Volume 14, Number 2, May 1992, pp.7-12

Regional News

Greater Los Angeles and Santa Barbara

Rosanna Zubiate-Brenner announces the birth of 8 lb.-1 oz. Rachel Alexandra on April 2. All is well with mother and daughter.

Ron Stark director of S/R Laboratories, announces that their new center for the conservation of animation art--cels, backgrounds, model sheets and drawings--opened in Nov. at 31200 Via Colinas in Westlake Village. Described in the press release as a spacious, high-tech conservation and restoration facility, the new lab also includes a framing shop and conference/classroom. They anticipate including the training of new conservators, colormen, conservation technicians, and animation art-care specialists in their activities.

Robert Portillo at the Eric Lachmann Collection of Musical Instruments at UCLA lectured at the 21st annual meeting of the American Musical Instrument Society in April in San Antonio. His lecture was entitled, "The Use of Radiography and Remote Visual Inspection Systems to Document and Examine Construction Techniques in 17th and 18th c String Instruments." In his spare moments, Robert also is writing entries for the Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments.

Donna Williams and Rosa Lowinger have completed a huge (literally) project in Atlanta, Georgia, where they removed a 10 ft. by 60 ft. mosaic from a concrete wall of a bank scheduled to be demolished. The labor-intensive project included facing the mosaic and detaching it with hand tools. Constructed in the 1960s by Athos Menaboni, a regional artist working in a naturalist style, the mosaic will be installed in spring 1993 at the Calloway Gardens in Columbus, Ga., where a center will open in his honor.

Rosa Lowinger has been invited to a conference entitled "Cultural Heritage: Context and Conservation," in Havana, Cuba. Having been born in Cuba and being fluent in Spanish, Rosa hopes to participate in a dialogue between Cuban and American conservators.

Dubravka Kiseljev has begun a volunteer internship in textile conservation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A native of Zagreb, Croatia, Dubravka has a background in nursing, art history, objects conservation, and journalism. She is working toward acceptance into a graduate conservation program.

Cara Varnell has been hired to be Associate Textile Conservator at the Los Angeles County Mus. of Art.

John Twilley, Head of LACMA's Conservation Research Section, was invited to speak at the EEC-funded COMETT II Conference entitled "Methods of Consolidation, Preservation and Protection of Stone" held at the National Technical Univ. in Athens in March. He spoke on the topic "Compatibility Requirements for the Materials and Methods of Sandstone Conservation." Other speakers were drawn from various Common Market member countries and covered topics such as biodegradation, assessment techniques, marble protection in polluted environments, and cleaning case studies. The audience was largely architects and archaeologists working on the national monuments of Greece, the host country.

Steve Cristin-Poucher and family have changed their last name to Colton. This will ease many difficulties encountered with a long hyphenated name (most database programs do not like hyphens) and the new name is actually an old family name from the pre-Revolutionary War era.

Paula Volent taught a seminar on basic conservation at U.C.-Long Beach in February. A small group of members from the MOCA Arts Council visited Paula's conservation studio in Feb. for a tour and a talk on basic conservation concerns for the collector. The tour included a visit from Hiromi of Hiromi Paper International who spoke to the group about contemporary uses of Japanese papers by artists and conservators. Paula and her staff are currently working on an 18-1/2 foot original drawing by Keith Haring, belonging to the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles.

Mark P. Watters's paper, co-written with Nancy Purinton, "A Study of the Materials Used by Medieval Persian Painters," was published in the Fall 1991 Journal of the AIC.

Aitchison and Watters, Inc. and their associate Lisa Forman, were featured in an article on paper conservation in the Los Angeles Times on January 10, 1992. Aitchison and Watters, Inc. and Lisa Forman are working with the Japanese American National Museum preparing objects for the opening of their new downtown Los Angeles museum in April 1992.

