Volume 14, Number 3, Sept 1992, pp.6-13

Regional News

Pacific Northwest

Jodie Utter has joined Alice Bear Conservation of Works of Art on Paper as a conservation technician.

Murray Frost of Murray Frost: Cultural Building Consulting, Inc., was a lecturer at the GCI's "Preventive Conservation: Museum Collections and Their Environment" course in May. Major projects of the last 6 months include: Singapore Discovery Centre (Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute [functional brief]); Auckland Institute and Museum (architectural planning for renovations); West Coast Railway Association (planning study); Challenge at Aldershot/UK Armed Forces (planning study); Krishnamurti Foundation of America (planning study); Surrey Museum and Archives (technical brief); Iolani Palace (architectural planning for renovations); Fine Arts Museum of Singapore (functional brief); Halton Heritage Centre (architectural planning for new construction).

Exhibits conservation is a major part of Jonathan Taggart's present projects. These include: "Amenhotep III, Egypt's Golden Sun" at the Cleveland Museum of Art; "This Noble River" at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon; and "Sacred Encounters" at the Cheney Cowles Mus. in Spokane. He completed treatment of "Arrival" by Stan Wanlass and a Makah-style canoe for Port Clatsop National Memorial in Astoria, as well as "Crest of the Wave" by Harriet Frishmuth at the Canton Art Museum in Ohio. He continues work on three flood damaged horse-drawn carriages for the Museums at Stony Brook, New York, and several CAP assessments in the Northwest.

Patricia Leavengood presented a paper at the 7th International Congress on Deterioration and Conservation of Stone in Lisbon, Portugal. The paper, on conservation treatment and seismic stabilization of monumental Chinese sculptures, was co-authored with Jerry Podany. In December, Patricia will participate in the Dahlen Konferenzen in Berlin, Germany, a workshop on "Durability and Change: The Science, Responsibility, and Cost of Sustaining Cultural Heritage."

Jack C. Thompson and Jim Croft, with others, continued work with a medieval-style paper mill they began building in 1991 as an adjunct to their annual workshop on the Technology of the Medieval Book, which is held in Santa, Idaho. See Jack's report below.

Regional Reporter:

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

Greater Los Angeles and Santa Barbara

Barbara Johnson is interning this summer with Sharon Blank at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, working primarily on artifacts for the new Native American Hall. Barbara has just finished her second year in the Winterthur/Univ. of Del. Art Conservation Program.

Bryan Arnold is a new volunteer with Sharon Blank at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Previously studying with conservator Craig Johnson in Ottawa, Bryan is working towards acceptance into a graduate conservation program.

Sharon Blank reports excellent news from the Natural History Museum. They have received a $1 million grant from NEH. As a matching grant (already matched!), it forms a substantial portion of the costs needed to completely rehouse the History Collection, which contains roughly 500,000 artifacts.

Oriabna Sartiani, a paintings conservator from Florence, began working at LACMA in July for six months, supported by the Getty Grant Program and the Kress Foundation. She is assisting the LACMA conservators with a comprehensive examination of the Museum's collection of Italian panel paintings. This begins a two-year project which will culminate in a reinstallation of panel paintings with an accompanying catalogue, including much technical data.

Shelley Svoboda is working in the paintings conserv. lab at LACMA on a 12-month Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship which began in August.

Aitchison and Watters, Inc. will be featured in an article to appear in the fall in MGM Grand Magazine.

Under the supervision of Barbara Roberts, conservators Mark Watters, Linda Strauss, Rosa Lowinger and architect, David Leavengood, participated in April in a long-range conservation planning survey of the Huntington art collections in San Marino. Mark Watters also has been examining the Huntington's collection of William Blake watercolors, drawings and prints in support of a conservation grant proposal.

Mo McGee of UCLA's Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts is working with Aitchison and Watters, Inc. one day a week on special projects.

