Volume 6, Number 1, Jan. 1984, pp.15-18

Regional News

(photo of participants and teaching staff for "Wood in Art Conservation" seminar 3-5 Oct. 1983)

Bay Area

The Bay Area Conservation Guild has made Stella Patri the first Lifetime Honorary Fellow for her many years of exemplary services to the field of conservation. Fellows of the guild feted Stella with a gourmet Chinese feast in her honor and presented her with a certificate in fine calligraphy framed in gold molding by Daedalus/Preservation Framing. Said Stella, "It left me speechless!"

Inge-Lise Eckmann, E. Carl Grimm, Yvonne Szafron, Teri Oikawa-Picante participated in the FAIC painting refresher seminar on Recent Lining Developments held at the Williamstown Regional Conservation Lab.

James M. Wright graduated from the Cooperstown Graduate Program this fall and continues as an Assistant Conservator at the SFMMA Conservation Lab. At the October WAAC Conference (Oakland, CA) Jim spoke on recent Contemporary Painting/Sculpture Treatments.

Jim Bernstein gave a conservation lecture at an all-day symposium on Mondrian and 20th Century Painting on 15 October at the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth. Jim then traveled to Turkey under the aegis of the U.S. Information Agency Academic Exchange Program. He presented a paper at the 1st Istanbul Biennial Symposium on Contemporary Art and Architecture, consulted on conservation training and gave seminars at Mimar Sinai University.

Antoinette Dwan and Laurent Sozzani, both of the Winterthur Graduate Program, are interns in Paper and Paintings at SFMMA for 1983-84.

Holly Houston Krueger and Jay Krueger moved to the Lone Star State in October. They will be working in the Conservation Lab at the Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.

Tony Rockwell, the founder of the SFMMA Conservation Lab (1971- 72) and a founding member of the BACG has resigned as Consulting Conservator of the SFMMA and moved to Oregon. We wish him the best in his new home.

Los Angeles

Victoria Blyth-Hill and Marc Watters lectured to the College of Creative Studies Art Symposium 1 November at the University of California Santa Barbara. Their topic covered an introduction to paper conservation and an awareness of art materials.

Joanne Page, Research Assistant in Conservation at LACMA, has begun an apprenticeship in the paper conservation studio with Victoria Blyth-Hill. Joanne's emphasis will be on the book and portfolio aspect of paper conservation and she is presently studying bookbinding with Margaret Lecky at UCLA. Some of her new responsibilities will ultimately include the conservation treatment of the Armand Hammer Daumier Collection, relieving James Druzik of this duty and allowing him to devote his time to Conservation Research.

The textile lab at LACMA has a volunteer apprentice from Vancouver B.C., Rebecca Billings. During her stay she is also working for Sharon Shore at "Caring For Textiles." Previously she interned at the British Columbia Provincial Museum. She hopes to enter a graduate conservation program next fall.

Jim Greaves is currently working on American paintings for the summer 1984 opening of the new Virginia Steele Scott Gallery of the Huntington Library, Art Gallery and Botanical Gardens.

Pat Reeves is on temporary leave of absence from the textile lab at LACMA to conserve pre-Columbian textiles for the Dallas Museum of Art. The textiles are part of the collection acquired from John Wise, Ltd. She will be working in her studio from November 1983 until February 1984.

Bruno Pouliot has received a six month internship grant from the National Museum Act. He began his internship in October at the UCLA Museum of Cultural History with Benita Johnson. Bruno has recently received his masters degree in art conservation from Queen's University, Canada, and will begin a nine month internship at the Institut de Recherches Archeologique et Paleometallurgique de l'Universite de Technologie de Compiegne in France next May.

Jane Carpenter is currently working in objects conservation at LACMA on a Winterthur internship. Jane has done apprenticeships at the Fogg, the Peabody and at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been on excavations in Maine and New Hampshire.

Gwen Tauber is working in the paintings lab at LACMA. Gwen has worked at the National Gallery of Art, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Wyoming, the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum in Massachusetts and the Williamstown Regional Center.

Denise Domergue's book, "Artists Design Furniture" is being published by the Abrams company. This book which is a survey of contemporary American artists' furniture, with illustrations and comments by the artists will be available in hard cover by April 15 for $30. Congratulations Denise!

Melinda Hayes, 1982-83 conservation intern at the Huntington has left the lab to take a position in the acquisitions and cataloging department of the Huntington. She is currently the American Library Association's Junior Members' Round Table liaison to the Preservation Library Materials Section of the Resources and Technical Services Division of A.L.A.

Mrs. Jacque Sundstrand is the intern at the Huntington for 1983- 84. She is a reference librarian from the University of La Verne. she is also completing her second masters degree in History and Archival Management at UC Riverside.

San Diego

Candace Bott and Victoria Jeffries are working at BACC as volunteer laboratory assistants.

Philipp Scholz-Rittermann is the new preparator/photographer at BACC.

Janet Ruggles, paper conservator at BACC, will attend a seminar on "The Conservation of Japanese Screens" at the Pacific Regional Conservation Center at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Rocky Mountains

Connie Wanke will speak to the Denver Press Club on the conservation and preservation of the George Elbert Burr Collection in January.

Nina Rayer, Paper Conservator, joined the Rocky Mountain Regional Conservation Center staff in May. Previously at the Maine State Museum, Nina was recently certified in paper conservation by the Board of Examiners of the AIC. In conjunction with her treatment of Native American tempera paintings, Nina is conducting a research project on the materials and techniques employed by the artists.

The paper lab was enlivened by a visit from Joe Nkrumah, Paper Conservator, Switzerland.

Steve Prins, Paintings Conservator from the NYU program and in private practice in New York, has kept the RMRCC in a high energy state since his arrival. The lab also welcomes Mary Mcgrath, Paintings Conservator from Ireland, for one year. She is a graduate of the Courtauld Institute and recently has worked at the Fogg.

The RMRCC has continued the visiting colleague program. Participants during the last months include: Robert Scott Wiles, formerly of the Corcoran Gallery, Jim Bernstein, Museum of Modern Art, S.F. and Ros Westmoreland, National Portrait Gallery.

Eva Kaczkowski, Senior Technician at RMRCC, is presently a textiles intern at the Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa.

Elizabeth Wendelin, Winterthur Summer Project Intern at the Denver Museum of National History and Carl Patterson presented a one day seminar "I Love My Collection" for local institutions.

Jim Swope as produced and edited the first two issues of "Conservation News" the RMRCC's newsletter. This newsletter informs consortium members and friends of recent projects, as well as provides a forum to distribute conservation information. Jim also attended the paintings linings refresher course in Williamstown.

Mme. Veronique De Laboulaye, a ceramics restoration specialist from France, has joined the RMRCC staff to work on a collection of ceramics shattered by a sonic boom. Arne Hansen, Director RMRCC, chaired a panel session "On Cooperative Conservation Centers" at the Seattle meeting of the Western Museum Conference. Other participants included CAROLI ASIA, Intermuseum Laboratory, Oberlin and Ron Hickman.

The RMRCC is soliciting feature articles and product information for "Conservation News," their regional newsletter. The publication is aimed toward museum collection care and maintenance. Anyone interested in submitting material, please contact: James Swope, Editor, Rocky Mountain Regional Conservation Center, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208 (303) 753-3218.

Northwest

Sonya Sopher who has just spent a year at the Cleveland Art Museum, will be returning to the Portland Art Museum in the spring.

Salt Lake Region

Scott M. Haskins has left the lab at Brigham Young University to take the position of head paintings conservator at the Art Conservation Laboratories of Santa Barbara, CA. This is a new lab which will service both public and private collections.