AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Architecture Session: “Gelatin as an Adhesive for the Reattachment of Decorative Earthen Surface Finishes”, May 11, 2012

Emily Aloiz presented a recent treatment investigation to address blistering and delamination of earthen finishes at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.  Her study continues the work begun in 1994 at this site by Professor Frank Matero and the graduate students of the University of Pennsylvania program in Historic Preservation. (http://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/178/ ) The need to identify an adhesive which would re-adhere delaminating earthen finishes within the alcove sites of the park was guided by a desire to be respectful of the site’s Native American culture by choosing a natural product.   Other parameters which were identified included: practical, inexpensive, non-toxic; durability in an outdoor environment and compatible with sandstone and earthen materials; re-establishes adhesion; retreatable; and versatile.  Laboratory tests were conducted on a group of proxy samples using a food-grade gelatin as well as the gelatin with the addition of glycerine.  Emily carefully laid out the methodology followed during these tests to analyze bond strength, changes due to freeze/thaw and wet/dry cycles and humidity fluctuations.  Because the gelatin is organic, biodeterioration was also a concern and was addressed by placing petri dishes of the gelatin solutions at the site as a monitoring system.  Once laboratory tests confirmed the feasibility of the use of these gelatin solutions, treatment was carried out in situ by syringe injection between the earthen finish and the substrate.  Where there was carbon soot present on the surface, it was first treated by applying cyclododecane as a spray.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Joint Sessions: Objects + Reseach and Technical Studies, May 9, Some Unusual, Hidden, Surprising or Forgotten Sources of (Possible) Sulfur Contamination in Museums and Historic Buildings

Presenter: Paul Benson

Sulfur is well known as an agent of deterioration associated with atmospheric pollution, but sulfur was, and still is, intentionally introduced into buildings as part of the construction process, and is a part of some objects in museum collections. This presentation by Paul Benson was tremendously informative about how sulfur may be hiding in plain sight and damaging collections.  The talk provided examples of the use of sulfur past and present, and provided an example of effective control of sulfur used in the construction of an exhibition space.

Molten sulfur is an excellent electrical insulator. It has very good adhesive, handling, and casting properties that make it a good fill material. It goes through a flexible stage when cooling and it expands slightly (3%) on setting. In the US plaster ceilings were repaired with molten sulfur until the 1920s and buildings built before 1940 may have sulfur behind the surface of the walls as an insulator or fill material.   Conservators carrying out CAP surveys should be mindful of these possibilities.

There are unsuspected modern uses of sulfur as well. Used as an inexpensive filler in Chinese-manufactured dry wall imported to the US between 2001 and 2009, it caused extensive damage and reconstruction. Sulfur with additives is used instead of Portland cement in Canada because it has considerable shorter set time.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum discovered that the cause of severe mottling of bronze sculptures was sulfur applied behind the  numerous travertine sides of display cases integrated into the structure of the walls.  This situation was successful remediated by removing each piece of travertine, and applying  Marvelseal® with Beva®.

Sulfur has been used as a fill material in bombs. Police forensics use sulfur to take very accurate casts of footprints in snow.  These objects may be stored for long periods of time and contaminating other evidence.

Molten sulfur has been used since antiquity as an adhesive.  Pliny may have described its use as an adhesive for glass (depending on the translation). Sulfur was used as an adhesive in Rome, Greece, and Byzantium. All stones in the Thetford treasure at the British Museum were set with sulfur.  Sulfur was used to secure iron rods holding together elements of stone sculpture.

Sulfur can be found as an inlay material in furniture marquetry particularly in the sixty years from 1760 forward.  Sulfur will take on the appearance of mother of pearl with repeated heat treatments and can be found as “pearl” inlay on guns and  guitars.

Objects may be made of sulfur. “Spences Metal” is an iron-sulfur alloy used in the years around 1880. It can take a high polish and imitate a variety of metals. At the time hoped to be in inexpensive replace for bronze. “Ebonite” was made of rubber with 30-40% sulfur and was used to manufacture buttons and casters for furniture among other utilitarian objects that may be in museums of attached to objects in a collection.

Sulfur has been found in an historic clock cast around the weight to hold it in place. The “lead”  of German pencils made before 1770 is a combination of graphite mixed with sulfur. Coins may have been cast in sulfur lined plaster casts.  And among the seemingly innocent items that might be in a conservation lab sulfur is present in Plasticine® and pencil erasers.

This presentation provided a useful warning about possible contamination from sulfur present in unpredictable places and provided a wide range of examples to guide in hunting for an unseen source of corrosion.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Objects Session, May 11, 2012, Always Becoming, Nora Naranjo-Morse, Gail Joice, Kelly McHugh.

“Always Becoming”, an outdoor sculpture installation at the National Museum of American Indian (NMAI), was the focus of the presentation by Artist Nora Naranjo-Morse, NMAI Collections Manager Gail Joice and NMAI Conservator Kelly McHugh.  Like the work of art “Always Becoming”, this presentation was engaging, thoughtful and inspiring.

Nora Naranjo-Morse, a member of the Tewa tribe, Santa Clara Pueblo, won the NMAI outdoor sculpture competition in 2007.  Nora Naranjo-Morse lives only a few hours from Albuquerque and was a welcome artist addition to the objects conservation talks of the day.  Her creative and welcoming personality was apparent through out the presentation, as it is her artwork.  The outdoor installation “Always Becoming” consists of five ephemeral sculptures made of straw, mud, stone and wood built on a landscaped area near NMAI.  The creation of the sculptures started a ten year project that will continue to grow and transform for years to come.  The design of artwork is based on indigenous architecture and has the ideas of environment, family and culture at its core.