Lisa Courtney Forman has recently completed work on two manuscript collections at the Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, funded by the National Science Foundation. Also, Lisa, with Mary Holmes and Lynne Blaikie, prepared a collection of architectural drawings to travel to Hamburg, Germany from the Getty Center for the History of Art and Humanities.

Aneta Zebala attended the Gerry Hedley Memorial Forum 1992: "Why Study Technique?--Know Your Painting" in Kingston, Ontario. The forum was co-sponsored by the Hedley Research Fellowship Fund and the Art Conservation Programme, Queens University. Additionally, Aneta is working on a paper for the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, entitled "Painting Materials and Artist's Techniques in the Technically New and Experimental Works of Liubov Popova."

Tammy Flynn, a graduate of the Art Conservation Programme, Queens University, and a former intern at the National Gallery of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, worked this summer at Conservation of Paintings, Ltd., as a visiting conservator. Tammy worked at the studio until August, and now she has returned to SFMOMA to complete a second Kress Fellowship.

John Twilley was invited to present a lecture at the Demokritos National Center for Scientific Research, Athens, on May 28th. His subject, "New Identifications of Ancient Pigments: an Archaic Athenian Kore," dealt with the discovery of a mineral species previously unrecognized as an ancient pigment in the polychrome of a 5th- century marble sculpture of the Acropolis Museum. This example was used to illustrate the more general subject of alteration and selective survival of ancient pigments, the microanalytical means for their transformations during burial. The lecture was attended by a number of foreign archaeologists who were in Athens for the Getty Kouros Colloquium.

Chris Stavroudis is now the Chair of the AIC Paintings Specialty Group after Christine Daulton's term ended at the close of the very successful PSG Session at the Buffalo AIC Meeting. In addition, Chris has revised and augmented the notes on the use of Carbopol resins that had appeared in previous issues of the WAAC Newsletter. The expanded article appears in The CM Times issue number 5, and is available from Conservation Materials, Ltd. (the CM in The CM Times).

Tania Collas will be attending the Art Conservation Program, leading to a master of arts degree, at the State Univ. College at Buffalo. She worked with Sharon Blank, Robin Chamberlin, and Chris Stavroudis as a pre-program volunteer.

Susan Rogers has been appointed Manuscript Conservator at the Huntington Library in San Marino, after completing a three year apprenticeship under James Corwin, Principal Manuscript Conservator.

Painting conservator Tatyana Thompson (coordinator), textile conservator Sharon Shore, paper conservator Mark Watters, and objects conservator Glenn Wharton have begun a joint conservation treatment project for MOCA on three multimedia Robert Rauschenberg combine paintings, "Interview," "Inlet," and "Painting with Grey Wing."

Irene Brückle visited LA from Buffalo during the latter part of August to collaborate on the treatment of an oversized work of art in Paula Volent's paper conservation studio.

Jane Bassett is in England attending the Attingham Summer School course on decorative arts in English Country Houses.

Richard Wolbers was kept extremely busy during his July/August visit to the JPGM conservation labs.

John Griswold is taking a leave of absence from Glenn Wharton and Associates to attend the pattern IB research stream of the Art Conservation Department at Queens University. Sasha Stollman of the New York Museum of Natural History will be working during John's absence, and while Glenn spends a second season at Kaman Kalehoyuk in Central Turkey setting up a regional conservation facility.

Michael van de Laar, guest conservator from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, will be arriving in August for a 4-month stay in the painting conservation studio at the Getty Museum, where he will work on Italian paintings. Ulrich Birkmaler of the Doerner Institute in Munich, Germany, will be spending 12 mo. in the studio as a student intern. He will arrive in Oct. and replace Michael Gallagher.

Jerry Podany will travel in Aug. to the Louvre to assist in the cleaning of the Metopes from Olympia.

Jeff Maish lectured in the Dept. of the Interiors' "Anthropology and Ethnography Coll. Care and Maintenance" course in Tucson, July 8th.

