Volume 10, Number 3, Sept 1988, pp.13-18

Regional News

Pacific Northwest

Due to editorial oversight, submissions from this region were omitted in the May Newsletter. Current news and regional news from May are incorporated in this month's column. Our apologies to Jack Thompson and the membership from the Pacific Northwest. The Oregon Historical Society has purchased part of the Thompson Conservation Laboratory and hired Jack C. Thompson as conservator for their library and museum collections. Not included in the sale is Thompson's research library, and collection of exemplars. Thompson will continue accepting a limited number of private commissions in a separate lab facility.

Michael McColgin, conservator for the Arizona State Archives, recently spent a week at the Thompson Conservation Laboratory observing and participating in book conservation and paper making, and planning lab facilities for a new archives building scheduled to commence construction later this year.

The conservation laboratory at the Portland Art Museum has received an NEA grant which will support their acquisition of a cold suction table, and an IMS grant which will pay for 5 additional custom-built climate controlled vitrines for panel paintings in the museum's Kress collection.

In late winter conservation assistant Elizabeth Chambers spent 4 weeks as a volunteer in the Conservation Department of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This was an unstructured but comfortably stimulating interlude fostering information exchange and some hands on activities.

Jack Lucas and his son, Troy Lucas, continue working on the removal and consolidation of murals, attached with white lead, from various locations in the Pacific Northwest.

In addition to the video tapes listed in the May 1988 Newsletter, Istor Productions, a Thompson Conservation Laboratory subsidiary, has recently completed production on two video tapes for Wei T'o Associates, Inc., and is in production on two more. When the series is complete, there will be videotapes demonstrating the use of Wei T'o deacidification solution in spray cans, spray gun (Soft Spray), mass deacidification, and freeze drying and insect extermination. The video tape on freeze drying will include footage shot in November at the site of a fire salvage job contracted by the Thompson Conservation Laboratory.

San Diego

Janet Ruggles has been appointed to the position of Director of the Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC). Janet continues as Chief Conservator of Paper, a position she has held for the past six years. She replaces Gary Alden who served as Director since 1978.

Kathy McCallum has been hired at BACC as Administrator/Bookkeeper to replace Grant Gates who has moved north to San Francisco. Theresa Meyer Andrews has entered the Buffalo Art Conservation Program after working as an apprentice at BACC for one and one half years. Theresa worked in Paper Conservation on a project to conserve and rehouse over five hundred Japanese woodblock prints for the San Diego Museum of Art. In Buffalo, Theresa and her husband will be caretakers of the historic Roycroft Inn built during the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Annette Ruprecht has graduated from the Buffalo Art Conservation Program after finishing her year of internship in Paintings Conservation at BACC. In September Annette will begin study at the Hamilton-Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge. Ted Haxo began an apprenticeship in paintings conservation with Betsy Court.

Gary Wade Alden resigned as Executive Director of the Balboa Art Conservation Center on 8 July 1988, and married Cynthia Gordon, a medical financial manager on 3 September 1988, becoming step- father to a five year old daughter, Rachel. He has established a private consulting practice and may be reached at: 2384 Linwood Street, San Diego, California 92110-2829, (619) 299-3669. He will continue to serve as an alternate delegate representing WAAC at the National Institute for Conservation.

Rocky Mountain Region

Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts (WCCFA) will be donating survey time in memory of the late founder and director, Buck Burshears, of the Koshare Indian Museum in La Junta, Colorado. The Museum, which is a benefactor to Mr. Burshear's large art collection as well, has received over 200 paintings from an estate in Denver. WCCFA performed a painting survey for the University of Colorado at Boulder in July. Ronna Rivers is currently attending the Winterthur Museum/ University of Delaware Art Conservation Program after completing her pre-program training at WCCFA.

