About

MC Conservation is a preventive art conservation services provider started by professionally trained Preventive Conservator, Maddie Cooper, in 2021. MC Conservation was initially formed to provide GIS-based risk assessment and emergency planning services to the NEH-funded Protecting Public Art Collections project. Since then, we have expanded to offering assessment and preventive cleaning services, consulting, and educational programming.

MC Conservation is committed to providing preventive conservation services that are tailored to each client’s needs. We understand that whether you’re a private collector looking to protect your investment or a large museum looking to overhaul a collections care program, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. We work with all of our clients to find solutions that make collections both safe and accessible.

What is art conservation?

"[Art conservation] is all measures and actions aimed at safeguarding tangible cultural heritage while ensuring its accessibility to present and future generations." - International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICOM)

ICOM further breaks down art conservation into preventive conservation and conservation treatment.

Okay, so what is preventive conservation ?

“All measures and actions aimed at avoiding and minimizing future deterioration or loss” - International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICOM)

You can think about the difference between conservation treatment and preventive conservation in a few different ways:

  1. Timing: preventive conservation happens before damage happens or before it can get worse.

  2. Scale: preventive conservation is focused on entire collections rather than individual artworks.

  3. Approach: preventive conservation requires big-picture thinking. We look at policies, environment, buildings, exhibition, and storage to help you keep artworks accessible and safe.

Maddie Cooper

Madeline (Maddie) Cooper (she/her) is the owner and Principal Preventive Conservator at MC Conservation. Maddie has extensive experience in surveys, assessments, and teaching. She was the Associate Preventive Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts from 2021-2025 where she completed over 50 assessments, developed and taught workshops, and project managed initiatives like Preservation Services in Puerto. Maddie has over 10 years of professional collections care experience. She held roles in conservation and collections at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and the Wolfsonian-FIU prior to specializing in preventive conservation in graduate school. Through her graduate career, she interned with the Disaster Research Center, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Midwest Art Conservation Center. Maddie holds an MS in Art Conservation from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, a BA in Chemistry from the University of Delaware, and a BA in Art Conservation with a minor in Art History from the University of Delaware.