Briana Ackerman is volunteering in the Antiquities Conservation Lab during July and August. She is an anthro. major and a music performance minor at the U. of A. in Tucson.

Claire Dean spent May in Paphos, Cyprus, as principal instructor for the GCI Training Program's course, "On Site Conservation of Archaeological Materials." In June, she conducted a condition survey of a rock art site in Canyon de Chelly, Ariz., for the NPS. Helping her were Nancy Odegaard and her crew of interns from the Arizona State Museum, and Andrew Thorn, a conservator from Australia.

Benjamin B.G. Nistal Moret writes that he intends to open in Santa Barbara a private practice in architectural conservation.

Colleen Cowles Heslip, known by many WAAC members from her work as Conservation Research Coordinator for the Getty-sponsored Conservation Thesaurus Project, died July 28 from cancer. Her husband, Michael, is a conservator at the Williamstown Regional Art Conservation Lab in Williamstown, MA.

Regional Reporters:

Catherine McLean
LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90036
213/857-6169

John Griswold
Glenn Wharton & Associates
549 Hot Springs Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
805/565-7639

San Diego

The regional reporter reports no news for the San Diego area and hopes that there will be much to report in the next issue.

Regional Reporter

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

Rocky Mountain Region

Gina Laurin and Judy Greenfield, object conservators, spoke on panels at the May CWAM meeting. They gave a joint presentation on curatorial handling, and Gina gave a presentation with the Rocky Mountain National Park on CAP grants.

Judy Greenfield has written an article funded by the Bay Foundation called "Building a Better Case." Obtain copies from the RMCC for $2.00/ each to cover postage and copying.

Judy Greenfield spend a month this summer working as the staff conservator on an archaeological dig in Calabria, Italy.

Gina Laurin has performed several CAP surveys in the last few months. They include the Current River Heritage Museum in Doniphan, Missouri, the San Jose Mission, in San Jose, California, Four Mile Historic Park in Denver, Colorado, the Santa Fe Depot in Shawnee, Oklahoma and Fort Casper in Casper, Wyoming.

The RMCC Photography Studio has recently expanded its services to provide artists, museums and collectors with museum quality photographs. These range from slides and catalog photography to infrared and ultraviolet work. Please contact the RMCC for details.

For the second year the RMCC received a grant from the Colorado Council on the Arts (CCA) which will help fund conservation workshops for artists and museums throughout the state.

Randy Ash and Hays Shoop, of the RMCC Paintings Department, worked at the Siouxland Heritage Museums in May. They continued their conservation work on a mural project in the Old Courthouse Museum. These murals were painted by Ole Running, a local artist. Cynthia Kuniej Berry, Hays Shoop and Paul Messier attended the AIC meeting in June. Paul presented his research on albumen photographs to the Photographic Materials group. Paul, RMCC's Paper and Photographic Materials Conservator, also was asked to present his research on albumen photographs to The Centre of Photographic Conservation in Windemere, England. He gave this presentation in May.

Paul Messier has recently given two workshops on the care and handling of artwork. The first was given on May 22nd at the Denver Art Museum, called Handling Works of Art on Paper and Photographic Materials. Another one-day workshop was given in June at the Aultman Museum of Photography in Trinidad, Colorado. It was structured for museum personnel and called Identification and Handling of Photographic Materials.

Paul traveled to New York in June to accept an invitation to participate in the Conservation Education and Training Retreat in Casden Park. This event was sponsored by the AIC and Getty Conservation Institute. Paul then traveled to Wilmington, Mass., where he spent 2 days at the Electroscan Corporation investigating new conservation applications for the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope.

RMCC is proud to announce that two RMCC Paintings Technicians have recently been accepted into conservation training programs. Victoria Montana Ryan will begin studies at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario in September. Hays Shoop has been accepted into the graduate program for the conservation of paintings at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. He will begin the program in September, 1993. Also, Rebecca McDowell, a pre-program aide at the RMCC, was accepted into the archaeological conservation program at the University of Durham, in Durham, England. She will begin work on her Masters there in September.