A one hour long documentary movie on this project will be coming out in the summer 2012, and we were lucky enough to see a few clips from it during the presentation.  The movie clips clearly showed how the creation of this artwork was a truly inclusive project with NMAI staff members and interns working along side Nora Naranjo-Morse during the construction and subsequent yearly repairs.  Interviews with passersby, workers and volunteers made it touchingly clear that the whole process was a moving one.  The movie clip stated that the project was “not just a pueblo idea, it was an intertribal idea, it was a people idea” and this feeling of inclusiveness was apparent in the movie interviews as well as in the presentation.  Many NMAI podcasts are available, if you want to see clips of the creative process.

“Always Becoming” is an ever-changing artwork that is intended to melt back into the earth.  The artwork is always deteriorating naturally as it weathers the DC snow and thunderstorms, summer heat and the passage of time.  This is an idea that does not immediately correlate with conservation standards, but it was extremely clear that NMAI has worked through this initial change in conservation practice.  Through continual communication and yearly visits by the artist, the conservation department at NMAI has been able to work past the automatic reaction to preserve and protect.  By allowing the sculptures to change over time they are in fact protecting the original and continual intent of the artist.

Gail Joice is the Collections Manager at the NMAI Museum.  It is her job to monitor the adobe sculptures onsite.  Gail made the enlightening comment about how her work with these artifacts has pushed the bounds of her thoughts on objects care.  Before this project the ideal for a condition report was to be able to state “no change”, a statement that all of the conservators in the audience clearly understand, but to Nora Naranjo-Morse this would be a disappointment.  Change is built into the life of these artifacts.  If a piece falls off of the sculptures, it will be left where it falls without any picking it up, labeling it and placing it in a fragment bag (Obviously a collections managers first impulse!).  The question session after the presentation clarified that these fallen pieces are often reincorporated into the sculpture during the yearly conservation workshop when the artist returns to work on the pieces.

The sculptures have been a welcoming addition to the grounds of NMAI.  Not only do the visitors and passersby appreciate the installation, but red tail hawks, mason bees, spiders, and a mother robin have all made their homes in the sculptures.  One story they told occurred right before President Obama’s inauguration.  The nighttime security at the museum noticed flames coming out from under one of the sculptures and it became quickly apparent that a homeless man had crawled underneath the sculpture and had lit a fire to warm up.  The museum officers responded quickly and the fire was extinguished, but the artist’s and NMAI staffs’ reactions to this are not what the conservation audience would have predicted.  This was not seen as an act of vandalism, but instead it was seen as a man needing to find shelter in the cold and he had found the artwork welcoming and inviting as it was intended.  It was a thoughtful and reflective moment in the audience when this was described.

Kelly McHugh is the NMAI conservator that is involved in Nora Naranjo-Morse’s annual visits and sculpture care workshops with the NMAI conservation interns and fellows.  Kelly was able to sum up all of the main points of the presentation and clearly put them into a conservation context.  As Kelly stated, “Always Becoming” is a contemporary sculpture, a traditional sculpture, a community sculpture and an ephemeral sculpture.  Nora Naranjo-Morse’s intention of inclusiveness, community importance and sculptural interaction with the environment fits perfectly into the framework and mission of NMAI.  Kelly made a comparison between a spider on an outdoor bronze sculpture versus one living on “Always Becoming” that struck home with the conservators in the room.  She said that a spider on a museum bronze sculpture would be seen as an invader and need to be removed, where as a spider coming to live on “Always Becoming” would be welcomed and would have found his home.

The question session after the presentation ran late, but this only served to make it clear how engaged the audience was in the presentation.  The questions clarified further the process that takes place when the artist comes on her annual visits.  Essentially the NMAI staff follows her lead and assists her in ways that she sees fit, whether that is cutting back weakened bamboo to be sent to the horticultural department’s compost or reworking a delaminating section of the sculpture.   Scott Carrlee asked about whether the artwork is accessioned into the NMAI collection and Gail answered that yes each of the sculptures has a number and is accessioned into the collection.  She thought that once the sculpture has returned entirely to the earth that there may be a ceremonial deaccessioning of the piece.  This seems like a very fitting course of action.

I could write pages on this presentation, because it was interesting, informative and thought provoking.  The audience was engaged in each of the speaker’s presentations which all worked together to give a full and clear picture of this project.  As Kelly pointed out, “Always Becoming” continues to inspire them into always becoming something better.  We, the world, and conservation is always changing and the NMAI staff and Artist Nora Naranjo-Morse clearly shared a project that had us all thinking about the ways that our profession has changed and needs to change in order to fit the future.  This was a truly enjoyable and valuable talk.

40th Annual Meeting, Textiles Session, May 10, A Cautionary Tale: Mounting Flat Textiles – An Historical Overview, Christine Giuntini

Christine Giuntini gave a wonderful paper on the mounting of flat textiles in the mid 20th Century. The paper was in a way a tribute to the Textile Museum in Washington, DC and the quality work that they did to set the standards for textile conservation in the United States. The paper is based on the historic mounting methods presented in two articles that were published by the Textile Museum in the 1940s and 1950s. These two methods are the stitched mount and the pressure mount.

Conservation publications and focus today have moved away from the intense focus on complicated individual treatments in favor of overall storage and preventative conservation. When we do research and comment on early conservation treatments today, it is often due to the troubles that older materials and techniques have caused in retreatment. We have to remember that there is still a lot that we can learn from older treatments and conservation theory.

The Textile Museum in Washington, DC was the real center for beginnings of textile conservation in the United States. The museum opened in 1925 and was open by appointment only until the 1950s. The museum was founded by George Hewitt Myers was created for the preservation, study and display of historic textiles.