Claire Dean is putting the final touches to an excavation and laboratory procedures manual for archaeological research on the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, Colorado. In February, she went to Cyprus for GCI to help plan an upcoming training program project there. February also saw her participate in GCI Training Program's course on Rock Art Site Management. March has so far produced another period of working with Glenn Wharton & Associates and will see her completing a project started last year with the USDA Forest Service, Comanche National Grasslands, Colorado, removing spray-painted graffiti from a rock art site. She will also be visiting a number of other rock art sites in the Southwest to assess their conservation needs, and talking archaeological conservation with a group of 12-year-olds in Needles, California.

Sharon Blank, conservator at the Natural History Museum, reports that the evacuation of the Flower St. Warehouse is complete. The history collections have all been safely moved out. She would like to thank all the conservators and conservation students who were invaluable in stabilizing artifacts and packing them safely for travel: Michelle Barger; Tania Collas; Isabelle Dominqez; Kelly Kamborian; Marie Laibinis; Nancy Ravenel; Linda Strauss; Susana Zubiate.

Tatyana M. Thompson & Associates has commenced a project involving the Samuel Armstrong "History of the Written Word" murals located in the Doheny Library at USC.

Carolyn Tallent, Associate Conservator, attended the seminar entitled "The Suction Table for Textile and Painting Conservation" on behalf of Conservation of Paintings, Ltd. from December 2-6, 1991 at the Smithsonian.

Mary Hough and Marichia Simcik of Tatyana M. Thompson & Assoc., and Joseph Hammer of Conservation of Paintings, Ltd., attended the McCrone Institute course entitled "Microscopy for Art Conservators", Feb. 17-21, 1992, at the Getty Conservation Institute.

Denise Domergue, Mark Watters and Bob Aitchison conducted a one- night seminar on conservation for the Los Angeles County Bar Barristers' Artists and the Law Committee in January, 1992, at Conservation of Paintings, Ltd. in Santa Monica.

Last fall a joint Getty Conservation Institute/Los Angeles County Museum of Art research project was initiated. The long term effects of aqueous light bleaching procedures on discolored papers will be investigated by paper conservation research fellow Terry Schaeffer under the direction of Victoria Blyth-Hill at LACMA. Jim Druzik is co-principal investigator at GCI.

Jerry Podany and Bruce Metro are working on a new design for a shipping crate to protect fragile objects from vibration during shipping. The first phase will end in March and involves shipping a prototype case to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and evaluating its performance with vibration sensors which will be packed inside the crate. The KOUROS will be leaving for Athens in May, for a 2-day colloquium. Presentations from scientists and art historians reflecting the studies of the KOUROS regarding its authenticity will be given.

Susan Lansing Maish was promoted to the position of Assistant Conservator in January 1992.

Jane Carpenter Poliquin

Jane Carpenter Poliquin died February 11th in a swimming accident in Puerto Rico. Her father, James M. Carpenter, was drowned in the same incident.

Many of us in WAAC had the pleasure of knowing Jane and working with her. She was a 1984 graduate of the Winterthur art conservation program, and she had worked at the Fogg, at The University Museum in Philadelphia, at LACMA, at the Brooklyn Museum, and on archaeological projects in Cyprus and Portugal. In 1990, she returned to her home state of Maine to develop a private practice and start a family.

She was married to Bruce Poliquin and had an 18-month-old son, Samuel. Bruce Poliquin can be written at 70 Foreside Road, Cumberland, Maine 04110.

The Brooklyn Museum is collecting contributions to purchase an art work in Jane's memory. The piece will bear the notice: "Purchased with funds given in memory of Jane Carpenter Poliquin by her friends and colleagues." To participate, send a contribution to "The Brooklyn Museum," and mail it to Ken Moser, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York 11238.

The University of Delaware/Winterthur Museum Art Conservation Program has established a fund to purchase library materials in honor of Jane's memory. To add to this fund, send a contribution to "The University of Delaware," and indicate that it is for the Jane Carpenter Poliquin fund. Send to Art Conservation Department, 303 Old College, Newark, Delaware 19716.

