Volume 1, Number 2, May 1979, p.4

Personals

Los Angeles

We are saddened by the loss of Darcy Field who died of cancer this March at the age of 25. Darcy had been an apprentice in the Textile Conservation Center at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for four summers, while completing her undergraduate studies. She received her B.A. from Mills College in June, 1978. Darcy showed wonderful promise as a textile conservator and had planned to enter graduate conservation school in September. We have lost not only a potential conservator, but a dear friend. Her sunny disposition, her intelligence and her courageous attitude will be sorely missed.

Ronald Tank, Manuscript Conservator at the Huntington Library in San Marino went on an H.E.W. Grant to Ottawa to study vellum and seal repair. While in Canada, he also attended a paper and book conservation symposium, covering leaf casting, bleaching, conservation of photographic material and other techniques. His assistant, Leandra Woods, departed for Europe on April 3rd for a two months tour of Germany, Austria, Denmark, France, England, Scotland and Italy. She will be visiting various restoration laboratories during her trip.

Bernie Rabin, one of the Norton Simon Museum's consultant Painting Conservators, will be visiting the museum for three weeks this summer. Although the dates are not completely set as of this writing, it will be at the end of June and/or the first of July.

Objects and Antiquities Conservators Peter Smith and Anna Plowden are expected for their annual six week stay towards mid-July and are stationed at the Norton Simon Museum.

Janet N. Linzar is now a one year apprentice in the Textile Conservation Lab at LACMA. Previous to this apprenticeship she was a conservator at the Field Museum of Natural History for two years under an NEA Grant to survey the conditions of the anthropological collections and to make recommendations as to the proper storage, handling and exhibition of the collections. She trained at the Anthropology Conservation Lab at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and received an M.A. in Anthropology with Specialization in Conservation at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. The apprenticeship at LACMA is being funded by the Skirball Museum of Hebrew Union College where she will become Coordinator and Conservator for the textile collection after her apprenticeship.

Fernande Jones, Assistant Textile Conservator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, plans a five week study-tour of textile collections in Europe. She will first go to Turin to look at the Shroud and then on to Lyons to admire the textiles at the Musee des Tissus Ancients. Then she will visit the Abegg-Stiftung in Bern which is one of the best textile laboratories in the world. In Brussels, Brugge, and Ghent, Fernande will examine fine lace collections.

On July 15th Fernande will meet her UCLA Extension class for a two week tour of costume and textile collections in England. Fernande has organized the tour with visits to the great collections in London and then a two day excursion to Bath and a visit to Knowle. Karen Finch will take the class through the Textile Lab of the Courtauld Institute and then the last two days will be spent in workshops with Zandra Rhodes and Thea Porter. The touring-course is still open for registration through the UCLA Extension. Ms. Jones will also conduct a 12 week course this fall on Textiles, Costumes and Laces to be announced in the UCLA Extension catalogue.

Cultural History Museum--UCLA

Benita Dumpis is the new Objects Conservator at the UCLA Museum of Cultural History. She received her M.A.C. in Art Conservation at Queens University in 1978 having done prior internships with the National Historic Parks and sites in Ottawa and at the Canadian Conservation Institute. She also spent six months at the Instituto Centrale del Restauro in Rome. We welcome Benita as a new WAAC member. Sharon G. Donnan, Coordinator of the Textile Conservation Program at UCLA's Museum of Cultural History has been accepted as a summer intern at the Abegg-Stiftung, Bern, Switzerland. Ms. Donnan has served an apprenticeship in the Textile Conservation Lab of LACMA from 1977-79.

Ann E. Svenson received an M.A. from the UCLA Design Department doing her thesis on "The Conservation of Archaeological Textiles." She is currently working at the Museum of Cultural History on a special textile storage project.

San Francisco

Robert Futernick, Paper Conservator at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, and his wife Jennifer proudly announce the birth of their first child, Jacob Benjamin, on April 12th. Jacob weighed in at an even 100 ounces and measured one foot 7-1/2".

Nina Rayer from the Winterthur program and Pamela Young from Cooperstown are serving their internships at the Legion of Honor. In addition to paper conservation treatments, they are initiating a research project on the use of enzymes for removal of old starch adhesives. They are also working, under the direction of Bob Futernick, on new designs for a "Suitcase Model" suction table.

Ted Nightwine, formerly of the Cincinnati Museum, has been working at the Painting Conservation Lab of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco since last March.

Paula di Cristofero. a former volunteer in the Paintings Lab of Teri Oikawa-Picante at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, is currently a student in conservation at the Courtauld Institute in London.

Los Angeles

With the retirement of Ben Johnson, Jim Greaves has assumed the position of Acting Head Conservator at LACMA. Since January Jim has been assisting the Huntington Library's Art Gallery with preparations to install the Green Bequest, consisting of over forty 17th and 18th century European paintings plus fine decorative arts.