There have been many staff changes and additions at the University of Denver's Rocky Mountain Regional Conservation Center (RMRCC) during the past two months. With Nancy Mahaney's departure to undertake graduate studies at Arizona State University, Don Kubec has been hired as the new Ethnographic Materials Technician. Fourth-year intern Gina Lauren, graduate of the conservation program at Durham University (England), has been hired to fill the Center's new position of Assistant Objects Conservator. Kathy Perron has been employed as the second Textiles Handsewing Assistant in the textiles department.

Assistant Textiles Conservator, T. Rose Holdcraft, has resigned to accept a new position at the Peabody Museum at Harvard; it is anticipated that this position will be filled in early September. Cindy Lawrence is leaving the paintings department in late August to begin conservation studies at Queens University. Daryl Hays Shoop has been hired as the Center's new Fine Arts/Paintings Technician; a second technician for this department will be hired in August. Finally, Rhonda Wozniak has been accepted into the Center's Pre-Conservation Aide Program. She is an undergraduate student at the University of Colorado, Denver.

After seven years of dedicated service at RMRCC, Jeanne Brako has resigned from her current position as head of the Textiles Department to pursue new professional activities. She will be missed, personally and professionally, by the Center's staff, all of whom wish her joy and success in her future endeavors. Much of the usual interruption created by a change of this sort will be mitigated by the Center's good fortune in acquiring the services of Terri Schindel as Associate Textiles Conservator. Terri recently completed the Textile Conservation diploma course at Hampton Court Palace, University of London, Courtauld Institute of Art. In addition, she has successfully completed internships at the Textile Conservation Laboratory (St. John the Divine Cathedral, New York City) and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Carl Patterson, Head of the RMRCC objects department, will be consulting in Changsha (Hunan), China, on artifacts intended for an exhibition traveling to several locations in the United States. He is working with the Asian Arts Coordinating Council on this project, and will tie the China venture into his participation at the IIC meetings in Japan. He was also recently involved in removing kiva murals from a Bureau of Land Management site near Dolores, Colorado, an unusual project because of the rare (if ever before) need to take this kind of action.

In November, RMRCC will host a special three-day symposium in Denver for members of the Association of Regional (Cooperative) Conservation Centers (ARCC). The purpose is to develop consensus on methodologies for conducting collections- specific surveys. It is anticipated that each member of ARCC will send at least two participants, the director or chief administrative officer and at least one conservator with major responsibilities for collections surveys. Partial funding for the symposium was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. David Shute is the project director for this event.

Arizona

Nancy Odegaard will have a new conservation assistant, Susan Lubbermann, to work on an NEH grant for a new permanent exhibit at the Arizona State Museum, Tucson. The ethnographic exhibit will deal with the cultural material of the Southwest.

San Francisco Bay Area

Anne Rosenthal and Michael Wolf are the proud parents of Robyn Lee Wolf, who was born June 17th.

Theresa Power will return to the Bay Area in November to begin a private practice in objects conservation.

Inge-Lise Eckmann gave a lecture on the conservation of paintings and works of art on paper at a seminar for museum professionals at the University of South Carolina, August 2-5. She has been very busy touring other museum conservation labs around the country, in anticipation of designing a conservation facility for the new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMMA) building scheduled to open in 1993.

Pauline Mohr has been working on conservation treatments of a series of Russian Constructivist paintings, which will be featured in an upcoming exhibition at the Modernism Gallery in San Francisco.

Will Shank will be on SFMMA business in Venice in September. During his trip he will visit Gianluigi Colalucci, who is currently directing the restoration of the ceiling frescoes at the Sistine Chapel.

Julie Goldman completed her NEA Fellowship at the SFMMA at the end of August. She will be opening a private practice in paper conservation in San Francisco at the end of September.

Deborah Dyer, summer intern at the SFMMA, will receive her Master's Degree in Art Conservation from Queen's University in September, and will then spend a year at the Tate Gallery in London, where she will specialize in paintings conservation. Carrie Ann Calay, a graduate of Queen's University and most recently associated with the Northeast Document Conservation Center, will begin a NEA Fellowship at the SFMMA in October. Jim Bernstein, SFMMA, and Jim Wright, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), participated in the Getty Conservation Institute seminar on the cleaning of paintings presented by Richard Wolbers in August.

