BPG Column from the March 1997 AIC Newsletter
Annual Meeting in San Diego 1997
From a bounty of papers submitted this year we have a day and a half session with eighteen papers. The BPG session is all day Friday, June 13, and Saturday morning June 14. The Friday morning session includes a variety of topics on the treatment of art on paper: tracing paper, hydrogen peroxide reversion of sulfided lead white, sodium borohydride bleaching, and traditional European repair techniques. The "Tips" session will be just before lunch on Friday. The Friday afternoon session focuses on books and library materials: Mexican inquisition documents, corrosive copper green pigment, scrapbooks, interventive library treatments, treatment of a vellum scroll, and compensation in Medieval manuscripts. Saturday morning has a theme of studies in artists' materials: binding media in Middle Eastern manuscript paintings, wax-based drawing media, construction paper, Whistler's "old" papers, photo-reproduction techniques, and identification of colonial Mexican colorants.
This year we are having a lecture at the Friday ticketed luncheon: Roy Perkinson will present a one hour talk entitled "Drawn to Blue: Investigations of the History of Artists' Blue Paper." The lecture will be open to all members even if you decide not to buy lunch. The ticketed breakfast business meeting will take place on Saturday morning. The ticketed BPG reception, open to all members, will be held Saturday evening at the new Mingei International Museum of World Folk Art.
Saturday afternoon the Library Collection Conservation Discussion Group will have a workshop focusing on treatment and housing specifications for oversized bound materials, treatment of spiral bindings, and treatment specifications for spine repairs and board reattachment. The Archives Discussion Group will hold an open carousel meeting Thursday evening June 12.
PMG has been very cooperative to schedule their half-day session around our extra half day to meet on Saturday afternoon. There is a new Electronic Media sub-group that will meet for the first time on Friday morning. Unfortunately, every year, even with a seven day conference, there is not enough time available to schedule allied topics without some overlap and one has to make difficult choices.
Kate Murray and Don Swanson are organizing the LCCDG workshop. The Archives Discussion Group will meet at the San Diego meeting in June, on Thursday evening from 7:30 to 9:30. Discussion will focus on surface cleaning. Hilary Kaplan is the contact for the Archives meeting (see Survey below). If you have a five minute or less "Tip" to present in San Diego, contact Betty Fiske or Eleanore Stewart.
Archives Discussion Group
In preparation for an exchange on surface cleaning that promises to be both lively and informative, we would be grateful for responses to the following questions. Please submit your responses to this brief survey by March 15, 1997 (if this newsletter reaches you in time). Send your responses to:
- Hilary A. Kaplan
- Georgia Dept. of Archives and History
- 300 Capitol Ave., SE
- Atlanta, GA 30334
- bm.gsk@rlg.org
- When do you specify surface cleaning?
- What products are you currently using?
- On what paper/media?
- What tool/equipment and procedures are used?
- What pros and cons have you observed?
- Contact person (optional):
- Job title (required):
Walter Henry, BPG Chair