Mr. Myers was very interested in cleaning of the textiles and went so far as to say that patina on textiles is a synonym for dirt. He also felt that the dirt should be removed because it did not logically improve the art. One of the publications that Christine Giuntini highlighted in her presentation was “Cleaning and Mounting Procedures For Wool Textiles” written by Francina S. Greene, Preparator and Curator at the Textile Museum. (This article is available as a pdf at http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/monographs/tm_work.pdf). Like Myers, Francina Greene was very conscience of the dirt on the artifacts and begins this article with “When ancient textiles are acquired they are often dirty, distorted, dry, dull in color and ragged. In addition to being dirty, many are stiff with grease, and stained. We find that some reveal crude attempts at cleaning, patching and mounting.” This publication emphasizes a number of textile conservation methodologies that are still used today. The textiles in the Textile museum were handled as little as possible due to their fragile condition. The flipping technique of sandwiching the textile between two rigid supports in order to turn it over is described. This technique is still used today. When stitching a textile to a support as few stitches as possible were taken due to the damage that they cause to the artifact. Lastly, Greene also described the pressure mount technique of mounting a textile by sandwiching it between two pieces of plexiglass. The Textile Museum used a number of cellulose acetate products (Protectoid and then Lumarith) as they were developed. Today cellulose acetate is not used in conservation or exhibition, but the practice of using a clear rigid support is still used despite the fact that the specific materials have changed.

The second publication by Mrs. Francina Greene was published in Studies in Conservation volume 2 and is titled, “The Cleaning and Mounting of a Large Wool Tapestry.” This article was the first detailed conservation treatment to appear in Studies in Conservation. There is a great picture in this article that speaks a thousand words. The image shows one conservator on top of a large tapestry stand and one conservator below the stand passing a needle back and forth through the tapestry. This treatment was a reconstruction of a very fragile and friable textile. Photographs were taken to scale of all of the textile fragments and the photographs were rearranged in order to determine the proper arrangement so the textile would be spared the extra handling. Greene also notes that curved needles were not used for this treatment, because of the stress they caused on the fragile fabric. This is why two conservators had to pass the needle back and forth to each other.

The death of Mr. Myers and the retirement of Mrs. Greene in the 1950s brought about a time of transition at the Textile Museum. In 1964 the Textile Museum started the first textile conservation training and internship program in the United States. They worked with a Chemist consultant in order to collaborate on cleaning methods. They created solid composite backings with perforations for better air exchange and the reversed mount was developed. One of the important students in this program was Nobuko Kajitani, who went on to work at the newly established textile conservation program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1973. Nobuko developed the use of a window in the back of the peg board mounts and worked to develop the pressure mount for fragile textiles. Her focus was on the overall care of the collection and not on publishing individual conservation treatments. Nobuko was the first to emphasize that a conservation plan was of great importance. In a 1974 article she wrote, “Preservation of collections is a primary function of a museum… sound planning and preservation fitted to the requirements of the collection in exhibition, storage and study areas should be discussed and understood.” This is obviously a primary focus of the conservation world today. It is clear that the Textile Museum staff and the textile conservators trained in their educational program laid the foundation for the textile conservation program in the United States today.

During the question portion of the presentation a suggestion arose that Christine Giuntini should work with the conservators at the Textile Museum to further research the role that the Textile Museum played in creating the groundwork for the profession today. I think that this would be an excellent paper and hope that they decide to collaborate in this project.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting, Wooden Artifacts Sesssion-The Edge in Focus: the Many Stories of an 18th c. French Frame Treatment by MaryJo Lelyveld

I’ve been following MaryJo Lelyveld’s work with interest for while now. In addition to working a conservator of frames and furniture at the National Gallery of Victoria, she is pursuing a Masters of Management (Strategic Foresight) at Swinbourne University. Based on one of her articles, I’ve added Plextol B500 in my arsenal of options for adhesives I use for replacement gilding, and I’ve told more than a few people about her work looking at possible scenarios for the future of the conservation profession.

In this talk, MaryJo applied a framework called Integral Theory to help navigate the various ways help articulate object values and understand our audience’s perspective on our work, using her work on a carved and gilded French frame made in 1710 for The Crossing of the Red Sea by Nicolas Poussin, c. 1634. [A  short tirade digression: Note that in this ArtDaily.org article celebrating the restoration of the painting and frame which even quotes MaryJo about her work, the frame was not included in the image. There is an image of the framed painting on the National Gallery of Victoria’s homepage.]

Integral Theory, as developed by Ken Wilber, uses a 4 block grid system, similar to the one Barbara Appelbaum uses for her Characterization Grid which maps various values as they apply to artifacts to assist in developing proposals for conservation treatment, and likewise provides a systematic overview of a complex practice. In MaryJo’s rendering of Wilber’s grid for conservation practice, each quadrant relates to a particular viewpoint, the personal, the physical, the cultural, and social as they relate to the conservator, the artifact, and the audience. The graphic nature of the grid, I think, is really important in explaining this as applied to conservation, and without one of her examples I’m afraid I won’t be able to explain it well here. I look forward to seeing her work on this topic published.

She pointed out that each single quadrant only provides a single perspective, a partial truth. By navigating the viewpoints, the grid enhances a conservator’s ability to combine these partial truths to gain a fuller understanding of the object and its place in society and explain its importance and why it might merit conservation treatment.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting – Public Art Outreach Session, May 10, 2012

This group of sessions presented various projects of outdoor murals, public sculpture, and architectural elements  and how the general public was involved and/or contributed to the efforts of preservation and cataloging of the collection.

