiles from Egypt, 200–400 (2015).

Martina Ferrari joined The Department of Textile Conservation in May 2022. She received her BA in Art History from the Universita’ degli Studi di Parma and an MA in Restoration and Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the Universita’ degli Studi di Torino with a focus on archaeological textiles. Martina was the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Conservation Fellow in the Department of Textile Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 2018 to 2020. From 2015 to 2018, she was a Mellon Fellow in Costumes and Textile Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Minsun Hwang has worked at the museum since 2002. She is responsible for Chinese textiles and costumes and Korean textiles from the Department of Asian Art in the Museum's textile collection. Minsun earned her M.A. in Museum Studies: Costume and Textile Conservation at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

Her particular interest is in the production of hemp, ramie, and silk in China, Korea, and Japan, most of which were funded by travel grants and the Asian Cultural Council (Nobuko Kajitani Fellowship recipient).

Kristine Kamiya joined the department in 2004. She works with the costume and textiles in the Department of Asian Art's Japanese and South & Southeast Asian collections as well as textiles including three-dimensional textile art in the collection of the Department of Modern & Contemporary Art.

She has a special interest in the microscopy and identification of fibers (natural & synthetic) and co-curated with two departmental colleagues exhibitions on plant and animal fibers. The Department's Collection of Reference Materials of Specimen Dyes, Fibers and Implements is an essential part of our analytical research, of which she organizes its cataloging and storage. Departmental responsibilities include maintenance and operation of the custom-designed deionized water system used primarily for the wet cleaning of tapestries and carpets.

Oliver Orr has worked with the Department of Textile Conservation as Laboratory Coordinator since 2022. He has prior experience in research labs, art studios, and cultural institutions, most recently the Yale Peabody Museum in Connecticut. His diverse professional interests include art conservation, intangible cultural heritage preservation, literature, design, and evolutionary biology. He holds a BA in English Literature from Yale University.

Kisook Suh takes care of tapestries belonging to the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. She currently works on conservation of the “King Arthur” tapestry in the series of the “Heroes Tapestries” of The Cloisters collection. Since 2006, she has been part of diverse projects at The Met, in particular the conservation of textiles for the reopening of the galleries for Islamic Art i.e. Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asian, and Later South Asian galleries. Kisook received her MA in museum studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology and was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Conservation Fellowship for her research on East Asian embroideries. She was previously employed by the National Folk Museum of Korea, working on both archaeological and historical costume and textile collections. As she continues her research on early repairs/ restorations on textiles and the related practices of their treatment, she was a contributor in AIC Textile Conservation Wiki in the section of ‘Addressing Previous Interventions.’ Her most recent interests are in digitization and digital documentation of conservation records and applying advanced imaging techniques to the practice of textile conservation.

Nobuko Kajitani was educated in her native Japan followed by specialized museum training at The Textile Museum, in Washington D. C. At The Textile Museum she was trained by Joseph V. Columbus, Colonel James W. Rice and Irene Emery, pioneers in the field of historic textiles. She joined the staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1966 and in 1973 was appointed head of the newly formed Department of Textile Conservation, a position she held until her retirement in 2003. She is a specialist on the history of fiber and fabric technology and her published works include papers on pre-Columbian, Coptic, and Middle Eastern archaeological fabrics.

Midori Sato joined the Department in 1986, serving as Liaison Conservator for many Departments until her retirement in 2009. Midori’s amazing hands-on skills, her sharp eye, and ability to work with large scale projects are seen today in many textiles and carpets displayed throughout the Museum’s galleries. Among countless projects from various departments are the restoration of four Louis XIV's Bedroom Wall Hangings, conservation and restoration of two Rose tapestries for Medieval and Cloisters, conservation and reconstruction of Northern Caucasus man’s caftan for ANE, a large tapestry woven silk Mandala hanging for AA, and the Emperor’s carpet for Islamic Art. She helped develop methods of pressure mounting oversized textiles which are respected worldwide and her conservation and installation skills contributed to many exhibitions.

Her dedication to our department still continues as a volunteer, translating scholarly Japanese publications into English.

Florica Zaharia joined the department in 1988 and led the department from 2003 until her retirement in 2016, working with a group of world-renowned textile conservators. She has researched, published, lectured, curated exhibitions, and taught on the subjects of textile materials and technology, Eastern European textiles, and textile conservation and preservation. She holds an MA with a specialization in tapestry and textile structure and design, and a PhD in visual arts with a focus on textile materials and technologies, from the Bucharest National University of Art's Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of Fine Arts.