Volume 17, Number 3 .... September 1995

Regional News

ARIZONA

Nancy Odegaard, Arizona State Museum, was the site conservator for the University of Arizona's Chianciano Terme field season project (Etruscan and Early Roman period) in Tuscany, Italy. She has received a National Science Foundation Grant to support storage improvement, conservation treatment and documentation upgrade for the extensive archaeological perishables collection at the ASM. Matthew Crawford, ASM 3rd year intern from the Winterthur Program/U.DE., provided conservation support for the Homol'ovi Pueblo Archaeology Project summer field season in Northern Arizona. Hopi artist, Gerald Dawavendewa completed 8 weeks of conservation internship at the ASM and was selected for a summer internship at the Smithsonian Institution. Recent ASM Intern, Aniko Bezur was awarded a summer internship at the Smithsonian-CAL and a 1995-96 fellowship at the GCI.

Gloria Giffords, Fraser-Giffords Conservation, completed a research/study tour in England.

Jim Roberts, NPS-WACC, is recovering from unplanned gall bladder surgery.

OKLAHOMA

Gayle S. Clements, Conservator of Gilcrease Museum, and Robert Barbour, a conservation department volunteer, visited the Oklahoma City bomb site to assess the condition of artworks rescued from the Murrah Federal Building. Approximately 25 artworks were examined. The majority of these consisted of woven fiber textiles executed in the 1970's. Some sculptures and framed artworks on paper were also saved. Overall condition of the objects was excellent because the artworks were exhibited in the elevator lobby which was protected from collapsed floors above because of the elevator shaft.

Tim Kuehnert, a summer intern from Oklahoma State University, is working in conjunction with Gilcrease Museum staff to begin information gathering for a comprehensive written disaster plan for the museum. Presently, the museum has a plan for evacuating personnel, but the updated plan will address the museum's art collections. Toby Murray, Preservation Officer at the University of Tulsa, will also be working with the Gilcrease Museum Conservation Department providing expertise on recovery of library and archival collections.

The Gilcrease Museum Conservation Department will begin in-house workshops in August to demonstrate the use of the three Emergency Carts stationed on levels where art is stored, handled, and exhibited. Participants will include staff, volunteers, and security personnel. The Emergency Carts are equipped to treat water damaged collections. The workshop may be offered statewide to area museums in 1996.

September 20-22, 1995 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Museum Association's Annual Fall Conference Are You Covered? Security Blankets for Oklahoma Museums. Contact Cherie Cook at (405)424-7757 for registration information.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Nancy Thorn of Gold Leaf Restoration in Portland, received a Technical Assistance Grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council in Portland to help defray the costs of attending the AIC Gilded Metal Symposium, June 4-6. The grant also made it possible for her assistant Susan Walker to attend the symposium as well.

Gail Joice, Deputy Director and Conservation Administrator for the Seattle Art Museum, returned from Tokyo in early June with 3 Japanese scroll paintings and a set of fusuma screen panels that had been treated and remounted at the Tokyo National Institute of Cultural Properties. All of the works on paper are considered world cultural properties by the Japanese Government who jointly sponsored the conservation program with the Japan Foundation. The screen panels, originally from the 17th C Zen Temple of Ryoanji, were returned to their original sliding door format. These panels were stabilized by paper conservator Alice Bear before traveling to Japan. The treated works will be exhibited as a group at the Seattle Asian Art Museum beginning with the museum's anniversary celebration on September 17, 1995.

Conservation of the Astoria Column, a 125 feet tall sgraffito monument depicting Oregon history from the Coming of the White Man to the Coming of the Railroad has begun and will continue through October. The project management team includes, Dr. Frank Preusser, Technical Director, Jonathon Taggart, On-site Manager and Treatment Supervisor, Claire Dean, Documentation Supervisor, and Tom Melvin, a Chicago Muralist. Interns working on the project include, Marie Laibinis (Class of '96, U. DE), Scott Nolley (Class of '96, SUC-Buffalo), Susan Peschken (Class of '96, Queens U.) and Jodie Utter (Class of '98, U. DE). Local technicians include Aretta Christie, John Goodenberger, and Rebecca Rubens. 20 levels of scaffolding shrouded in specially designed high wind resistant plastic sheeting now enclose the monument, where consolidation of the column is complete. Removal of latex overpaint from 1968 proceeds as well as inpainting of the 50' x 100' decorative cycle.