Leslie Ranier, of the Getty Conservation Institute, began the session with a discussion of the 1932 Siqueiros mural, America Tropical, located in Los Angeles across from City Hall.  Although the artist had been commissioned to portray a particular subject matter, he instead used the opportunity to comment on American imperialism.  Authorities were not amused and it was almost immediately painted over.  As years went by and the overpainting faded, the mural began to peek through.  The wall onto which the mural had been painted was partially hidden by surrounding buildings so the lack of visibility contributed to it being ‘lost’ to the public.  By the 1960s, however, there was a public call to restore the mural and the GCI became involved in the 1980s.  A temporary protective shelter was erected to provide protection.  By the 1990s, an agreement was signed with the city to provide treatment which is currently underway.   A more permanent shelter is being designed by Brooks + Scarpa Architects, along with an interpretive center  (with the help of IQ Magic) and an observation platform which will bring the public up to eye level with the restored mural. (http://www.pugh-scarpa.com/projects/siqueiros)  Outreach activities for this project include:  site visits for the public and officials to view conservation activities, screening of a 1971 documentary on the artist, staging of an opera which tells the story of the mural, production of a video of the project and its evolution, and a symposium on the legacy of Siqueiros.  These activities, along with the actual conservation work on the mural, all contribute to preserve the story of the mural and the evidence of the artist’s hand.

The next presentation was by Kristen Laise, of Heritage Preservation in Washington DC.  She discussed the evolution of their Save Outdoor Sculpture program which was able to bring together 7,000 volunteers across the country to catalog 30,000 public sculptures between 1989 and 2006.  This effort introduced the local communities to conservation and directed attention to long neglected statues.  This catalog was then made available to the public through the Smithsonian’s Inventory of American Sculpture database.  The program was carried out through a combination of federal, foundation, and corporate funds and had a presence in every state in the country.  (Sidebar:  During the course of my own work restoring public sculptures, I can’t tell you how many times I was asked if a statue was newly installed, when in fact it had been there for a hundred years.  Sometimes you just don’t see what’s in your own backyard until a project like SOS calls your attention to it.)  Children’s education was one of the targets of their outreach activities and included a traveling exhibition entitled “Preserving Memory”, an education kit called “Inside Outdoor Sculpture”, and even the introduction of a Girl Scout patch program.  I believe she mentioned that efforts to publish information on the program on YouTube are currently underway.  With an emphasis on good visual images and extensive press coverage, Kristen stated that her office had binder after binder after binder of press clippings covering the program.  Perhaps because of the huge success of the program, the National Cemetery Administration used it as a model for their own Historic Monuments Assessments program where 960 objects in 125 cemeteries were assessed, with a subsequent 76 historic monuments conserved. (Full disclosure: I was a recipient of several of those contracts.)  Kristen then reviewed their follow-up program of Rescue Public Murals which was launched in 2006.  The goal of the project was/is advocacy and documentation for public murals.  She gave an example of a mural in Atlanta which lacked these items and was unfortunately repeatedly covered with graffiti to the point that it was no longer recoverable.  Heritage Preservation has collaborated with ARTstor to publicize images of public murals (http://www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/col-murals-heritage.shtml) in an effort to garner community support for their protection.  Again, Kristen emphasized the importance of good press coverage in protecting murals, the need to have community groups take ownership, and the necessity of educating the public (in particular, any neighborhood associations within the area) as to the importance of the mural.  Another aspect of the RPM program is to review existing guidelines for mural protection, to conduct artist interviews, and to do materials research to support preservation efforts.

Next up was Richard McCoy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  After an initial blog post to challenge the public to come document IMA’s outdoor art was less successful than he had hoped, Richard took another approach and went to his museum studies students at Indiana University Purdue University (IUPUI).  His assignment to them was to survey the public art within their campus and to create Wiki articles and Flickr posts to document the collection.  They used SOS materials to guide them in conducting their surveys and became familiar with the importance of primary source material in creating their Wikipedia postings.  The resulting blog attention to this project was so extensive that Wiki gave it an entry on their main page.  And because of the use of geolocators within the Wiki posts, links to other websites and pages (e.g., a fan page within Facebook) resulted in an even greater dissemination of the information.  Richard’s next effort was to bring students to the Indiana Statehouse to document the art found within the building.  During this effort, students were able to bring attention to an overlooked statue that had been shown in the 1893 World’s Fair and had since been mistakenly identified (http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2011/02/08/resolving-to-care-and-document ). To further publicize and utilize the documentation efforts of the students, the ‘book creator’ tool within Wikipedia was enabled and guidebooks to the public art of the Statehouse were produced and sold.  At the beginning of his presentation, Richard stated that the premise of using Wikipedia is that rather than claiming ownership of the information, the author is giving the gift of knowledge.

The next speaker was Fabio Carrera from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.  Fabio has spent 25 years collecting information on public art and architectural elements created before 1797 in Venice, Italy.  His WPI engineering and science students began documenting these in the late 1980s in partnership with Earthwatch Institute volunteers, creating a wiki-based website to give access to the information to the public (http://venipedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page ).  Each object is given a single page within this website, leading to the creation of 3,068 pages of information; sematic tags within the pages allow you to search for like items.  Their documentation efforts have enabled the discovery that 33 pieces within the catalog are now found to be missing.  The project has continued to evolve, with efforts currently underway to create a mobile app which will serve as a guide to each of the public art wiki entries.  It is to have interactive ‘intelligence’ which will allow the viewer to view condition photos of the object while standing in front of it, to provide an updated photograph, to contribute money to its restoration, to sign up for alerts when others update the catalog entry, and other ways to stay informed.  This app is expected to be ready in the summer of 2012.  In addition to this wiki project, Fabio has started a non-profit organization called PreserVenice.org which will collaborate with UNESCO in the preservation of the public art of Venice.

