Conservation of outdoor public art

Conservation of Outdoor Public Art
Request for Information Exchange

The City of Toronto (Ontario, Canada) is in the process of
developing a conservation plan for its outdoor public art
collection, and wishes to exchange ideas with others who have plans
in place. The objective is to learn from others, how the care and
maintenance of outdoor public art collections are managed. I am
interested in knowing  what works and doesn't work. If a
Conservation Policy is available for distribution that would also be
very useful.

Background: The collection is inventoried  and a technical
conservation assessment is near completion. The collection of 250
pieces in publicly owned and is made from a variety of
materials--including, bronze, masonry, mixed metal, modern plastics.
The collection is located throughout the city of Toronto and covers
a large geographical area. Limited budgets exists for annual
maintenance and capital projects. The budgets and projects are
managed by a conservator.

Issues:

    Fundraising

    Annual Maintenance- how to maintain as many artworks and
    monuments as possible with limited resources.

    Use of volunteers for routine annual maintenance.

    Use of conservators for routine annual maintenance.

    Use of city  parks staff for routine annual maintenance.

    Repair and maintenance of fountains, electrical components.

    Quality control issues and documentation. How to ensure that any
    repair or conservation work that is carried out is approved by
    the conservator, when so many city employees could potentially
    do the work. The city of Toronto employees 40,000 people.

    New public art projects - conservation input and signing off.
    Working with artists - Artists responsibility to the  client
    (city) and clients responsibility to the artist.

    Endowments for maintenance of new acquisitions.

    Prioritising capital projects when many seem important. Public
    Art Committees

I would appreciate hearing from conservators or city administrators
who have had experience with any of the identified  topics.

Sandra Lougheed
Conservator
Heritage Toronto
205 Yonge Street
Toronto Ontario M5B 1N2
416-392-6894
Fax: 416-392-0115

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:31
                Distributed: Tuesday, November 23, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-13-31-018
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