Volume 6, Number 3, Sept. 1984, pp.16-18

Regional News

San Francisco Bay AREA

Bruce Miller, formerly Paintings Conservator at the M.H. de Young Museum, has joined the staff of the Cleveland Museum of Art as Head Paintings Conservator.

Anne Rosenthal and Michael Wolf are pleased to announce their marriage which took place on 25 August. Anne will continue to use her maiden name for professional purposes and her new address is P.O.Box 384, San Rafael, CA 94901 (415)547-1549.

Thomas and Betty Portue are proud to announce a new addition to their family. Brian Thomas was born on 26 June and is a very nice complement to 2-year old Nicole.

The Bay Area Art Conservation Guild is pleased to announce the election of its new officers for 1984-1985. Genevieve Baird, President; Robin Tichane, Vice-President/Program Chairman; Elizabeth Cornu, Secretary; Elizabeth Crumley, Treasurer and Board Member; Keiko Keyes, Roger Broussal and Bob Futernick, At Large Board Members. Margaret Geiss-Mooney has consented to continue as Newsletter Editor and Linda Schiefler has been appointed Membership Secretary. The guild has monthly meetings which include open discussions on various disciplines such as paper, paintings, oriental art, furniture and textiles. A special memorial lecture was given for George Stout by Mr.Thomas Carr Howe, Director Emeritus of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum on 28 August. All inquiries concerning membership in the Guild should be sent to B.A.A.C.G., c/o Daedalus, 6020 Adeline St., Oakland, CA 94608.

At the 1984 Western Museums Conference, which will be held 10-13 October in Sacramento, CA, Geoffrey I. Brown, Judith Rieniets and Richard Lorenz will be presenting papers at the concurrent session on the 12th which are entitled: "What's Wrong With This Picture/ or How to Make a Condition Report." This practical session will include the ideal format and standard terminology for a condition report. Proper storage and exhibition environments will also be discussed.

Los Angeles

Dr. William S. Ginnell, formerly principal staff scientist at McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co., joined the staff of the Scientific Department of The J. Paul Getty Conservation Institute as Conservation Scientist on 21 August. Dr. Ginnell's responsibilities will be to plan and set up, in conjunction with Department Head Frank Preusser, the second laboratory of The J. Paul Getty Conservation Institute to be located in Marina del Rey.

On 17 August Dr. Helmut Schweppe of BASF Corp. in Ludwigshafen, West Germany gave an 8 hour workshop to 14 invited participants in the Scientific Laboratory of The J. Paul Getty Conservation Institute. The workshop was on the identification of ancient textile dyes with color reactions and thin layer chromatography. Since this workshop was very successful it will be repeated in the next year or two.

Congratulations to Tatyana Thompson on her marriage to Harvey Leshnick on 30 June. Ms. Thompson will continue to use her maiden name.

Sharon Donnan worked this summer as the textile conservator at the archaeological site of Pacatnamu in Peru.

Robin Chamberlin, a graduate student from the Winterthur conservation program, will begin a six-month internship sponsored by the National Museum Act at the UCLA Museum of Cultural History on 1 December.

Benita Johnson, conservator at the UCLA Museum of Cultural History, has just completed the design of a new conservation laboratory for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Through the generosity of Jack Ostrow, the Conservation Center at LACMA has received an M650 Wild Heerbrug floor stand binocular microscope.

Ros Westmoreland, formerly with the National Portrait Gallery, will be a visiting painting conservator this fall and winter at LACMA.

Gwen Tauber, 1984 Winterthur graduate, 1983/84 Winterthur intern in painting conservation at LACMA and Steven Dykstra of Washington, D.C. will join LACMA staff as interns this fall. Mr. Dykstra received his training in painting conservation under Carl Grimm at the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts in Denver, Colo.

Jane Carpenter has completed her Winterthur internship in objects conservation at LACMA. She begins a 10 month internship this September at the Fogg Art Museum.

Rosanna Zubiate is spending two months this summer studying textile conservation with Pat Reeves and Catherine McLean at LACMA and also with Sharon Shore at "Caring for Textiles." Rosanna has just completed one year of a three year program at the Textile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Place.

Dr. Bernhardt J. Pilcher, a chemist of the "Hochschule fur Angewandte Kunst" in Vienna, is a visiting scientist at LACMA. He is working with Pieter Meyers on research in metallography and thermoluminescence dating.