For the forthcoming issue of AIC News, Ken Moser of the Brooklyn Museum in New York has written a personal remembrance.

Elizabeth C. Welsh, Editor

Regional Reporters:

Catherine McLean
Conservation Center
LACMA
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
213/857-6169
-and-
John Griswold
Glenn Wharton & Associates
549 Hot Springs Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
805/565-7639

Rocky Mountain Region

David Bauer, Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts (WCCFA), presented a gallery lecture on the conservation of paintings by Bassano and Giordano at the Seattle Art Museum on April 24. David treated the two baroque period paintings in 1990 and 1991; they are now on view in the new museum.

Carmen F. Bria, Jr., WCCFA, presented a lecture on his treatment of a WPA-era mural at the Museum of Western Colorado, Grand Junction. The presentation was held in conjunction with a rededication ceremony and reinstallation of the artwork. During March, Carmen completed an annual survey of collections for Wildlife of the American West Art Museum in Jackson, Wyoming, and an IMS survey for the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, Norman.

Robert McCarroll, WCCFA, performed an IMS survey for the Museum of Western Colorado in March, in conjunction with an evening lecture directed to the needs of archivists.

Carl Patterson, conservator at the Denver Art Museum, presented a lecture at the University of Kansas on caring for archaeological collections on February 13. He performed a CAP survey for Belmar Historical Village in Denver and an IMS survey for San Antonio Association of Museums this year. Carl has focused attention on an in-house survey of the Asian and New World collections prior to reinstallation of those floors. He is assessing conservation and mounting needs, as well as testing display materials.

Beverly Perkins, conservator at Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming, will be presenting a session at the Colorado-Wyoming Museum Association Annual Meeting in May on disaster planning. Having just completed BBHC's plan, Beverly will address the how-to of preparing a plan. Beverly and Ken Moser, conservator at The Brooklyn Museum, will be conducting a hands-on workshop on art handling and general collections care at BBHC following the CWAM meeting on May 18. Other visitors include Glenn Wharton and John Griswold who performed onsite treatment of BBHC's collection of fragile wax models by C.M. Russell in March.

Heidi Rupp has completed her pre-program internship and project at WCCFA. She is now gaining practical experience in instrumentation analysis while working for the FDA and completing coursework toward her BS in chemistry. Heidi is interested in investigating the field of conservation science.

Camilla Van Vooren, WCCFA, has led educational tours for groups visiting Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts. Students enrolled in Hastings College (Nebraska) Artworks and Science Interim and University of Colorado-Denver students in the Methods and Connoisseurship class discussed works in progress in both paintings and paper departments.

Diane Danielson will be joining Constance Mohrman as a Rocky Mountain regional reporter. She will report news from the RMCC.

Paul Messier, conservator of works of art on paper and photographs at RMCC, has spent most of February preparing photographs for the exhibition, "Lens and Landscape," at the Denver Art Museum. The exhibit features 19th century American landscapes and ends June 14.

Judy Greenfield, objects conservator at the RMCC, will be conservator for an archaeological excavation of a Roman Republican site in Calabria, Italy, this June. Judy has also written a bulletin entitled, "Building a Better Case," which details construction techniques and materials for display cases. It will be distributed to RMCC consortium members and will be available to interested institutions.

Regional Reporters:

Constance Mohrman
WCCFA
1225 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, Colorado 80204
303/573-1973
-and-
Diane Danielson
Rocky Mountain Conservation Center (RMCC)
2420 South University Boulevard
Denver, Colorado 80208
303/733-2712

Utah

After helping to plan and design a new 100,000-sq.-ft. Museum of Art on the campus of Brigham Young University, Richard Trela is planning a 2,900-sq.-ft. Laboratory, which will be housed in the museum. The new lab will be equal in size to the present well-equipped facility in which Trela is currently engaged in the treatment of 71 paintings for an opening exhibit in the American Gallery, scheduled for late 1993.

Ellen McCrady of Abbey Publications in Provo wrote in the April issue of the Abbey Newsletter that she and Abbey Publications plan to move to Austin, Texas sometime this year.