This was followed by a presentation by Andrew Smith of Sculpture Conservation Studio in Los Angeles where Andrew told the story of a glass tile and mosaic mural that had been covertly installed on a train trestle in Encinitas.  The religious image (a surfing Virgin of Guadalupe) combined with the fact that the art was unsanctioned by the city, sparked controversy and the city tasked his firm with investigating how/if the mural could be removed.  Because nobody had yet claimed responsibility for its creation, Andrew and his fellow conservators were at the site attempting to understand its fabrication and how it might be removed – while the public and press watched.  A few remarks made by Andrew to an inquiring reporter regarding the artwork, spoken from the heart but perhaps made without thinking of the ramifications, went viral online and called even more attention to the project, resulting in international coverage and scrutiny of how the artwork should be seen.  This sort of attention then placed both the client and the conservator in a difficult position.  Andrew ended the presentation by prompting the audience to consider where the line is when conservators are asked to protect controversial or provocative works of art, particularly when they are not sanctioned by authorities.  And we must be careful to remain aware of the public’s perception of our efforts in this age of instantaneous media coverage.

This session was brought to a close by a short video presented by Scott Haskins which was created to publicize the efforts to save a series of freeway murals created in Los Angeles as part of the 1984 Olympics.  The murals were supposed to have been maintained and preserved in perpetuity but, instead, were being painted over by Cal Trans because of their legal obligation to address graffiti.  Part of his efforts have included the edification of highway crews to show that the graffiti tag can be removed without completely painting over the whole mural and that the mural can then be saved (http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/save-los-angeles-freeway-murals/ ).  A second closing note was given by Viviana Dominguez, who discussed the removal of three mural paintings from the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Haiti after the recent earthquake.  Their efforts successfully saved these 3, while 11 others were destroyed during the quake.

The presentations of the Public Art Outreach Session were all very successful in showing how important it is to involve the community in preservation efforts.  It is our responsibility to articulate the significance of public art, not only in terms of the importance of the artist or the placement of the object, but also its beauty, the artist’s vision, and how the object speaks to the soul.  The methods through which that is accomplished have grown exponentially over the past couple decades and we need to be familiar and comfortable with the ways in which we can publicize our message.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting – Colleagues Mix & Mingle at the Opening Reception, May 9

The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History was the backdrop for the opening reception of this year’s Annual Meeting. The large open spaces of the museum, the lovely outdoor garden and the spacious outdoor theater and patio provided a great space for us to catch up with colleagues and meet new ones, while enjoying good food and viewing the museum’s collection on a beautiful Albuquerque evening.

The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, location of the opening reception
The reception is in full swing in the main entrance hall of the museum.

Quartets, made up of musicians from a local school, entertained guests at different locations in and outside the museum.

Lots of delicious food was served (the crab cakes were my favorite!)
This poor man seems to have been waiting a long time for his drink.
Dessert (in the form of different varieties of mini cupcakes) was served in the sculpture garden.

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting – Exhibiting Ourselves: Presenting Conservation

This interactive session was chaired by Suzanne Davis (Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan) and Emily Williams (Colonial Williamsburg), and focused on issues related to exhibiting conservation goals and activities to a public audience. Attendees of the session had the chance to hear presentations that examined a number of conservation outreach models and methods, and were then invited to brainstorm solutions to some of the issues raised during the talks. Before introducing the speakers, Suzanne Davis expressed why she thinks exhibiting conservation is important and effective: doing so raises awareness and support, by the fact that conservation as a field fascinates people of many interests, making it an ideal subject for exhibition.

A diverse array of conservation outreach cases were presented at a lively pace of 15 minutes per talk. Tom Learner’s presentation on the exhibition of De Wain Valentine’s Gray Column at the J. Paul Getty museum showed how conservators were able to balance very technical information on the process of making the object with thought-provoking questions about how to preserve the artist’s original intent. This was done by including polyester maquettes in the exhibit space, along with supporting media that ran images and video of Valentine in action. Cynthia Albertson discussed the challenges and successes of exhibiting the conservation behind MoMA’s project to reunify Diego Rivera’s portable murals. Items featured in the gallery – including X-ray films showing the walls’ internal structures as well as examples of the artist’s materials – were accompanied by online features and a fresco-making course at NYU.

Following these initial talks the audience divided up into discussion groups and were invited to consider some questions, which had been printed out and left on each group’s table. My table decided to tackle the following questions (paraphrased):

Q. A lot of energy goes into creating conservation exhibits but is the conservation community aware that these exhibits are happening or do we stumble on them when visiting other museums?

A. The table felt that we do generally try to follow what our colleagues are doing, but that there is no centralized platform to find this information. News about exhibitions tends to be trickled onto web-media platforms like Facebook via word of mouth (or click).

Q. Should we as a community be more involved in helping to promote them?

A. Yes.

Q. Through what paths?

A. Perhaps through institutional or affiliated blogs.. this could be done by working closely with the institution’s social media person.

Q. Do we need to reach out to our own community?                                                                                            

A. Yes, perhaps through posts on the AIC Blog, which can be linked to other social media platforms. At this point in the discussion the idea of an online conservation ‘bulletin board’ was raised – a location to post these types of exhibitions. A platform that allows for visually-impacting, post-it-like messages of events would be useful – like Pinterest.