Rebecca Billings, former textile conservation apprentice at LACMA, will enter the Cooperstown Graduate Conservation Program this fall.

Pat Reeves, who began the textile conservation lab at LACMA 16 years ago, is now working half-time at the museum. During her free time she will maintain a private practice at 126 N. Flores, LA, CA 90048.

Nancy Wyatt has moved to Paris, Texas where she has established a private studio. Her new address is: 2321 Cleveland, Paris, TX 75460. All of us at LACMA miss her and wish her the best of luck!

"Caring for Textiles" has expanded its staff. The current staff includes Sharon Shore,, Conservator; Toni Alanea, part-time Office Manager; and Suzie Murphy, Conservation Assistant.

Rolf Kat has accepted a one year appointment as Paper Conservator at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Rolf is a graduate of the Training Course for Conservators, Amsterdam, Netherlands which is under the aegis of the Dutch Ministry of Culture and he has worked on special projects at the Ryksmuseum, Boymans van Beuningen Museum and City Archives in Amsterdam. For the past five months he has worked as a Mellon Fellow under Victoria Blyth-Hill, Senior Paper Conservator, at LACMA.

Linda A. Strauss has joined the Decorative Arts Department of the J. Paul Getty Museum as a Conservation Assistant.

Brian Considine, Assistant Conservator of Decorative Arts at the Getty, is training for an extended period in Paris with a gilder. Contact the Getty Decorative Arts Conservation Department for his address.

Victoria Blyth-Hill gave a seminar entitled, "Traditional Japanese Screen Mounting Techniques" 19 July as part of the joint LACMA/Getty Conservation Seminar Series. Victoria reviewed a training seminar conducted by Mr. SUGIURA in the Pacific Regional Conservation Center at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu.

On 8 June the Los Angeles County Medical Association held their "Festival of Arts" - an annual art competition by the Los Angeles Physicians Society. Their guest speaker, Dr. Pieter Meyers, Senior Research Chemist of LACMA, spoke on "Science in the Art Museum." William Leisher and Victoria Blyth-Hill served as judges for the diverse exhibition.

Canada

Barbara Keyser Whitney has accepted a position as Conservator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Rocky Mountain Region

Will Shank has written an article titled, "John Singleton Copley's Portraits: A Technical Study of Three Representative Examples" which will appear in the fall AIC journal. Will is with the Western Paintings Conservation Laboratory.

In July Carl Patterson became Director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Conservation Center in Denver. Carl attended the Museum Management Institute, a month-long course sponsored by the Art Museum Association in Berkeley, CA. He is the first conservator to participate in this program. He also attended the AIC's leather refresher course in Harper's Ferry, W.V. in June.

Steven Prins attended the AIC's lining refreshed course in Oberlin, OH in July.

Robert Mccarroll replaced Nina Rayer as paper conservator at the RMRCC, coming from his private practice in Montreal. Nina Rayer has returned to her home state of Maine to pursue a private practice.

Paintings conservator, Alfred Ackerman, joined the staff on the RMRCC in September. Previously he was at the Art Conservation Laboratory in New Hampshire.

Oregon & Washington

Jack C. Thompson gave a talk titled "A Proposed Method for Determining the Original Size of Manuscript Books" to the AIC Book and Paper Group Meeting in LA. He also conducted a documentation session in the lab as part of a AASLH conservation seminar for museum curators. In June he travelled to Kennewick, WA to give a hands-on demonstration on dry cleaning methods, paste making and hinging to the Empire chapter of the PPFA (Professional Picture Framers Association). In July there was a viewing of Jack's videotapes to a group of Chicago area conservators and bookbinders.

Southern California

Betsy Court, paintings conservator at BACC, recently attended the FAIC refresher course on Recent Developments in Lining Techniques at the Intermuseum Laboratory in Oberlin.

Gary Hulbert, A student from Cooperstown, will begin his internship in painting conservation at BACC in September.

Gary Alden has been elected to serve on the Nominating Committee for the National Institute for the Conservation of Public Property (NIC) which will propose candidates for eligible positions on the Board of Directors for the 1984-1986 term. He will be serving with Charles Hummel of the Winterthur Museum and LEE NELson of the Association for Preservation Technology. Gary has also agreed to serve on the Board of Examiners for the Certification of Conservators of Historic and Artistic Works on Paper for the AIC together with Anne Clapp, Margaret Fikioris, Marian Peck Dirda, Jonathan S. Arney and Marilyn Weidner, Chairperson.