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avatar for Laura Mina-[PA]

Laura Mina-[PA]

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
Conservator of Textiles
Washington, DC
Laura Mina is the Conservator of Textiles with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. Prior to joining NMAAHC, she served as Head of the Textile Conservation Lab with Winterthur Museum and Affiliated Assistant Professor of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. Previous institutions include the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She received her B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and her M.A. in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice with a conservation focus from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has led multiple workshops in the use of gels for textile cleaning treatments as well as presented seminars for US graduate programs. Workshop sponsors and sites include: Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan (2019), Comité Nacional de Conservación Textil virtual workshop (2021), AIC Annual Meeting at LACMA (2022), and a FAIC workshop at the DeYoung (2023). Her research interests include conservation ethics, the cultural contexts of textiles, and the chemistry of textile cleaning.