RMCC also announces that Gina Laurin, Head of Objects Conservation, resigned to join her husband, Graeme Davis, in England. Gina has had several exciting job offers there. We are sad to see her leave, but wish her much success and happiness.

Beverly Perkins, objects conservator at Buffalo Bill Historical Center reports that Claire Dean, archaeological conservator at the Univ. of North Dakota, was a visitor in Cody.

Faith Bad Bear, conservation assistant at BBHC, was selected to attend a course on "Archaeology and Ethnology Collections Care and Maintenance" this July. The Nl. Park Service/Dept. of the Int. held the 2-week class at the Western Archaeological & Conservation Center in Tucson.

Both Beverly and Faith attended BBHC's Summer Institute Course, "Indian Art and Cultures of the Northern Plains" taught by Arthur Amiotte.

Carl Patterson, conservator at the Denver Art Museum, has delivered several in-house and public presentations and conducted two surveys this spring. He continues to be involved in an object-by-object condition assessment, designing mounts, testing display materials and establishing conservation treatment priorities surrounding reinstallation of the Asian and New World floors of the museum. In addition, Carl reports that the Denver Art Museum conservation lab is fully operational.

Rhonda Wozniak, a 3rd-year conservation student at Buffalo State Univ., has jointed the DAM staff for a 6-month internship in objects conservation. In addition to assisting with the reinstallation, she is focusing on the treatment of San Fernando, an important Colonial Baroque sculpture. In Jan., she will trade Denver's winter for Australia's summer, completing her 3rd year at the Australian Maritime Mus. in Fremantle working with Ian McCleod on marine archaeo. objects, her area of specialization.

Rebecca Brown, a pre-conservation intern from Pomona College, Claremont, California, will assist the DAM conservators for the summer.

Angela Brown, a senior art student from Hastings College (Nebraska) is a pre-conservation intern at Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts this summer. She is discussing and observing treatments and procedures at WCCFA, as well as touring related institutions in Denver.

Carmen F. Bria, Jr., WCCFA chief conservator, performed a condition survey and remedial treatments on contemporary paintings from the exhibition "El Hechizo de Oaxaca" at Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey in Mexico.

Carl Grimm, WCCFA founder, visited Denver this summer; he will be continuing work this fall on his dissertation, "Authenticity in Paintings by Albert Pinkham Ryder" through the University of Delaware.

Camilla Van Vooren, paintings conservator at WCCFA, delivered two presentations at the AIC annual meeting held in Buffalo in May. At the CIPP session, Camilla spoke on "Retrofitting an Old Building to Acceptable Health and Safety Standards for Conservation." and at the Studio Tip Session of the Paintings Specialty Group, "Varnish Application Methods at the J. Paul Getty Museum"

Regional Reporters:

Constance Mohrman
WCCFA
1225 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, Colorado 80204
303/573-1973

Diane Danielson
Rocky Mountain Conservation Center (RMCC)
2420 South University Boulevard
Denver, Colorado 80208
303/733-2712

Hawaii

Conservators at Pacific Regional Conservation Center are continuing their involvement with a variety of ongoing commitments. These include treatment of the Ruff Collection of ethnographic artifacts from Papua New Guinea (Jeffrey Kimball), moving the Bishop Museum's anthropology collection into new temperature and humidity controlled storage space (Linda Hee), and carrying out controlled tests designed to retrofit exhibit cases in Bishop Museum's Hawaiian Hall to create a more stable case environment (Diana Dicus). Diana also went on a month-long study trip to several Mainland museums in which she investigated different collection storage strategies, integrated pest management programs and exhibit case environment modification plans. Downey Manoukian is busy in the Paper Lab working on a variety of treatments for PRCC member institutions and private individuals. Downey traveled to San Francisco to attend a one-day update meeting of Bay Area book and paper conservators to exchange information gathered by conservators at meetings attended during the past year.

