Volume 11, Number 1, Jan. 1989, pp.12-16

Regional News

San Francisco Bay Area

Joan Wright and Tracy Power are working part-time on a temporary basis in the conservation lab at the Asian Art Museum.

John Burke is directing and Therese O'Gorman is coordinating a comprehensive collections survey at the Oakland Museum. Other conservators involved in this IMS funded project are Leslie Bone, Elisabeth Cornu, Debra Evans, Bob Futernick, Tracy Power, Marcia Steele, and Joan Wright. John Burke reports that the Oakland Museum Conservation Center is now fully operational. The Center is staffed by John, Therese O'Gorman, Holly Anderson, and Abby Hykin with the assistance of eight part-time volunteers.

Karen Zukor gave two lectures recently - to the biannual meeting of the California Map Society on "Conservation and Proper Storage of Maps" and at the California Print Fair, "Hands On, Hands Off - When to Care for Works on Paper." She also hosted the Contemporary Collectors Group from the Oakland Museum in a studio visit. Karen and Anita Noennig are sharing a new paper conservation assistant, Julia Thompson, recently arrived in the Bay Area from Portland.

Elisabeth Cornu went to Lima, Peru in November to assist with plans for a national conservation center, working for UNESCO/United Nations Development Program.

As part of an IMS grant under the direction of Leslie Bone, Tracy Power is surveying the ethnographic collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Juli Cunningham is the Museums' new frame apprentice, funded by NEA, working under the supervision of Elisabeth Cornu. Current pre-program interns in the objects lab are Kathy Gillis, Tricia O'Regan, and Julia Trosper.

Bob Futernick recently spent three weeks in Australia conducting paper conservation workshops in Melbourne, Adelaide, and Canberra, at the invitation of the South Australian Government. Bob will be one of the course leaders in a suction table workshop being held at the Smithsonian in April. This spring he is also scheduled to visit the Buffalo graduate conservation training program to give a seminar to students there.

Julie Goldman announces the opening of a private paper conservation practice in San Francisco. Julie, Pauline Mohr, and others participated in a week-long photograph conservation course held by Debbie Hess Norris at the Getty Conservation Institute in the fall.

Pauline Mohr, co-chair of the paintings speciality group of the AIC, announces that selections for presentations at the Cincinnati meeting have been made and a detailed schedule will soon be completed.

Pauline and Debra Evans recently examined 52 panels of French scenic wallpaper in a private residence in Los Angeles. Last year they examined and researched a set of Zuber "Scenic America" wallpapers in a Pasadena building belonging to the Dept. of the Navy and slated for possible demolition.

The paper lab at the Legion of Honor welcomes its first Getty fellow, Jill Sterrett. Jill comes most recently from the Library of Congress; before that she worked for a private paper conservator in Canberra, Australia. The lab's former intern, Irene Brückle, is now working for three months at the Brooklyn Museum.

The Legion paper lab continues to enjoy the involvement of Keiko Keyes, who is consulting on a regular basis for a large project of treatment of Japanese prints in the Achenbach (FAMSF) collection.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reports that Carrie Ann Calay, an NEA fellow, has been working with conservators there since October.

On January 18th the Bay Area Conservation Guild held an open forum discussion on treatments that are not 100% successful. Members who attended reported that the "mistakes" topic generated much lively discussion.

Robin Tichane has retired from the field of conservation. He graduated with an MA in art history from Columbia University in 1973 and with a certificate in conservation from New York University in 1976. After 13 years of work in San Francisco, first in private practice and then at the Asian Art Museum, he will remain in San Francisco. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, continued at the museum for one year, and now has a full disability leave as of December, 1988.

San Diego

Francis Prichett has joined the staff at the Balboa Art Conservation Center as conservator in the Paper Department. Francis is a graduate of the Gateshead Technical College Conservation of Fine Arts Course in England. She recently completed her year of internship at the Library of Congress. Robert McGiffin, Chief Conservator for the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, reports that he has established a conservation lab in Northern San Diego County. The lab occupies a modern building and is equipped with a central station intrusion and fire alarm system. Primary specialties are three-dimensional artifacts including polychromed sculpture, furniture and leather. The address is: P.O. Box 1903, Fallbrook, CA 92028, (619) 723- 2578.

Marc Harnly, Paper Conservator at BAAC, attended a disaster recovery seminar held at B.M.S. Catastrophe in Fort Worth, Texas. B.M.S. is a private commercial firm specializing in assisting all kinds of institutions in disaster recovery. A chamber designed to dry large amounts of frozen archival materials was demonstrated. The chamber was built by B.M.S. in consultation with Dr. Robert McComb, Library of Congress.