The paper lab at the Legion of Honor (FAMSF) is pleased to have Irene Bruckle, a private paper conservator from Germany, working in the lab for five months. Irene is funded by Carl-Duisberg- Gesellschaft.

Cathleen Baker, paper conservation instructor at the Buffalo Art conservation Program, spent two weeks working in the lab at the end of July.

In August, the lab hosted Debbie Hess Norris, instructor in photograph conservation at the Winterthur Museum/University of Delaware Art Conservation Program, for a one-day seminar in photograph identification and basic photograph conservation for paper conservators.

The FAMSF is the recipient of an IMS grant to conduct a three- part conservation survey. Northern European prints in the Achenbach collection will be surveyed by Joan Wright, ethnographic objects by Theresa Power and ethnographic textiles by Vicki Cassman.

Madeleine Hexter, from the Winterthur Museum/University of Delaware Art Conservation Program, has just completed a summer internship in the objects lab at the deYoung (FAMSF). She will do her third year internship with Jerry Podany in the Antiquities Conservation Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The Asian Art Museum lab has a new conservation technician, Faith Bilyeu. Faith was formerly at the Burial Inventory Project, Department of Parks and Recreation, Sacramento.

Greater Los Angeles/Santa Barbara

Robert McGiffin, Chief Conservator at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, reports that construction on and exhibit installation in the new museum is on schedule. The major collection includes fine arts, historical artifacts, and research materials on the American west. Included in the 140,000 sq. ft. building is a large and well equipped conservation center. Opening ceremonies are scheduled for mid-November in the Pine Meadow section of Griffith Park, Los Angeles. For information call (213) 460-5635.

Welcome back to Rosa Lowinger, objects conservator, who has returned to California. Her new address is 1207 South Shenandoah Street, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Robert Aitchison and Mark Watters are pleased to announce a new address and telephone number for Aitchison and Watters, Inc., Conservators of Art on paper: 6277 Ivarene Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90068, (213)463-0822.

Benita Johnson has moved to Australia to teach objects conservation at the Canberra College of Advanced Education on a three-year contract. Benita courses will emphasize historical and ethnographic objects conservation. As the only conservation program in Australia, the College offers both undergraduate and graduate courses in paintings, paper and objects conservation. The program is directed by Mr. Colin Pearson. Benita's new address is: Ms. Benita Johnson, Lecturer, Applied Sciences/ Conservation, Canberra College of Advanced Education, P.O. Box 1, Belconnen, A.C.T. 2616, Australia.

On August 15, Don Sale completed his 11-month internship at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and, subsequently, his requirements for the Winterthur/University of Delaware Graduate Art Conservation Program. Don had an eventful and productive year working in the objects conservation laboratory at LACMA. He would like to thank Sharon Blank, his internship supervisor, and the other conservation staff members at LACMA for a wonderful year. Don has accepted a two year position working with Derek Pullen and Jackie Heuman in the Sculpture Conservation Department at the Tate Gallery in London.

Barbara Roberts is leaving her position as head of Decorative Arts and Sculpture Conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum on September 30, 1988 to begin a Private Practice as a consultant in preservation, conservation, hazard mitigation, and emergency response coordination for decorative arts and mixed media collections. She can be contacted care of the following address: R.D. 1, Box 393, Norfolk, CT 06058, (203) 542-5939; or in New York City: (212) 644-9496. Brian Considine will be acting head of the department.

Having completed the Buffalo State College graduate program in Art Conservation and an internship in the Paintings Conservation Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Mark van Gelder will begin as Assistant Paintings Conservator at the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery at the University of Texas in Austin. Mark will begin work there in October with the Museum's Head Conservator Sara McElroy.

Madeleine Hexter has been accepted as the 1988-89 Conservation Intern in the Antiquities Conservation Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Madeleine is completing her final year of study at Winterthur, Delaware.