Regional Reporter:

Jeffrey Kimball
Pacific Regional Conservation Center
Bishop Museum
P.O. Box l9000-A
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
808/848-4112

Texas

Barbara Brown gave a joint presentation with Roy Flukinger, the Curator of the HRHRC Photography Collection, at the Centre for Photographic Conservation Conference in Windemere, England in April. She also chaired the afternoon session for the Photographic Materials Group at the AIC meeting in Buffalo.

Mary Baughman attended the two week Paper & Book Intensive, a summer school program for conservators and artists, held in Birmingham, Alabama in May.

Marilyn Lenz spent one week at the end of May on a special internship in the Arms and Armor Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. The internship focused on conservation treatment, storage, and display techniques for historic firearms.

Hal Erickson has joined the staff of the Cons. Dept. at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. Hal is now a Research Scientist Assistant working on the Center's NEH project to study the effects of dimethyl zinc mass deacidification on archival collections. He also presented a paper and participated on the Conservators and Scientists Panel at the AIC meeting in Buffalo. Jim Stroud participated on the Conservators and Scientists Panel at the AIC meeting as well.

Karen Pavelka returned from Czechoslovakia on July 17 after presenting a paper at the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Science, and traveling to libraries and archives to foster an exchange with Czechoslovakian librarians and conservators.

Jessica Johnson spent the month of July working as the conservator for an archaeological site in Turkey. Csilla Felker-Deninis completed IMS CAP surveys for the Victoria Regional Museum Assoc. in Victoria, Texas, and for the Brazoria County Hist. Museum in Angleton, Texas.

Doreen Alessi, a first year student in the conservation training program at the State University College at Buffalo, is spending an eight week summer internship in the Conservation Lab at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Olivia Primanis spent two months this summer working with Anthony Cains and his staff at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland on an NEA funded internship concentrating on the cons. of vellum manuscripts.

Kathleen Kiefer will be leaving her position as Assistant Paper Conservator at the HRHRC at the end of July to begin the art conservation program at the Univ. of Dela. at Winterthur, pursuing her interests in textile conservation.

The HRHRC is working with the AMIGOS Preservation Service to develop an exhibit workshop for August 28th and 29th. Winston Atkins, an intern, is actively engaged in coordinating this program which is titled, "Exhibit Techniques for Library and Archival Materials."

Irit Lev will begin the Art Conservation Programme at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario this fall.

On November 18th and 19th, the Dallas Museum of Art will host an Art in Transit Workshop to be given jointly by the National Gallery of Art, the Conservation Analytical Laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution,and the Canadian Cons. Institute.

Regional Reporter:

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

Arizona & New Mexico

Elizabeth Welsh reports that, with the encouragement of Walter Henry, she is no longer working without a Net (see p. 19). Projects she is currently exploring as Editor include establishing a relationship with the Copyright Clearance Center and seeking additional ways to make WAAC Newsletter readily accessible to more conservators.

Luis Zagal, conservator at the Institute of American Indian Art, has been working toward the opening of their new museum on June 20. Luis designed a new cons. lab as well as storage facilities for the building. The museum includes a museum studies program in which Luis will be teaching conservation to undergraduates.

Conservator David Rasch joined the Museum of New Mexico's Conservation Section in May. His first task is managing conservation efforts for the Quincentenary exhibits scheduled to open at the Palace of the Governors on Columbus Day.

As of July, Keith Bakker, a student from the Smithsonian Furniture Conservation Training program, has begun a 12 month internship at the Museum of New Mexico's Cons. Section. He is investigating painted surfaces on Hispanic furniture and researching coatings on retablos.

Bettina Raphael spent the month of May as a visiting professional at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Claire Munzenrider traveled to Sweden in June with others from the Museum of New Mexico to review an exhibit loan of Swedish folk art.