Thanks to Alice Bear for filling in as WAAC Regional Reporter, while Jodie Utter prepares to enter Winterthur/U. DE this fall. (Congratulations Jodie!) We bid Jodie a fond farewell and wish her the best in her graduate studies, and shower her with appreciation for a job well done as a regional reporter. Of course, this means we are seeking a new WAAC Newsletter Regional Reporter for the Pacific Northwest Region. Any interested candidates should contact the WAAC News Editor!

ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION

RMCC is pleased to welcome Objects Conservator Abigail Mack to its staff. She recently worked at the Denver Museum of Natural History, the Denver Art Museum and the Museums of New Mexico.

Lori Mellon of the RMCC joined the Board of the Colorado Preservation Alliance. One of CPA's goals is to "create forums in which to deliver the preservation message."

RMCC Paper Conservator Eileen Clancy is conducting a three-month IMS-funded survey of the Denver Art Museum's collection of American and European art on paper. She is assisted by Wendy Fairchild of Archival Preservation and several Denver Art Museum volunteers. Eileen spoke at the Rocky Mountain Archivists Annual meeting in Colorado Springs.

RMCC Textile Conservator Teresa Knutson is working on various items of clothing from the U.S. Olympic Committee that suffered damage as a result of recent unusually wet weather in the Colorado Springs area.

Charlotte Seifen, who recently worked in the Registration Dept. of MOCA in Chicago, was chosen as a pre-program aide at the RMCC in June.

Bradford Epley, second-year conservation student from SUC-Buffalo, completed a summer internship at the Denver Art Museum where his primary project was the cleaning and conservation of a life-size 18th C. polychromed statue of Saint Ferdinand, King of Spain.

Denver Art Museum Objects Conservator Carl Patterson visited several conservation studios in Tokyo and Kyoto through a cooperative program with the Japan Foundation and the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties. Carl served as consultant for the Ashton Villa Museum, Galveston, Texas, and he continues to be active with the Mayor's task force for public art belonging to the City and County of Denver.

Carmen F. Bria, Chief Conservator, Camilla J. Van Vooren, Paintings Conservator, and the staff of the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts (WCCFA) completed the first full-scale professional conservation treatment of The Portrait of the Jubilee Singers, 1873, by Edmund Havell, a portrait painted for the court of Queen Victoria. This life size, 10' x 14' painting represents a significant aspect of African American History and is on prominent display at Jubilee Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee. In March, Carmen traveled to Jefferson City, Missouri, where he performed an examination to set conservation specifications for possible treatment of The Glory of Missouri in War, 1922, by Charles Hoffbauer, a 20' x 50' mural in the State Capitol. Carmen attended the Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums (CWAM) annual meeting in La Junta, Colorado and also consulted with the staff of the Koshare Indian Museum regarding collections care.

In response to the need for public outreach, Elaine Sirokman represented WCCFA as an exhibitor at the Texas Associations of Museums (TAM) annual meeting held in Amarillo, Texas, in April.

NEW MEXICO

Keith Bakker will be leaving New Mexico in September to accept a position as Furniture Conservator at The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. At SPNEA, he will continue to conduct microscopic analysis of surface coatings found on New Mexican furniture and religious artifacts, as well as treatment of New Mexican wooden artifacts.

Ellen Rosenthal completes her Getty Fellowship in Anthropological Conservation at the Museum of New Mexico this fall, and then begins a post-graduate internship in archaeological conservation at CAL, Smithsonian.

Renee Jones, SUC-Buffalo third year intern at the Peabody Museum, begins a Getty Fellowship in the Conservation of Cultural Materials at the Museum of New Mexico this fall.

Bettina Raphael completed a Collection Care and Management Assessment for the Arizona Historical Society Division Museums in July. She continues her survey of outdoor sculpture of New Mexico for the New Mexican Arts Division, SOS Program.

Patricia Morris surveyed a collection of works of art on paper and gave a workshop in handling, matting and framing as part of an IMS grant at the Red Rock Museum in Gallup, NM.

TEXAS

Richard Trela, Panhandle-Plains Museum, Canyon, completed several painting treatments including two by founders of the Taos School. He hosted a preconference workshop for the Texas Association of Museums on Disaster Preparedness II and gave a tour to conference attendees.

Csilla Felker-Dennis, conservator in private practice in Dallas, will carry out a CAP survey for the Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum in Denton.