Kathleen Dardes will be joining the Training Program at the GCI in September 1988 in the position of Training Program Coordinator. Ms. Dardes will be coming from the Textile Conservation Department, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Chris Stavroudis has moved up the street and added a studio to his private paintings conservation practice. His new address is: 1272 N. Flores St., Los Angeles, CA 90069.

For three weeks this summer, Kathleen Orlenko, a rare book conservator from the Huntington Library, worked in Appleton, WI, at the Institute for Paper Chemistry. She received a grant to work with Susan Bargar on a study of paper sizings. Michael Duffy has completed his 11-month internship in paintings conservation at LACMA. This fulfills his requirements for his graduate degree from the Winterthur Museum/University of Delaware Art Conservation Program. Michael will remain at LACMA's Conservation Center for another year as a Getty Fellow in Paintings Conservation.

Nina Cole, textile conservator from the Textile Conservation Studios at Hampton Court Palace, England, is in the United States on a six-month sabbatical. Textile Conservation Studios work primarily on The Royal Collection, specializing in tapestry and State furnishings. She is volunteering one day each week at LACMA helping textile conservation intern Suzanne Petersen examine the tapestry collection and improve storage methods. Tatyana M. Thompson and Associates, Inc., is pleased to announce that Debra May has joined the studio as a conservation assistant as of 25 June 1988.

The South Coast Fine Arts Conservation Center of Santa Barbara has moved. Their new address and telephone is: 818 Jennings Ave., Santa Barbara, CA 93103, (805) 965-2273. Carol Kenyon of the South Coast Fine Arts Conservation Center is currently working on the "Reredos" in the Church at the San Gabriel Mission. As we all know, the Reredos is the wall behind the Church's altar. Originally constructed in Mexico City in 1810, the Reredos consists of polychrome and gilded wood panels. There are six life-size Santos being treated as well. Aside from cleaning and restoring damaged areas, the project includes taking the remodeled central section of the Reredos back to its original design and constructing a new pediment.

Caroline Black Blydenburgh has accepted the position of Director of the Washington University Technology Associates (WUTA). She is enjoying working with Phoebe Dent Weil and life in St. Louis. The Conservation Center at LACMA welcomes Neil Rhodes to its staff as Conservation Technician. Neil will be assisting conservators in all of the museum's specialities.

Tatyana M. Thompson and Associates, Inc., and Rosamond Westmoreland have completed the cleaning, consolidation and selective varnishing of the murals and ceiling stencils at the Los Angeles Central Library. Inpaint will begin in January 1989. In the interim, excavation and partial demolition will be completed in preparation for the new wing.

Robert Keefe, Senior Frame Specialist in the Paintings Conservation Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum, has recently started a ten month advanced training engagement at Wiggins, a private gilding and frame making studio in London. Carl Grimm is presently a Guest Conservator, under the guest scholar program, in the Paintings Conservation Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Carl will be in residence from July 1988 through June 1989.

The Paintings Conservation Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum has successfully completed the relining of their recently acquired "Christ Entering Brussels" by James Ensor. The old wax lining was replaced with a BEVA nap-bond lining. In this process, BEVA is applied to the new lining canvas, then adhered to the original canvas through heat activation. From the Antiquities Conservation Department of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Associate Conservator Maya Elston (Barov) will be participating in a mosaic-lifting project at Paphos, Cyprus for one week in September.

This summer Claire Dean, Assistant Conservator of Antiquities, J. Paul Getty Museum, returned to Polis, Cyprus as conservator of the Princeton-Cyprus Archaeological Expedition's 1988 field season. During the summer she and her assistant, Gordon Walker, a graduate student of Archaeological Conservation at the University of Durham, England, treated a variety of archaeological materials and objects ranging in date from Cypriot Archaic to Byzantine. Besides caring for the freshly excavated material, a number of other long-term projects were instigated. These included the computerization of the conservation records (in line with the documentation methods used by the rest of the Expedition); the recording of various field conservation techniques on video tape, to be subsequently used as teaching aids; and the start of the reconstruction of a number of over life-sized human terra cotta figures excavated in 1985.