An NEA grant authored by Patricia Morris and curatorial staff has been awarded to the Museum of New Mexico's Museum of Indian Arts and Culture to survey their collection of Indian paintings on paper.

An NEA grant has also been awarded to the Museum of New Mexico's Museum of International Folk Art to conserve its East Indian textiles for an upcoming exhibit.

Landis Smith is objects conservator for Spanish colonial objects to be included in the two Quincentenary exhibits at the Museum of New Mexico's Palace of the Governors. Also working on the exhibit is conservation tech. Kathy Klein and furniture cons. intern, Keith Bakker.

The Arizona State Museum Conservation Lab group finished an archaeological tour with fieldwork in June/July. The group visited sites and projects at Zuni and Chaco Canyon. They joined Claire Dean and Andrew Thorn for a rock art conservation assessment in Canyon de Chelly National Monument with the NPS. They then went to Homolovi State Park to consult on various fragile objects and to stabilize the very weak mud plaster on some recently excavated decorated walls in one area of the site. With Nancy Odegaard were Getty Fellow Jo Willey, Buffalo 3rd year intern Scott Carroll, Winterthur intern Sara Reiter and Queens intern Susan Braovac.

The National Park Service recently held a Preventive Conservation Course for museum professionals and particularly Native Americans at the Western Archaeological and Conservation Center (WACC) facility. Lecturers included: Jeff Maish, Lisa Mibach, Bettina Raphael, Wendy Jessup, Toby Raphael, Brigid Sullivan and Sharlane Grant.

Jim Roberts attended the GCI Preventive Conservation Course in May. Gretchen Voeks has accepted the temp. position of asst. cons. at the WACC. She received her conservation training from the Univ. of Canberra and is relocating from St. Louis.

Gloria Fraser-Giffords recently returned from a research trip in Mexico. She is studying the origins of New Mexican architecture styles.

Andrew Owen of Phoenix Restorations, Inc., attended the Museum Assoc. of Ariz. meetings in April and exhibited samples of the studio's work.

Vicki Cassman, formerly of Tempe, Arizona, is relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada this summer. She will do private conservation work while completing her doctoral dissertation in archaeology from Ariz. State Univ.

Dina Brovarone, a private paintings conservator in Santa Fe, passed away on December 29, 1991 following an extended illness. She was born in Turin, Italy and trained at the Restoration Studios at the Pitti Palace. In the U.S., she apprenticed at the studio of Gustav Klimann.

Regional Reporters:

Nancy Odegaard
Arizona State Museum, Univ.. of Ariz.
Tucson, AZ 85721
602/621-6314

Landis Smith
208 A Gonzales Road
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505/989-9379

San Francisco Bay Area

Paula De Cristofaro (SFMOMA) gave a public lecture on paintings conservation at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek in July.

Jill Sterrett and NEA Intern Theresa Andrews hosted a gathering of Bay Area book, paper and photograph conservators at SFMOMA to share new information and treatment ideas gained during the many conservation conferences held during the spring of this year, including the Institute of Paper Conservation conference held in Manchester, England and The Imperfect Image, Photographs, their Past, Present and Future, held in Windemere, England.

SFMOMA broke ground for its new facility on April 8th. High points of the ground-breaking were the artistic performances by Bay Area artists David Ireland and Survival Research Laboratories, directed by Mark Pauline. The opening of SFMOMA's new building in early 1995 will coincide with the Museum's celebration of its sixtieth anniversary.

SURPRISE!! SURPRISE!! Jill Sterrett ran off to Vail, Colorado to marry Russell Beaudin on June 16th.

SFMOMA Getty Intern Lucy Pearce is conducting research on the relationship between mural and easel painting techniques of the Mexican muralists, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. If anyone has relevant information they would be willing to share, please contact Lucy at SFMOMA.

