Francesca Casadio PhD

Francesca Casadio is the Associate Vice President and Grainger Executive Director of Conservation and Science at the Art Institute of Chicago where she leads a team of over thirty specialists for objects, paintings, frames, works on paper, photographs, books, other printed materials, textiles, time-based media, and scientific research.

Francesca joined the Art Institute of Chicago in July 2003 as the Museum's first A. W. Mellon Senior Conservation Scientist; where she founded the scientific research laboratory. In her tenure at the museum, Francesca has contributed to raising over $40M for Conservation and Conservation science initiatives, positions, research, and capital projects.

She is an innovator and a connection builder: the founder and co-Director of the Northwestern University / Art Institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts (NU-ACCESS). She’s passionate about communicating the work of conservators and scientists to the public and students, using traditional and social media, in-gallery interpretive material and videos, and through Art+Science teachers and students programs.

Casadio has authored over 80 publications in the scientific and conservation literature, book chapters, and essays in museum catalogs. In 2006 she was the recipient of the L’Oréal Art and Science of Color Silver Prize. Her work has often been reported in the media, with articles in the New York Times, the BBC, Vogue Italy, etc., and featured on NPR, Italy's RAI, Discovery Channel, etc.

She is well connected in the US cultural landscape and in Europe. In 2019 she received an honorary doctorate from Sorbonne University in Paris.