Kathy Hall and Jessica Johnson, Materials Conservation Lab, Texas Memorial Museum, Univ. of Texas-Austin, spent the summer at archaeological conservation projects in Crete and Turkey. Marilyn Lenz, Senior Conservator, "held down the fort" while they were gone. The Materials Conservation Laboratory and International Academic Projects, London, will sponsor a course in Austin called Making High Quality Replicas of Museum Objects on November 6-10, 1995. Dr. E. Benner Larsen from Denmark will teach the course.

Nancy Stanfill, second year student in the Preservation and Conservation Studies Program at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, UT-Austin, presented a paper entitled From Useless to Useful: Choosing a Treatment for a 17th century Spanish Manuscript Based on its Context within the Collection at the 21st Annual Student Conference held at the Winterthur Museum/U. DE. on April 21, 1995. The Preservation and Conservation Studies Program is also pleased to announce the members of its Fall 1995 Conservation Class: Whitney Baker, Iowa City, IA, Alexandra Botelho, Montreal, Quebec, Heather Caldwell, Austin, TX, Elizabeth Dube, Austin, TX, Holly Jo Moore, Minneapolis, MN, Claire Mason, Athens, GA, and Laura Wilson, Fisher, TX.

Thanks to Marilyn Lenz for filling in as WAAC Regional Reporter, while Jessie Johnson was away.

GREATER LOS ANGELES AND SANTA BARBARA

Mo Shannon, former Chief Registrar at The Museum of Contemporary Art, has recently started Mo Shannon Arts Management, an independent service for private collectors, artists, and museums. She is able to provide complete documentation of all works of art; condition reports; loan requests; coordination of art handling, packing, and installation; recommendations and arrangements for photography, appraisals, framing, and conservation.

Stefanie Cooper, second year conservation student from SUC-Buffalo, spent her summer internship at Wharton and Griswold Associates in Santa Barbara. Julie Unruh will join WGA as Assistant Conservator in October and Marie Laibinis of Wintethur/U.DE. will begin her third year internship with WGA in September. Jennifer Zemanek, an intern with WGA for nine months, was accepted to the Archaeological Conservation Program at the Univ. of Durham in England.

Steven Starling, Assistant Conservator for Frames at the Art Institute of Chicago, will be guest conservator for two months at the Getty Museum working with Gene Karraker, Getty Frame Specialist. Andrea Rothe will take a three month Renewal Leave in Florence, Italy, from the Getty Paintings Conservation Dept. beginning in September.

Jeff Maish, Assistant Conservator in Antiquities Conservation at the Getty, attended a bronze casting workshop and visited the conservation facilities at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece, to study the construction of ancient gold diadems. In August, Despina Ignatiadou visited the Antiquities Conservation Dept. to discuss conservation at Thessaloniki. During August, Henry Lie also visited to work on computer imaging. Bob Sieger attended the IIC-CG conference in Calgary where he discussed the efforts of the Getty Museum to protect its collection from seismic threats. Jerry Podany and Edouardo Sanchez will work on-site in Laetoli, Tanzania, as conservators for the GCI's project for preservation of the Laetoli hominid footprints.

Last June, Buffalo student Nica Gutman joined the paintings staff at LACMA for an eight-week summer internship. Nica worked on projects including the cleaning and restoration of a portrait by John Hoppner. Elma O'Donoghue is continuing her second year at LACMA in paintings conservation as an advanced intern. Her projects have included treatments on a pair of 18th C. overdoors painted by Francois Boucher which had been extended into rectangular formats in previous restorations. The treatment involved cleaning, the removal of the old canvas additions and returning the paintings to their original curved shapes. Klaus Lindenberger completed a one-year grant position in paintings conservation at LACMA with funds provided by the Carl Duisberg Society and returned to Stuttgart last August. Virginia Rasmussen presented a talk at the June AIC conference in St.Paul on the recent purchase of a Willard low-pressure table at LACMA.

Robert Aitchison will be presenting Materials and Techniques for the Inpainting of Damaged Photographic Materials as a participant in Jose Orraca's workshop entitled Ethics and Practice of Cosmetic Treatments in the Conservation of Photographs to take place Sept. 29th and 30th, 1995 in Kent, CT.