Rocky Mountain Region

The Rocky Mountain Regional Conservation Center (RMRCC) is pleased to announce an addition to the conservation staff of its Textiles Department. Helen Mirada Hughes has been employed as Assistant Textiles Conservator. Ms. Hughes, a native of Scotland, is a recent graduate of the Textile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Palace, Courtauld Institute.

Jeanne Brako, conservator, has formed Art Conservation Services of Colorado, Inc., a new facility for conservation treatments, located in Denver. She may be reached at (303) 295-7166. Jeanne is currently working at the Museums of New Mexico, conserving a collection of Hispanic polychrome sculpture for the opening of their Hispanic Heritage Wing in July 1989.

M. Randall (Randy) Ash, Senior Paintings Conservator at RMRCC, has been awarded a Fullbright Scholarship in Conservation. She will begin a three to four month tour in Bolivia in April, 1989. David Bauer, Associate Paintings Conservator, Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts (WCCFA), traveled to Alaska in October to perform an IMS survey. Mr. Bauer reviewed several hundreds of artworks from the Anchorage 1% for Art Program and the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, following a survey of the museum's ethnographic materials conducted by Alice Hoveman in September. In addition to the survey and in-house workshops and demonstrations, Mr. Bauer presented a public lecture on October 25 concerning art handling and storage, proper environment and conservation treatments.

Carmen Bria, Chief Paintings Conservator, WCCFA, was a panelist at the joint annual meeting of the Mountain-Plains Museums Association and the Midwest Museums Conference held in Kansas City in October. Mr. Bria and Christine Young, paper conservator, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, spoke on "How to Choose a Conservator."

Connie Wanke, Colorado Conservation Center and Carmen Bria, WCCFA, surveyed the works on paper and paintings, respectively, for the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City during October.

Colorado Conservation Center has been awarded another conservation contract from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in 1989.

Constance Mohrman, office manager, WCCFA, was a participant at the New Mexico Art History Conference held October 27 and 28 in Taos, sponsored by the Harwood Foundation.

In January, WCCFA will be treating approximately 13 paintings by Paul Gregg from the Colorado Historical Society collection. A recent gift of The Denver Post, the illustrations were among over 350 works by Gregg which were reproduced in The Post and Empire Magazines for over half a century.

Greater Los Angeles/Santa Barbara

Robin Chamberlin has recently been appointed Ethnographic Artifacts Conservator at The Museum of Cultural History, UCLA. Robin received her degree from the Winterthur Program in 1984. Her previous position was Assistant Conservator at The National

Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. Aneta Zebala has completed the Graduate Internship in Painting Conservation at the Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at Harvard University Art Museums. She joined the studio of Tatyana M. Thompson and Associates, Inc., in Santa Monica, as Painting Conservator in October 1988.

Rosa Lowinger has set up a private practice for the conservation of sculpture and decorative arts. Her new studio address is: The Sculpture Conservation Studio, 2046 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90404, (213) 828-0200. She would be interested in hearing from individuals who would like to apprentice in preparation for admission to conservation training programs.

Ron Tank, Head of Conservation at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA, is retiring after 36 years at the Library. He plans to relocate and within a few months he will be settled into private practice at his new address: 2928 Little Creek Lane, Paso Robles, CA 93446, (805) 239-2873.

Denise Domergue of Conservation of Paintings, Ltd., announces that her studio is moving to 2046 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90404, (213) 453-7717. Her staff includes Joseph Hammer and Paula Volent.

Christine Thomson has recently left Bradywicks to take a nine month contract conserving furniture for the Society of Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA).

Janice Mae Schopfer has bid a fond farewell to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She has completed a NEA internship in paper conservation under the direction of Victoria Blyth Hill. Aloha Hawai'i! Janice has accepted the position of Senior Conservator at the Pacific Regional Conservation Laboratory at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Her work will focus on the conservation of works of art on paper. >Jeff Maish has recently been appointed Assistant Conservator, Antiquities Conservation, the J. Paul Getty Museum.

In September 1988, Jo Hill began a textile conservation internship at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her part-time work at the Museum supplements her ongoing work with objects conservator Glenn Wharton and textile conservator Sharon Shore, both in private practice. Jo is undertaking a major career change, leaving a cardiac research position of nine years duration at the University of California, Los Angeles to allow time for the finishing touches on her preparation for graduate work in conservation.

Carol Young Verheyen is leaving the Huntington Library to work for Dawson's Rare Book Shop in Los Angeles. The objects conservation department at LACMA is pleased to have two new people in its lab. Eileen Sadoff and Marie Svoboda are both part-time volunteers receiving introductory training in museum conservation procedures. Eileen has a B.A. in Arts from the University of Minnesota. After pursuing other career paths and raising a family, she has refocused on her earlier interests and hopes to receive training in art conservation. Marie is currently working in the book shop at the Norton Simon Museum and finishing her B.A. in Art from California State University, Northridge in addition to her volunteering at LACMA. She hopes to enter one of the graduate conservation training programs. On September 1, Suzanne Petersen completed her four month internship at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The internship fulfilled the last requirements for her bachelor of science degree with a special in textile conservation from the University of Alberta at Edmonton, Canada. Suzanne would like to thank Catherine McLean, her internship supervisor, and the rest of the conservation staff for a fantastic summer at LACMA. Suzanne has since returned to Edmonton and has joined the textile laboratory at the University of Alberta.