Tammy Flynn is working at Paintings Conservation Ltd., in Los Angeles for the summer but will be returning to SFMOMA in Sept. on a permanent collection painting survey, funded by the Kress Foundation.

City layoffs have left Sarah Gates as the only textile conservator in the Textile Conservation Lab at The de Young Museum. She has been very busy maintaining the permanent collection, keeping up with the exhibition schedule and preparing for the movement of art once exhibited and housed at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Lab volunteers are making custom fitted Tyvek shrouds, complete with Mylar pockets for identifying photographs for all the furniture pieces in the collection. Sarah is assisted by two new preprogram interns, Joanne Hackett and Sarah Le Comte and a group of about 8 other very dedicated volunteers. In addition, the museum has contracted local private textile conservators, Meg Geiss-Mooney, Nancy Sloper Howard and Denise Krieger Migdail on a project basis to help meet the exhibition schedule.

At the Asian Art Museum:

Joan Wright has left the Asian Art Museum and is currently working at the Worcester Art Museum. Julie Goldman began working in July and is responsible for the works of art on paper and textiles. She is currently involved with the installation and travel plans for "Brushstrokes: Styles and Techniques of Chinese Painting" which opens at the Asian Art Museum in October, 1992, and at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in Feb. 1993.

Abby Hykin has completed her third year internship at the museum in August and graduates from the Buffalo program in Sept. She has moved along to an advanced internship at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard.

Julie Goldman spent part of May and June at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art working on sections of the Japanese print collection for the summer and fall rotations at the Japanese Pavilion. Julie also collaborated on problems with contemporary works of art on paper with Paula Volent in her practice in Venice, CA.

Debra Evans is doing a conservation survey of the Achenbach print and drawing collection. Coordinating with a comprehensive registration and curatorial cataloging project, she plans to assess each object in the Achenbach collection that has not been previously reported. Bob Futernick has developed a method to streamline this large survey task by the use of bar codes on the object folders/mats and bar codes representing standard condition phrases. Debra holds her palm-size cordless bar-code wand (no pencil, no paper) and after a few zaps, it's on to the next object. This quick system allows the conservator to focus on observation and determination rather than recording.

Sarah Melching, a conservator at Western Regional Paper Conservation Laboratory, was married in April to Christian Overbey. During her advanced internship, Sarah concentrated on solutions to problems of tape stain removal and flaking gouache paint. She continues to work in the lab, spending a good portion of her time on photograph conservation.

Pauline Mohr is back at WRPCL after 6 months' loan to the Fine Arts Museums' paintings conservation lab where she was acting dept. head. In March, she attended Part II of the Photographic Conservation course held at the Getty Cons. Institute.

Jane Klinger spoke at the annual meeting of the California County Recorders Association on April 27, 1992. Her topic was "The Development and Implementation of an Institutional Preservation Plan." Jane also participated in a panel presentation entitled "Archives Update" at the annual meeting of the AIC in Buffalo. Her section of the panel dealt with the treatment of three mid-19th century land grants signed by Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of California. Part of the process in deciding upon a course of treatment was consideration of the various characteristics of intrinsic value and how they relate to these particular items. On June 11, Jane traveled to the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Los Angeles to oversee installation of documents belonging to the National Archives in the exhibit "Russian America."

Debra Fox recently assisted Vera B. Espinola with a condition survey at Holy Ascension Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church, on the island of Unalaska in the Aleutian Chain. The Aleutian people and their churches suffered grievous hardship, unwarranted damage, and loss due to their forced evacuation during World War II. The purpose of this survey was to determine the extent of damage suffered by the icons, books and liturgical utensils of the church and to provide priorities and conservation estimates so that Congress can release reparation money. The project was directed by Barbara Sweetland Smith, an authority on Russian-American history. Barbara and Vera will continue with the survey of four smaller churches. Vera is an objects conservator who has worked with the Smithsonian. She has a private practice in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Conservators Anne Rosenthal, James Bernstein, and Will Shank (SFMOMA) participated in a two-day Mural Conservation Workshop held in July at the San Francisco Art Institute. The focus of the project was The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City, a true fresco commission by Diego Rivera (completed 1931), located in the Art Institute Gallery. Lucienne Bloch and Stephen Dimitroff, assistants and close associates of Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo, shared their knowledge and experiences with the conservators, other art professionals, and the public. The structure, condition, and former treatment of the mural were studied and documented, as were dialogues between the participants. Molly Lambert, Arts Administrator, coordinated the project and documentation.