San Francisco Bay Area

With the departure of Jim Wright to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the paintings conservation department of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is being headed temporarily by Pauline Mohr, whom we last saw in the paper lab at the Legion of Honor Museum. Remaining in the paintings department are Cindy Lawrence and Jennifer Sherman. Cindy has, since June 1990, been primarily working under an IMS grant to conserve eight early David Park paintings on plywood that were temporarily "lost" by virtue of their having become the undersides of tables for a school. Jenny is employed under the auspices of a Kress grant to treat European paintings from the collection. She has been in the lab since December 1990.

The primary focus now is the closing of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor and the preparation of the European paintings hung there for exhibition in Japan and Australia and several California locations and/or storage. Renovations and earthquake mitigation measures are expected to keep the Legion closed for two to three years.

The staff at the Western Regional Paper Conservation Laboratory are now downtowners, having settled into their new space at Crown Point Press, a fine arts etching press. The conservators are delighted to be working in an environment where art is actually being made. The lab is pleased to welcome advanced intern Sarah Melching, a 1991 graduate of the Queens program, and Marla Eugenia Sicilia, a private paper conservator from Spain who is volunteering in the lab.

Janice Schopfer spent the month of January working in the paper lab at Pacific Regional Conservation Center in Honolulu.

John Burke, Neil Cockerline, and Debra Evans are currently teaching a course in preventive conservation to students in the graduate program in museum studies at JFK University in Orinda. Most course sessions are conducted in Bay Area labs. Guest lecturers this year are Jim Bernstein, Dave Casebolt, Elisabeth Cornu, Mark Harpainter, and Meg Geiss-Mooney.

Caitlin Jeffrey joined the staff of the conservation laboratory at the National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region in San Bruno. We are currently assisting a team from the Archives of American Samoa in a project to preserve and microfilm their records which are held here at the National Archives.

Abby Hykin, Conservation Intern at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, will be giving a public lecture 5 August 1992 on the conservation of Asian jewelry, based upon her work in preparing the objects now in the exhibition, "Beauty, Wealth & Power: Jewels and Ornaments of Asia."

Julie Goldman is presently in Japan undertaking a rehousing project of Japanese Yokohama prints.

Dale Kronkright and Therese O'Gorman are working on a conservation project for the Mexican Museum, involving a dozen Mexican lacquer objects, primarily chests and bowls, some from the renowned Olinala, Guerrero Region. They will be giving a presentation to the Board Members at the museum on the technique of the artisans, the conservation methods used, and proper storage conditions for these objects.

Therese O'Gorman and John Burke are completing a prototype microclimate exhibit case for the Maritime Museum. The microclimate case will be installed at Fort Point (located just under the Golden Gate Bridge) at the end of the month, and data loggers will chart both the RH and temp. of the ambient atmosphere and the case interior for one year.

The conservation staff at The Oakland Museum is currently working on pest control management under the auspices of an IMS grant. We were very fortunate to have Tom Strang, a conservation scientist from CCI (Canadian Conservation Institute), spend a week consulting with museum staff and conducting surveys. Tom gave two pest control workshops: a general presentation for museum staff and an in-depth seminar for conservators. Approximately 25 conservators from Bay Area institutions and in private practice attended the workshop, which was held at the Oakland Museum Conservation Center.

Therese O'Gorman is stepping down after four loyal years as the Bay Area regional reporter. She will be replaced by Theresa Andrews, senior intern in paper and photographics at SFMOMA.

Regional Reporter:

Theresa Andrews
SFMOMA, Conservation Department
401 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/252-4050

San Diego

After 3 successful years as director of the Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC), Janet Ruggles has returned full time to the position of Chief Conservator of the Paper Conservation Dept. The staff and institutional members are all very grateful to Janet for her devotion to the Center during her tenure. BACC has welcomed its new director, Wynn Lee, who comes to San Diego from Nantucket, Mass., where he was the Director of the Nantucket Historical Association; he is former Director of the Mark Twain Memorial in Hartford, Conn.