Q. How should we ‘outreach’ about outreach in AIC?                                                                                                            

A. One member of the group pointed out that this is already happening – AIC’s in-development PR Toolkit, which is hosted on the WIKI, offers a list of traditional and social media tools to help conservators reach out to their intended audience.

Talks resumed with Irene Peters’ discussion of the challenges of exhibiting day-to-day activities in a visible conservation laboratory at the Musical Instrument Museum. Digital monitors explaining the purpose of fume trunks, docents trained to talk about conservation, and open tool cabinets displayed close to the visitors’ window were among the techniques used to transform an active lab into an ongoing conservation exhibit. Sanchita Balachandran talked about how outreach is an integral part of the conservator’s role in a university museum. Her work at the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum has encompassed everything from object treatment and exhibition to providing access to collections through courses and online didactics. The session’s final speaker, Christopher McAfee of the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, discussed the various approaches the department has used to educate staff and patrons on the proper handling and care of archival collections. His training video on the subject – filmed in the style of an 1960’s airline safety video, flashing tooth * smile included – elicited laughter throughout the room.

The session ended with a final panel discussion of the questions our breakout groups had tackled after the first two talks. A rep from each table joined the panel at the front of the room, and we worked through the following questions (paraphrased here):

Q. Should conservators share information on how they treat artworks?                                                                    

A. Attendees seemed to favor sharing preventive information over explanations of treatment, though Christopher McAfee pointed out that explaining the process of a particular treatment, along with the caveat that trying to repair something yourself will likely make it worse, has led patrons to approach trained conservators for help instead.

Q. Do we know what our audience knows about conservation?                                                                 

A. We don’t, although surveys could help us to better understand the extent of visitors’ knowledge (as has been done at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan).

Q. Is it valuable to weave conservation information into gallery exhibits on a regular basis?                          

A. This could be challenging for space reasons, but there is plenty of room online for this information to be regularly featured.

Q. Does conservation outreach take too much time?          

A. Perhaps, but if we work as teams with the institution’s media departments time could be reasonably split and balanced. Ironically, our table ran out of time before we could tackle this particular question.

The balance of presentations with group and panel discussion made this outreach session quite valuable. I feel as if I’ve walked away with some answers to the questions many of us have about whether conservation exhibition is worth the added time and energy. If we work to promote our presence both in the gallery and online, I think these efforts will be worthwhile.

Creative Endeavors and Expressive Ideas: Emerging Conservators Engaging through Outreach and Public Scholarship – Outreach in the Galleries

ECPN interviews emerging conservators involved in in-gallery conservation treatments 

Allison Lewis, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, University of California, Berkeley

Tell us a little about yourself-your background, where you’re working now and what you do in your current position?

I have an MA from the UCLA/Getty Conservation program and work at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. Many of my current activities include outreach related to a conservation-themed exhibition.

What form of outreach are you using? If it is an online tool, please specify which platform (Blogspot, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.).

The outreach activities are part of the ongoing exhibition “The Conservator’s Art: Preserving Egypt’s Past” (through June 2012). The exhibit seeks to provide visitors with insight into the field of conservation, using the Hearst Museum’s collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts as a lens through which to illustrate contemporary conservation practices. My “Conservator’s Art” outreach activities are twofold. Since the opening of the exhibition, I have been undertaking a gallery residence, working in the gallery three days a week. I carry out treatments at a lab station in the middle of the exhibition, where visitors are invited to observe and to ask questions. When tours visit the gallery, groups typically stop at the lab station for 15-20 minutes of discussion.  Although each conversation is unique (influenced by the nature of the particular treatment being performed that day and individual visitors or tour groups), I try to touch upon exhibition themes including preventive conservation, reversibility, documentation, and the contrast between early twentieth century restoration practices and current approaches to conservation.

In conjunction with the gallery residence, I maintain a WordPress blog where I describe specific treatments or technical studies of Egyptian material, and answer questions. Sometime during spring 2012, the blog will be migrated to the museum’s website (Drupal).

Who would you say is your target audience?

The general/non-specialist public, all ages.

What were/are you trying to achieve using this form of outreach? Was it met or solved using this particular approach or tool?

Both forms of outreach seek to provide interactive “behind-the-scenes” access to conservation work that is undertaken at the museum and beyond, and to increase awareness about conservators’ roles and the value of preserving material culture. As interactive elements, the gallery residence and blog are intended to enhance visitor engagement with the exhibition, and provide a sense of personal connection to usually anonymous conservators. (In addition to having a conservator in the gallery, the exhibit also includes pictures and biographies of conservation staff. These are also meant foster a sense of connection between visitors and conservators, and to provide information about the kinds of backgrounds that conservators have.)

Is there anything you would do differently, or any recommendations you would make to other conservators who might want to use your approach / tool for themselves?

Visitors are far more likely to stop at the lab table and interact if the conservator assumes an approachable demeanor, by making eye contact and, and sometimes verbally inviting visitors to ask questions.

Conservators working at such a lab station must be comfortable with frequent interruptions. Because of the unpredictable nature of visitor volume and interaction, I perform phases of treatments that require especially intense concentration during hours when the gallery is not open.

Having sufficient time to “field test” the laboratory station would have allowed us to make minor design improvements. The lockable Plexiglas clamshell lid of the laboratory table creates a sound barrier that impedes conversation between the conservator and visitors at certain angles. The lighting, currently provided by multiple small lamps of varying intensity and color temperature, can be challenging for treatments that involve color matching.

Have your outreach endeavors produced any unexpected outcomes or benefits?

