Maia Donnelly
M.A.C. Candidate
Art Conservation Program
Stream: Treatment
Specialization: Paper
Areas of interest: historical bookbinding structures, hand papermaking, artists’ books.
With professional experience as a bookbinder and master papermaker, Maia developed an intimate and tactile knowledge of these crafts and materials. Because of this, she sees each element in the making of books as a repository of technical know-how and cultural history.
Maia holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Distinction from Concordia University (2019) in printmaking, painting, and drawing. She has worked as a Conservation Technician at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, where she also completed a pre-program conservation internship.
Interested in books as an art form, Maia has curated an exhibition of artists’ books for the Art Matters festival (2018) and was Programming Director and Coordinator of the Volume Art Book Fair in Montreal (2020). She has led bookbinding and papermaking workshops, and has presented at academic conferences, art festivals, and art book fairs. Her personal art practice has been recognized by publication grants, artists’ residencies, research residencies, and the Canada Council for the Arts.