Glenn Wharton participated in the "Stone: Deterioration and Conservation" course at the Winterthur Museum, June 20-24. The course was a condensed version of the summer class offered at the Institute of Archaeology in London. The instructors were Richard Newman (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Giorgio Toracca (Conservation Scientist, Rome), George Wheeler (Metropolitan Museum, New York), and Seamus Hanna (British Museum). William S. Ginell, Head of Material Sciences at the Getty Conservation Institute, will be presenting a paper coauthored by M.S. Agbabian, S.F. Masri, and R.L. Nigbor, from USC, entitled "Seismic Hazard Mitigation Methods for use in Art Museums", at the First International Seminar on "Modern Principles in Conservation and Restoration of Urban and Rural Cultural Heritage in Seismic-Prone Regions", Skopje, Yugoslavia, 17-22 October 1988.

Mountmaker James Stahl of the Antiquities Conservation Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum returned recently from a two month study period at the Antike Museum in Basel, Switzerland, where he learned mold-making and casting methods.

The staff of the Antiquities Conservation Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum will be traveling to San Francisco to participate in the Cycladic Investigation Project at the end of September. Currently the Department is engaged in several studies including investigations into methods of making accurate physical comparisons of objects, uses of composite materials in conservation, and research into water-soluble adhesives for use in mosaic lifting-projects.

Recent staff changes in the Scientific Program at the Getty Conservation Institute: George Rogers has returned to Canada after two years as a GCI Fellow in Conservation Process Research. Mary Striegel has joined the staff as Materials Scientist. On September 1, Dusan Stulik began his duties as Head of Analytical Chemistry. Dr. Stulik comes to the GCI from Washington State University. This brings the Scientific Program up to 24 staff scientists, research fellows, consultants, students, and support staff.

On May 28, Cecily Grzywacz and James Druzik were married. Both Cecily and Jim work in the Scientific Program at the GCI. Jim is responsible for extramural research and Cecily, for outdoor air pollution measurement. They honeymooned by touring the Western United States, ending with a bicycle excursion through Victoria, Canada.

WAAC Regional Reporters

WAAC welcomes Marc Harnly as the Regional Reporter for the San Diego area. Marc replaces Gary Wade Alden who has compiled and submitted the goings-on in San Diego since January 1986. The Newsletter and editorial staff wish to thank Gary for his years of submissions which have been professional, thorough, and well organized.

Regional News is gathered by the WAAC Regional Reporters listed below. Individual WAAC members are encouraged to contribute regional news items. Please contact a regional reporter, the Column Editor/WAAC vice-president, who coordinates this section of the newsletter, or the Editor.

The WAAC Regional Reporters are: (listed arbitrarily)

Oregon & Washington
Jack Thompson, Thompson Conservation Lab, 1417 N.W. Everett, Portland, OR 97209, (503) 248-0046.

San Diego
Marc Harnly, BAAC, P.O. Box 3755, San Diego, CA 92103, (619) 236- 9702.

Rocky Mountains
Connie Mohrman, WCCFA, 1225 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204, (303) 573-1973.

and

David A. Shute, RMRCC, University of Denver, 2420 South University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208, (303) 733-2712.

Arizona
Gloria Fraser Giffords, 2859 N. Soldier Trail, Tucson, AZ 85749, (602) 749-4070.

San Francisco Bay Anita Gail Noennig, Daedalus, 6020 Adeline St., Oakland, CA 94608, (415) 658-4566.

and

Judith Ann Reiniets, 2936-B Lyon St., San Francisco, CA 94123, (415) 931-5346.

Greater Los Angeles/Santa Barbara
Catherine McLean, Conservation Center, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036, (213) 857-6169.

and

Glenn Wharton, Private Conservator, 549 Hot Springs Rd., Santa Barbara, CA 93108, (805) 969-4067 or (213) 397-4077.

Hawai'i
Leslie Hill Paisley, PRCC, Bishop Museum, P.O. Box 19000-A, Honolulu, HI, 96817, (808) 848-4114.