Michael O'Malley has begun an advanced 4th-year fellowship at BACC in the Paintings Department. Michael is a graduate of the Queen's College conservation program and served his internship at the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.

Andrea Priske has been hired by BACC as Assistant Photographer. She is completing her studio art and art history BA at San Diego State Univ.

Marc Harnly recently completed a year of 1-week-per-month conservation consultancy at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs.

Regional Reporter:

Marc Harnly
BACC
P. 0. Box 3755
San Diego CA 92103
619/236-9702

Hawaii

Dale Kronkright spent 4 weeks in Hawaii, during which time he carried out treatments of 2 outdoor bronze sculptures by Henry Moore and Shaun Browne, assisted by objects conservator Jeff Kimball and Melissa Arnold, conservation technician.

Linda Lee, while still remaining at PRCC, has become Bishop Museum Move Conservator, a two-year position in which she will be responsible for overseeing the safe move and preventive conservation of the anthropology collection. She will also work part-time on treatments in the objects lab. Linda, assisted by Diana Dicus (Mellon Fellow), will be giving 3 1-day workshops on the care of textiles. These are sponsored by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and will take place on the neighbor islands of Maui, Hawaii and Kauai.

Diana Dicus, replicating and expanding upon work carried out by Toshiko Kenjo, is pursuing a research project using four pH indicators to detect the presence of acid or alkaline vapors in confined spaces, such as display cases or storage containers.

Janice Schopfer, on leave from the Palace of the Legion of Honor, in San Francisco, spent the month of January at PRCC, carrying out treatment of a number of prints and etchings by Hawaiian artists as well as Goya, Rembrandt and Picasso. Downey Manoukian recently installed a fritted disc for increased suction in the Paper Lab's suction table.

PRCC conservators will undertake a major environmental survey of the exhibition and storage spaces at the Honolulu Academy of Art.

Laurence A. Pace, Sr., Paintings Conservator, has left PRCC to begin a private practice, in Honolulu. He can be reached at 808/595-7500.

In other "conservation" departments, Downey Manoukian, Linda Hee and Melissa Arnold spent a day as volunteers on the Hawaiian island of Kahoolawe, helping to replant native species. The island is owned by the federal government and has been used by the military as a target range. The Navy is in the process of revegetating affected areas.

Regional Reporter:

Jeffrey Kimball
Pacific Regional Conservation Center
Bishop Museum
P. 0. Box 19000-A
Honolulu, HI 96817
808/848-4112

Pacific Northwest

Peter Corey, Curator at the Alaska State Museum, and conservators Helen Alten and Dale Kronkright, taught a Basket Repair Workshop to 12 participants from around the state. Dale also delivered two public lectures on basket conservation. Helen has had papers accepted by the Alaska Anthropological Assoc. on "Archaeological Conservation" and by the IIC-CG on "A New Method of Gut Repair".

Paul Gardinier will instruct a mountmaking workshop at the Pratt Museum in Homer, Alaska. The workshop is sponsored by the Pratt Museum and the Alaska State Museum.

Objects conservator Linda S. Roundhill has relocated to the Pacific Northwest from Durham, N.C. She has recently completed a Getty Grant Project involving the treatment of selected artifacts from the Precolumbian collection at Duke University Museum of Art. She is now in private practice in Bothell, specializing in archaeological material, ceramics, ethnographic objects and sculpture. Her address is 16906 28th Drive S.E., Bothell, WA 98012, 206/481-0720.

Troy Lucas is finishing conservation treatment of the Burns, Oregon Post Office mural. He is building a honeycomb panel for remounting the mural. Jack and Jane Lucas announce the incorporation of their private practice, which is now Lucas Conservation Laboratory, Inc. Jack is recovering from recent surgery for diverticulitis and should be back in the lab in April.