Visiting elementary, high school and college groups have taken a special interest in both the gallery residence and blog. According to the education department, many teachers now specifically request tours that include a conversation with the conservator, and the blog has been utilized by classes as preparation for and follow-up to gallery visits. Due in part to positive reactions to the blog, the museum has included a blogging platform in the redesign of its website (see below), and plans to continue publishing regular conservation-related blog posts after “The Conservator’s Art” exhibition closes.

Check out Allison’s conservation blog at:  http://conservationblog.hearstmuseum.dreamhosters.com/

…and in the future at:  http://hearstmuseum.org/blog

Rose Daly, Phoenix, AZ

Tell us a little about yourself-your background, where you’re working now and what you do in your current position?

I am the owner of Art Conservation Services LLC in Phoenix, Arizona.  I am a conservator with a M.S. from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.

What form of outreach are you using?

The project I am focusing on for this ECPN poster on outreach is a project that was featured in the print and online version of the Kansas City Star newspaper, and in artdaily.com, an online newspaper.  The project engaged museum visitors with a conservator and was also featured on the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art facebook page.  The project was an important collaboration between the Marketing department, Education department, Conservation, Preparations, Curatorial, Security, and Visitor Services. For a description of the project please see the press release included in the file TapestryCleaning.pdf

Who would you say is your target audience?

Museum visitors, and the local community in Kansas City.

What were/are you trying to achieve using this form of outreach? Was it met or solved using this particular approach or tool?

Raise awareness for conservation.  I feel the project was successful, but to raise awareness is not something that only needs to be done once or twice.  In other ways, this project was a way for me as a conservator to experiment by combining needed conservation maintenance (vacuuming the Phaeton Tapestries) with a public outreach project (daily talks were scheduled where I could interact with visitors, a table was set up with a variety of interactive manipulatives including examples of silk, wool, a loom, and a petrie dish of dirt that was removed from the tapestries.)  Outreach is important to raise awareness about the need for conservation of artifacts and the need for a professional conservator and the profession of conservation.  This project was a good fit because I was willing to be put on display as an exhibition, interact with museum visitors, and I made myself available for a photographer from the Kansas City Star who was interested in featuring a picture of this project in the newspaper.

Is there anything you would do differently, or any recommendations you would make to other conservators who might want to use your approach / tool for themselves?

Working inter-deartmentally was pivotal to the success of this project.  The Marketing department at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has some exceptional staff including Kathleen Leighton, Communications and Media Relations Officer at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, who I worked with to write the press release, and who assisted the photographer from the Kansas City Star, Allison Long, who came to the museum to take my picture for the Kansas City Star edition on June 23, 2011.  Kathleen is adept at speaking to the press, she was a news anchor for 12 years for WKBWTV in Buffalo, New York and she gave me a number of hints to make me feel more comfortable in front of a camera.   In the education department I worked with Emily Black, Interpretive Planner, Digital Media at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, to determine the materials that we should use for a table of manipulatives that would allow museum visitors to interact with materials that were similar to the materials used for the tapestry. Emily Black also assisted in writing content about the project and creating information that was included on the table of manipulatives to explain the conservation project and teach visitors more about tapestries.

Have your outreach endeavors produced any unexpected outcomes or benefits?

It was fantastic to work collaboratively with so many different departments in a museum, and to see the excitement this project created among museum visitors.

Checkout the ArtDaily article featuring Rose and the phaeton tapestries cleaning: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=48552

Melissa King, Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Tell us a little about yourself-your background, where you’re working now and what you do in your current position?

My name is Melissa King and I am a pre-program intern at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA). I graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and have been a pre-program intern at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and the Northeast Museum Services for the National Park Service. In 2010 I also participated in the field school for the “Gabii Project,” a University of Michigan excavation of a Roman Republic city close to Rome. My experience in conservation has been mostly with objects but I have worked with paper as well. I am also a professional pet portrait artist.

My work at the MFA has been primarily to assist in a project to conserve two Etruscan stone sarcophagi dating to the 3rd Century BCE from Vulci, Italy. I have been creating detailed condition diagrams with Adobe Photoshop, assisting in the research of the history of the objects, including past treatments, and I have helped in the surface cleaning of both of the sarcophagi. In collaboration with museum scientists, we have been performing a technical analysis of stone composition and original paint remnants from the two pieces. In February, I assisted in a presentation about the project to a limited number of museum members who had signed up in advance to be permitted into the gallery.  Because of the size and condition of the two sarcophagi, it was decided to have them remain in the gallery, which created a unique opportunity to share the process with visitors of the museum.

What form of outreach are you using? If it is an online tool, please specify which platform (Blogspot, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.).

The project is entirely visible to museum visitors as part of a special exhibit series entitled, “Conservation in Action.” The 1,300 square-foot Etruscan gallery was transformed into a conservation studio with a Plexiglass enclosure to allow visitors to view the process from beginning to end. The Etruscan sarcophagi conservation project has provided the museum with the opportunity to continue its mission of preserving the collection while creating new educational opportunities for visitors. Gallery wall-text within the viewing area describes the project and the conservator posts daily updates on a whiteboard visible to the visitors.

Public exposure of the project is further supported through lectures and tours. Conservators give presentations to museum visitors as part of the museum’s gallery learning program and more in-depth tours are given to students and museum professionals. Additional project information with periodic updates is presented on the museum’s website and the museum’s Facebook page often posts photo updates of the “Conservation in Action” projects, which has proven to be a great way to galvanize public interest.

Who would you say is your target audience?

Museum visitors

What were/are you trying to achieve using this form of outreach? Was it met or solved using this particular approach or tool?

As an institution, this project has been useful to generate interest in visiting the museum. The “Conservation in Action” projects have been extremely popular, and because the treatments are ongoing, museum guests may be inclined to revisit the museum in the future to check on their progress.

