ACT ART CONSERVATION AND THE “MUD ANGELS” OF FLORENCE
On the night of November 4, 1966, the Arno river in Florence, Italy, overflowed its banks, reaching over 10 feet above street level and filling many of Florence’s historic streets, museums, churches, and libraries with mud and water.
Citizens and foreigners living in Florence took to the streets, museums, and libraries to salvage masterpieces and manuscripts from the devastation, for which they earned the title “Gli Angeli di Fango”, translated as “Mud Angels”. They preserved their pieces of history without hesitation.
These everyday citizens “rolled up their sleeves in a show of stubborn resilience, and got to work salvaging books, parchments and scrolls from the basement of the Uffizi Gallery, and later from the National Library. -New York Times
Alexandra Mitchell, trained in Florence by the original “mud angels,” honors their legacy by making sure these values are inherent in the studio’s focus, by committing her deep knowledge and training towards Angel Projects as a cornerstone of her practice.