Course on care of outdoor bronze sculpture

New York Conservation Foundation Summer Course
The Care of Outdoor Bronze Sculpture

"The bronze course" is in two parts, each a five-day week. The
logistics of field work limit the second week's registration.

Week one: August 3-7, 1998, open enrollment.
Week two: August 10-14, 1998, limited--six persons continue.

This introductory course is designed to convey basic technical,
logistical, historical, ethical, professional, and administrative
elements of conservation practice in the care of outdoor bronzes.

Course leaders:

    John Scott, N Y Conservation Center
    Joan Pachner, PhD, Storm King Art Center

Leaders are usually assisted by another conservator, another
sculpture expert and one or two technicians.

Week one, historical and technical contexts:

    a.  Lectures, discussions and exercises.
    b.  Field demonstration: survey, documentation, site scouting.
    c.  Field tour: NYC monuments differently conserved.

Week two, a hands-on field exercise conserving an aesthetically
and historically important bronze monument:

    a.  Gear, transportation, site setup.
    b.  Cleaning, stabilization, coating.
    c.  Breakdown, site clearance, documentation.

The first week provides a conceptual and technical context
comprising historical and contemporary significances of sculpture
and monuments, historical and contemporary foundry practices, bronze
sculpture's diversity of structure and finish, environmental factors
for deterioration, and a review of past and current restoration
practices. The lecture format is "slide talk." Discussion is open.

We proceed along a balanced path to convey the diversity of
situations and conservation approaches. Different degrees of
intervention are shown for different states of condition. We discuss
professional and business practices, including pertinent agencies
and institutions, and securing and administering public- and private
contracts.

We go onsite to survey, document and scout the monument to be
conserved in the second week. We prepare the examination report and
treatment proposal (provided mid-September in final form with basic
photographs, to all participants). We review and apply our
first-week topics in a tour through New York City's Chelsea and
Greenwich Village districts, where we note and discuss the con-
dition, apparent conservation histories, and future needs of several
city monuments.

The second week's hands-on field exercise gives participants
exposure to basics of field logistics and practice, as well as
experience in preparing project documentation including photo-
graphs. The documentation is finished in our office after the course
concludes, and a copy with photographs is forwarded to each
participant for study and qualified portfolio use.

This summer we expect the course exercise to be in New York City's
Grammercy Park, conserving the Players' Club's Booth monument. The
bronze is in moderately poor condition, needing no structural
restoration; it has had no care for about 20 years.

Registration

Tuition is $500 U.S. per week, for instruction and materials.

Enroll early: first week before July 1, 1998; second week will fill
quickly. Please pay for each week separately; excess payments will
be returned after the second week is fully enrolled.

Send letter and resume with payment drawn on a U.S. bank, payable
to "New York Conservation Foundation, Inc."

c/o

    John Scott, Director
    New York Conservation Center, Inc.
    PO Box 20098LT
    New York, NY  10011-0008
    212-714-0620
    714 0149 fax
    jscott [at] panix__com

Background: John Scott, MA, MBA, MA-CAS, is a well-known sculpture
conservator, analyst and lecturer active in bronze care and other
areas of conservation since 1977. He led earlier versions of "the
bronze course" once annually in 1994, 1995 and 1996, as a public
service of his firm, New York Conservation Center, Inc. The
not-for-profit New York Conservation Foundation now administers the
course. Conservators, art handlers, curators, artists, foundrymen
and restoration students from North America and Canada have enjoyed
this course.

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:74
                   Distributed: Friday, March 6, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-11-74-022
                                  ***