Mark Smith of the Museum of Flight supervised the move of an A12 (early version of the SR71) Blackbird from Palmdale to Seattle after 25 years of storage. The aircraft was reassembled according to original technical manuals. It is constructed of 95% titanium, and Mark is working on techniques of cleaning and preserving titanium. Mark's new position at the Museum of Flight is Curator of Conservation.

Peter Malarkey has completed work on four murals in the University of Washington's Penthouse Theater. The historic building was divided into 3 portions for a move and re- establishment across campus. Facing and framework held well, and the murals made the move without change. The murals were cleaned, and damages from previous misuse were repaired.

Regional Reporter:

Patricia Leavengood
215 Second Avenue South
Seattle, Washington 98104
206/587-3725

Arizona & New Mexico

Gloria Fraser Giffords, paintings conservator, gave a public lecture on the restoration of the Gallego Retablo in February as part of the Quincentenary Program of the University of Arizona Museum of Art. She has also been appointed to the acquisitions committees of the Tucson Museum of Art and the University of Arizona Museum of Art.

Nancy Odegaard, Arizona State Museum, is teaching a seminar in collections care to the Quechan Indian Tribe of the Fort Yuma Reservation in March. Jo Willey has joined the ASM conservation lab as the Getty Post-Graduate Fellow in Ethnographic Conservation. She holds a university degree in archaeology and received her conservation degree from the University of Canberra, Australia.

Joan Gardner, objects conservator from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, traveled to the Arizona State Museum in Feb. as part of a national tour to investigate conservation concerns related to permanent ethnographic exhibits.

Larraine Jones, Arizona Historical Society, Tucson, and President of the Museum Association of Arizona, will be running the MAA annual meetings in April. The theme of the meeting is "The Business of Culture: New Strategies for Non-Profits".

Sharlane Grant, Arizona State University Libraries, will be in Costa Rica in April and May to continue earthquake recovery efforts at the University of Costa Rica Library in San Jose and the Turrialba Agricultural Library. She will also be leading a session at the FORO Conference on Libraries in Mexico and the US on March 19-21 in Hermosillo, Mexico.

An international team of mural conservators has been working on the stabilization of some interior wall murals at the Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson. Overseeing the project is Paul Schwartzbaum, from the Guggenheim Museum in NYC.

Claire Munzenrider of the Museum of New Mexico recently traveled to Zuni Pueblo to consult with Zuni painter Alex Seowtewa on condition problems in his murals on the interior walls of Zuni's historic church.

Kathy Klein, formerly of the Getty Museum, has moved to Albuquerque and has entered the Latin American Graduate Studies Program at the University of New Mexico.

Bettina Raphael recently completed the artifact section of an IMS funded survey of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, as well as a CAP assessment for the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, California.

Regional Reporters:

Nancy Odegaard
Arizona State Museum,
Univ. of Ariz.
Tucson, AZ 85721
602/621-6314
-and-
Landis Smith
208 A Gonzales Road
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505/989-9379

Texas

Last year, John Dennis accepted the position of Head of Conservation at the Dallas Museum of Art and presently is completing the setup of the museum's conservation labs.

In February, Jay Kruger left his position at Perry Huston and Associates to assume the position of Conservator of Modern Paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Holly Kruger has left her position as paper conservator at the Amon Carter Museum; she plans to continue working in the Washington area.

Ellen Livesay, Conservation Technician at the Panhandle-Plains Museum in Canyon, Texas, is interning in the Paper Conservation Lab at The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center through July.

Hal Erickson, an Environmental Health Inspector at the University of Texas at Austin, will be presenting a paper on enzymes at the Book and Paper Specialty Group session at the A.I.C. meeting in Buffalo.

The Conservation Education Programs of the School of Library Service at Columbia University in New York will be coming to the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas at Austin in July. The new programs will be named the Preservation and Conservation Education Programs for Libraries and Archives. The preservation administrator component will begin in September 1992, and the conservator program will begin in the 1993-94 academic year.

Regional Reporter:

Mark Van Gelder
Huntington Art Gallery
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1205
512/471-7324