Volume 6, Number 2, May 1984, pp.18-20

Regional News

San Francisco Bay Area

Conservators at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco have some news: Pauline Mohr has traveled to Mexico (the Yucatan) for beaches and ruins; Bob Futernick and wife Jennifer are expecting a baby girl, hopefully, but will accept a boy; Barbara Stahlersholk has been working as an intern from the Cooperstown Graduate Program at the Western Regional Paper Conservation Lab.

Janice May Schopfer will travel to Paris for an international hand bookbinding exhibition sponsored by the Bibliotheque Nationale, April. Stephen Shapiro and Anita Noennig are preparing for some major remodeling of their paper conservation lab in May--operation face lift for Daedalus aims for more efficient and safe use of existing space.

Debra Evans attended a workshop on Japanese screen mounting conducted by Takashi Sugiura and Kuni Kinoshita during January through March at the Pacific Regional Conservation Center, Bishop Museum, Hawaii. Also pertaining to things Asian - the Society for Asian Art, Spring Study Program, held a lecture series entitled, "Art and Science in Support of Historic and Artistic Knowledge" in March and April. Roger Broussal, Chief Conservator at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco spoke on conservation in the Brundage Collection. Other participants in the group were from LACMA: Pieter Meyers addressed technical studies of ancient Asian metal objects; Billie Milam talked about study of the fabrication of an object to determine proper treatment and/or identification, authentication; Victoria Blyth-Hill spoke about conservation of Japanese screens.

Los Angeles

Carol Young Verheyen has taken over the duties of Registrar/ Preparator at the Huntington Art Gallery. An emphasis will be placed on conservation. She will be working with the prints and drawings collections for changing exhibitions at the Huntington's British Art Gallery and at the new Virginia Steele Scott American Art Gallery.

Gloria Giffords of Fraser-Giffords Conservators, Tuscon, was a visiting conservator for one week in April in the paintings conservation studio at LACMA.

Gabriella Zennaro, who completed her studies in conservation at the Instituto Centrale del Restauro in Rome, now spends one third of the year in Venice and two thirds of the year in Los Angeles where she is presently specializing in the conservation of oil paintings and antique gold frames, employing the techniques of natural earth materials which have been used in the "botteghe" of Venezia for centuries. Recent projects include the conservation of paintings by Simonini da Parma and Zuccarelli.

Denise Domergue had a book signing reception for her book, "Artists Design Furniture" at the Functional Art Gallery in Los Angeles.

Tatyana Thompson was a consultant to the Museum of Contemporary Art for six months to assist with "The First Show." She monitored the environment and made recommendations for safe environmental conditions.

Salt Lake Region

A new Mormon Museum of Church History and Art opened 6 April. Brook Bowman and Mia Struteanu prepared approximately 500 artifacts over the past two years in preparation for the opening, which was considered a big success in the Salt Lake community.

Richard Trela, a 1978 Cooperstown graduate, accepted a fine arts conservation position at Brigham Young University, filling Scott Haskins's former position. Mr. Trela and his wife have moved to Provo from Montana where he has been since graduating from Cooperstown. He had been working for a university and historical society in Montana.

Brook Bowman resigned as senior conservator at the Latter Day Saints Church Museum of History and Art as is currently busy organizing a private conservation laboratory with one intern in Salt Lake. The lab will offer the services of a paper conservator. The opening of the lab will follow a summer for Brook as conservator for excavations in Syria, sponsored by the American School of Oriental Research and a month's vacation in Europe.

Canada

The Pacific Conservation Group met at the B.C. Provincial Museum in Victoria on 6 April 1984. Included in the program were a presentation by Chris Russell of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria on its new lighting system and a report by Eric Lawson on maritime history as reflected in shipwrecks in the Falkland Islands.