Molly Lambert, who has been assisting Tracy Power with the conservation of the Loma Prieta earthquake damaged mosaics in the Stanford Chapel, moves to Philadelphia this fall to enter the Penn Program in Architectural Conservation.

This winter, Conservator Elizabeth Dee Ardrey completed a two year NEA fellowship at the Conservation Laboratory of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Dee has continued to assist the SFMOMA as Contract Conservator for the Clyfford Still Exhibition, which has been traveling to Madrid, Amsterdam and Basel. In Feb., Dee joined James Bernstein, working privately in the conservation of modern and traditional paintings.

In January and May, James Bernstein assisted the Marcia Weisman Trust in the examination and preparation of paintings, works on paper and sculpture loaned to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art for a Tribute Exhibition to noted patron and collector Marcia Simon Weisman (d. 1991).

Jim, with the assistance of fellow tipster Steven Prins, and collegial theatrical ham Neil Cockerline, gathered another enjoyable and informative session of Studio Tips (IV) for the Paintings Specialty Group at the Annual Meeting of the AIC in Buffalo, New York. Jim presented the paper A Review of Varnish Application Fundamentals, as part of the session devoted to Varnishing Paintings: Practical Methods of Application. Jim is currently helping staff conservators John Burke and Therese O'Gorman at the Oakland Museum with the conservation treatment of a selection of contemporary paintings, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Pauline Mohr (WRPCC) is also assisting in the project.

During June, July and August, Buffalo Program conservation student Ria German worked and studied with James Bernstein and Dee Ardrey in San Francisco. Ria was involved in a number of challenging projects, including examination and treatment of works by artists Jess, Robert Motherwell, Anselm Kiefer, John McLaughlin and Vilja Celmins.

The Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, has changed its name to the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology.

The Objects Conservation Laboratory of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (FAMSF) will be welcoming Jo Hill, Winterthur student, who will be doing her third-year internship with Lesley Bone. Lesley is working on the objects for the new Americas Gallery. Chris Augerson, Buffalo State College student, is now finishing his third-year internship with Elizabeth Cornu. He will soon commence a year-long Advanced Internship at FAMSF in the conservation of traditional European polychrome sculpture, supported by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Fnd. Elizabeth Cornu has been very busy with traveling exhibits, which have most recently taken her to the IBM Gallery in NYC, and to the Timken Museum in San Diego. Tracy Power has traveled with FAMSF objects loaned to museums in Japan. The whole lab is involved with the move of objects out of the Calif. Palace Legion of Honor, which will be closed for 2 years during seismic upgrade construction.

Heida Slobin, an art history graduate from UC-Berkeley, has been apprenticing with Karen Zukor in paper conservation. Heida, who had previous experience at the University Art Museum, Berkeley, as preparator and SFMOMA in the conservation dept., is preparing to attend a conservation program. Both she and Karen are working on the original hand drawn engineers' siting map of the Berkeley Hills that burned in the October '91 firestorm. The map, approximately 32 inches by 16.5 feet, was drawn in 1906 and represents the original configuration of streets, property lines, and elevations. Its conservation is essential so that it can be photographed and entered into court records. The map has numerous minute notations added over the last 80 years, in pencil and three colors of ink. "Miles" of pressure-sensitive tape were also present. A portable suction platform from Museums Services arrived just in time to aid in the removal of tape and adhesive stain.

Regional Reporter:

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