As conservators, we appreciate this project because of its inherent ability to inform the public about conservation and galvanize support in our efforts as professionals. Our work is to ensure the longevity of cultural heritage, and in this difficult economic climate, we need the support of allied professionals and the public to help with our mission.

Is there anything you would do differently, or any recommendations you would make to other conservators who might want to use your approach / tool for themselves?

The use of social media can be a very useful tool in a project such as this. As we continue on with this project I believe it would benefit us to reach out to other platforms such as twitter and tumblr.

Have your outreach endeavors produced any unexpected outcomes or benefits?

Both the Boston Herald and the Harvard Crimson have published articles in their respective newspapers on this particular project. A New York Times journalist was inspired to write an article, “Mosaic Restoration as Performance Art,” when she visited the museum and witnessed a past “Conservation in Action” project at the MFA that involved the conservation of a 3rd century AD Roman mosaic floor from Antioch.

To learn more about Melissa’s Conservation in Action project go to:

MFA website: “Conservation in Action: Etruscan Sarcophagi” http://www.mfa.org/collections/conservation/conservationinaction_etruscansarcophagi

MFA Facebook album: “Conservation in Action”: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150475274752321.367989.28314922320&type=1

New York Times Article: “Mosaic Restoration as Performance Art” http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/arts/design/29mosa.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting – Objects Session, May 11, “Always Becoming” by Nora Naranjo-Morse, Gail Joyce, and Kelly McHugh

The last talk of the Objects Specialty Group session focused on the work of Nora Naranjo-Morse, a Tewa Indian of Santa Clara Pueblo who was selected from a nationwide contest to design a composition for display outside the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). In 2007, her idea for five sculptures, ephemeral in nature, came to fruition on the NMAI grounds, entitled “Always Becoming.” The three speakers shared their ongoing experiences regarding their collaboration in this talk, representing artist, collections management, and conservation.

It was Nora’s intention to embody in the sculpture the significance of three main values held by Pueblo families: environment, family, and culture. However, she took a unique approach by engaging community in both the creation and stewardship of the sculptures, and in doing so, highlighted the idea of an intertribal ideal. The ideal was manifested in the cooperation of members of the public, as well as staff at NMAI, who all came together to build the artworks. A series of podcasts as well as YouTube videos (Episode 1) document their collaborative effort under her guidance.

The figures vary in form and materials, comprised of mud, fired pottery sherds, wood, and straw, and other organic materials. Her choices are especially relevant given that Nora’s desire was to allow the sculptures to ultimately return to the earth, promoting stewardship, but not preservation in the sense that conservators typically understand it. The role of nature in shaping their condition and form is welcomed as a part of the process of “Always Becoming.” Weather plays an expectedly large role in the formative processes, and is reflected by the layered structure of the sculptures; as one layer melts away, another is revealed, a process that Nora appreciates in person as she travels to NMAI on annual visits. The return of the materials to the earth is also represented by the re-use of elements. For example, ground up sherds of fired pottery, or grog, were mixed into some of the mud. However, the idea of returning to the earth does not preclude the replacement of all elements. When a bamboo rope used to represent a tie at the top of the teepee form disintegrated, it was decided to replace it with strips of rawhide, offered by a staff-member at NMAI. In this way, intertribal community was also promoted, and the sculptural form maintained what Nora considered a crucial element. This promotion was also clear given the numerous phone updates, dialogues, and discussions that occurred between Nora and the staff over the course of the year when she was not present.

Gail then discussed her experiences in participating from a collections management perspective. She noted the role of human interaction in shaping the sculptures as well, citing an example whereby a homeless gentleman took up short-lived residence in the teepee after carving out a small shelter during a particularly inclement evening. While the sight of smoke and flame was certainly alarming, however brief and quickly addressed by NMAI security, Gail juxtaposed her own reaction with Nora’s, who appreciated that someone considered her work a warm and welcoming shelter. Gail proposed that the idea of the sculpture as a living document and testament to nature, nurture, and conceptual art is often at odds with the traditional museum approach to preservation. Even if roles were re-envisioned, however, a balance was reached whereby all parties contributed. For example, pieces of pottery or memory stones that fell off were to be left; on the other hand, fired ceramic moons, as they represented part of a sequence, were to be sent back to Nora to re-create. A locust wood and rawhide fence was constructed to keep children from climbing on the sculptures and the surrounding plants from being trampled. Gail highlighted the influence of animal interaction with a few examples: mason bees drilling holes into one of the figures, and a robin’s nest in the Y-post of another.

Kelly spoke about her involvement when she took the place of a previous staff-member in 2009, after the construction, focusing on the ongoing role of conservation in the project. She stressed the admirable qualities of Nora’s vision, including community inclusion, the interaction of the sculptures with people and the environment, the importance of materials, but most of all, engagement with both the public and NMAI staff. This point was especially relevant and well-received, given that the AIC Annual Conference theme this year is Outreach. NMAI conservators became more comfortable with the idea of deterioration and the expectation of it, though preservation by creation, through deterioration, is not typically a part of our approach. Kelly suggested that the project prompts a discussion regarding alteration of materials, wherein some ambiguity currently exists. She illustrated this point by noting use of the term “time-based media” to refer to many digital and performance arts, where change is accepted and expected as part of the life of the artwork, and effecting an appropriate conservation approach. She suggests that this very idea is just as appropriate and more useful for sculptural projects such as “Always Becoming,” which is, eponymously, in a constant flux. In conclusion, she expressed gratitude at being given the freedom to experience change, and urges other conservators to be open to similar experiences.