Rocky Mountain Region

Mary Mcgrath, Paintings Conservator at the RMRCC, returned to Ireland in February to present her paper "The Materials and Techniques of Irish Wallpaintings" at the Annual Meeting of the Irish Professional Conservators and Restorers Association in Cashel. Ms. McGrath also contributed a chapter titled, "The History of Harness-making in Ireland" to Traditional Handcrafts of Ireland, April's Book of the Month Club section, following her research at the Irish Horse Museum at the Irish National Stud Farm in Kildare, Ireland.

Gina Lauren and Dana Moffet, preprogram aides at the RMRCC, have been accepted to the graduate conservation program at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. Gina was also accepted at the University of Durham.

Jeanne Brako, RMRCC, and Bob Morgan, Southwest Textile Restorations, are presenting several workshops and lectures on Navajo textiles at the Denver Museum of Natural History and the State Historical Society of Colorado to coincide with exhibitions.

Carl Patterson, RMRCC, taught a graduate level course "Care of Collections" at the University of Denver. Mr. Patterson is now an adjunct assistant professor at that institution.

Carl Grimm has changed the name of his business to Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts. He has bought a building which is currently under renovation. The building will be a large conservation facility with environmental controls and a convenient location to downtown Denver. The facility will be a full service conservation laboratory to service museums and private collections of the West.

J. William Shank has joined the staff of the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts. Will started in October after finishing a year's National Museum Act Grant for advanced level studies in conservation at the Center for Conservation and Technical Studies Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University.

Connie Wanke, Colorado Conservation Center, lectured in April to the Professional Picture Framers Association on the "Pitfalls of Conservation Framing." Connie also completed work on the opening renovation and show for the Winchester Museum, Buffalo Bill Historic Center, Cody, Wyoming.

Carl Grimm will be speaking at the Colorado Moulding Framing Seminar on general conservation, damage and deteriorating factors in works of art.

Christine Young, photographic conservator, has just completed a 5 article series on "The Care of Stereoscopic Photographic Views" for Stereoworld, the publication of the National Stereoscopic Association. She is currently working on another series on the subject of nitrates.

Arizona

Nancy Odegaard has replaced Barbara Moore as conservator at the Arizona State Museum, Tucson. Married and a native of Phoenix, Nancy comes to ASM from the Peabody Museum at Harvard. In addition to her responsibilities for the ethnographic and archaeological objects, she will be teaching an introductory course on museum conservation for anthro students at the University of Arizona who are interested in museum careers.

Barbara Moore has relocated in New Haven, Connecticut, where her husband is teaching at Yale.

The Arizona Commission of the Arts has assembled a group of instruments for weekly loans to museums and historical societies. Consisting of a battery operated thermohygrometer, U.V. and light meters, blue wool standard card for fading tests, and a psychrometer, the instruments are packed in a case for mailing. The borrower may keep the instruments for a week, retain the information kit and the blue wool standard card.

Oregon & Washington

Jack Thompson has been appointed to the Oregon Governors Commission on Historic Record (NHPRC). In association with the Oregon Historical Society, he has founded the Northwest Conservation Center, Inc. and expanded the lab to 4,000 square feet. Jack delivered a paper titled, "Notes on the Manufacture of Gold Beaters Skin" at the IIC-CG Conference in Banff. Jack is now a professional associate in the AIC. In January he produced a 25 minute videotape titled, "Ebru: The Art of Turkish Paper Marbling" featuring Don Guyot.

Sonja Sopher is returning to the Portland Art Museum as paintings conservator.

Jack Lucas is making a strong recovery from triple bypass surgery and expects to be back to work by summer.

Gary Frost conducted a 3-day workshop (15-17 March) titled, "Historical Prototypes for Conservation Rebinding," at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Douglas Fergusan, a specialist in computer-based information systems, has left his position as head of systems for the Stanford University Libraries to become program director of the Library and Information Resources for the Northwest Project. This 3.5 million dollar, 3 year project has been funded by the Fred Meyer Charitable Trust to develop a technologically sophisticated resource-sharing network among academic and research libraries in the Pacific Northwest.