Over the last two months, Fine Art Conservation Laboratories has been working in collaboration with Monica Jaworski, a conservator from San Diego. The project has included the ceiling decorations, paintings, and frescoes from the Las Tejas Estate in Montecito, California. Monica has been working with Scott Haskins on the large multi-media project which was completed at the end of November, 1988. Ms. Jaworski will continue after the Las Tejas Estate project as a visiting conservator at FACL in order to help on other projects such as the 36 mission paintings by Henry Chapman Ford.

Conservation of the First Interstate Bank Collection is well underway, after suffering damage from the devastating fire on May 4, 1988. The twelve month project, conserving over three hundred works of art, is being coordinated by Glenn Wharton. The works of art on paper are being treated by Victoria Blyth Hill and Mark Watters. The paintings are being treated by Denise Domergue and Rosamond Westmoreland. Sharon Shore is treating the textiles and Glenn Wharton is treating the sculpture. Although a small percent of the collection was irretrievably lost during the fire, most of the works of art suffered either water or smoke damage. Marcelle Andreasson and Virginia Rasmussen from the paintings conservation laboratory at LACMA will be teaching a survey course in conservation at California State University, Fullerton for the Spring Semester 1989.

The Eli Broad Family Foundation opened its new four-story study and research center in Santa Monica on 8 December 1988. The Foundation's collection consists of contemporary works of art and is open by appointment only. Tatyana M. Thompson has been a consultant regarding environmental control concerns.

There have been two recent promotions in the Conservation Center at LACMA. Catherine McLean is now Conservator of Textiles and Sharon Blank is Associate Conservator of Objects.

Hawai'i

The Getty Conservation Institute has chosen Bishop Museum as one of its test sites in their study of indoor air pollutants. Neville Agnew, Cecily Druzik, and Dusan Stulik have visited the museum to initiate and carry out sampling for aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids in both storage and exhibit areas. PRCC welcomes Linda Hee who was awarded The Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in ethnographic conservation. Linda recently graduated from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in the Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works with a specialization in textiles.

The Center was fortunate to have the expertise of several visiting conservators recently. Gary Hulbert, private paintings conservator, worked with Downey Manoukian in carrying out a conservation survey of the western paintings in the collection of the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Bill Adair, conservation gilder from Washington, D.C., worked with PRCC conservators on the Kamehameha tomb at the Royal Mausoleum as well as three exterior gilding projects at Bishop Museum. Susana Zubiate, a pre-program intern, worked with conservators in the objects lab for one month this summer.

The objects conservation lab is continuing with the item by item condition survey of 200,000 objects from the anthropology collection at Bishop Museum, prior to moving the collection to a new storage area next year.

The paper conservation laboratory is in the process of preparing a complete set of early panoramic wallpaper for long term exhibit. The wallpaper, which belongs to the Honolulu Academy of Arts, was produced in 1806 and is a French artist's interpretation of scenes from Captain Cook's third voyage of the Pacific. The wallpaper consisting of 20 panels covers approximately 240 square feet. The treatment involves stabilization of the wallpaper through the addition of a Japanese tissue lining. The wallpaper will then be adhered to individual, dimensionally stable supports. Thomas K. McClintock, paper conservator from the Northeast Document Conservation Center, will work with PRCC conservators in the mounting of the panels to their new supports.

WAAC Regional Reporters

Leslie Paisley is leaving the Pacific Regional Conservation Center and moving to Williamstown, Massachusetts, to become head of paper conservation at the Williamstown Regional Art Conservation Laboratory. Many thanks are due to Leslie for her work as the Regional Reporter for Hawaii for the last four years. WAAC welcomes Jane Bassett, Objects Conservator at the PRCC, as the new regional reporter for Hawaii.

To expand our coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area, and make life easier for the regional reporters, Therese O'Gorman has agreed to be a co-regional reporter.

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, Mark Watters, 6277 Ivarene Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90068, (213) 463-0822, who coordinates this section of the newsletter, or the Editor.

David Shute, co-regional reporter for the Rocky Mountain region, suggests that members submit news items to their regional reporter as soon as news-worthy events take place.

The WAAC Regional Reporters are: (listed arbitrarily)

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

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.

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

Therese O'Gorman, Oakland Museum, History Dept., 1000 Oak St., Oakland, CA 94607, (415) 273-3842.

and

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