Jo Hill at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History recently attended a San Francisco artist materials meeting (Subcommittee D01.57, Artists Paints and Related Materials, American Society for Testing and Materials). Her attendance at the ASTM meeting is a follow-up to Jo's recent AIC News article on the organization, and will be summarized in an upcoming article in the same publication. Her article will summarize the ASTM community's invitation to the conservation community to more fully participate in their activites. Also in attendance were conservators Ross Merrill, Paula Volent, and Duane Chartier. Jo Hill and Mary Gissing, postgraduate intern at FMCH, are in the final stages of a survey of Navajo and Mexican textiles at the Mt. Calvary Retreat House in Santa Barbara. Jo and Mary are assisting the monks at the monastery in writing a grant proposal to care for these collections. Volunteer Andy Williams and volunteer pre-program intern Natale Majkut, Rachel Norris, and Sanchita Balachandran are involved in such diverse activities as assisting Jo in preparing for a traveling exhibition The Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, repairing banana fiber Okinawan garments, and making storage mounts for Mende masks.

LACMA conservators Steve Colton and Don Menveg are currently in the planning stages for the upcoming installation of the exhibition American Discovery of Ancient Egypt, scheduled to open in November of this year. The show will include many objects which have never been seen in public or traveled from the Hearst Institution. LACMA conservators Steve Colton and Irena Calinescu are grateful to be collaborating with Jerry Podany and Eduardo Sanchez at the J. Paul Getty Museum on the structural treatment of LACMA's Roman Biographical Sarcophagus which will go on exhibition at Yale University in the fall of 1996.

Joanne Page attended a course, The History of European and American Papermaking, at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia last July. Joanne is currently working on the Gladys English Collection, belonging to L.A. Public Library. The collection consists of over 200 original prints and drawings by well-known illustrators of children's books. Last July Joanne also taught a workshop on making paste papers for book artists and calligraphers in Long Beach, and in September, she taught another workshop at the Palos Verdes Community Arts Center on Japanese book bindings, in conjunction with their Washi exhibition.

Denise Domergue was a lecturer in a seminar at the Palm Springs Desert Museum entitled The Informed Collector last April.

Conservart Associates installed two contemporary murals in June, one by Richard Wyatt measuring 11.5' x 30' onto a curved wall in St. Vincent's Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles, and the other by Charles Freeman, aka Boko, in the new Magic Theaters in south central Los Angeles. The Boko mural was commissioned to be flush fit onto an irregular wall in the theater lobby. The painting was executed in two 10' sections; the top piece was marouflaged to the wall at a height of 20' off of a specially designed rotating tube. The lower section was installed to register with the upper piece. Anna Studebaker, a summer intern from Oberlin College, assisted in both installations.

Robert McGiffin, Chief Conservator for the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, reports that the museum has changed its name to the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. The museum is still at the same address, has the same telephone number, etc.

SAN DIEGO

The Symposium on the Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings held at the J. Paul Getty Museum in April, 1995 was attended by two painting conservators in private practice: Betty Engel, of Engel and Hulbert, and Nora Jean Smith.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

Buffalo program intern Susan Schmalz spent a ten week summer internship in the Textile Conservation Laboratory at the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). Her projects included a condition survey of the museum's hat collection, various 3-D mounts for the permanent collection galleries, and the conservation of several fans for the opening of the Legion of Honor in November, under the supervision of objects conservator Leslie Bone. Christine Lachelin, a third year student from the textile conservation graduate program at the University of London at Hampton Court arrived in July for an eight week internship. She comes to the FAMSF after a previous internship with the Royal British Columbia Museum and the Sainsbury Centre. She and Susan undertook some joint treatments, e.g., conservation of a pair of 18th C shoes and tapestries for the Legion opening, as well as teaching pre-program interns fiber ID and some wet-cleaning techniques. Two more pre-program interns have joined the Textile Conservation Lab in the last several months, bringing the total to three: Tamsen Schwartzman, Barbara Occhiogrosso, and Lorraine Luna. Three-year-plus pre-program intern JoAnne Hackett has been accepted to the Winterthur graduate program this Fall.

The Painting Conservation Department at the FAMSF completed several major treatments on paintings included in Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area, which opened at the DeYoung Museum on June 22. Alina Remba, third year intern from the Buffalo Conservation Program, received a Samuel H. Kress fellowship to spend a year at the Instituto de Conservación y Restauración de Bienes Culturales (ICRBC) in Madrid, Spain beginning in January, 1996. James Squires replaced Amy Henderson, who moved on to an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as a pre-program intern. James previously worked with Charles H. Olin Conservation in Washington, D.C. Head Paintings Conservator Carl Grimm, Getty Advanced Intern Carrie Thomas, and pre-program intern Elise Effmann have been working on various projects for the re-opening of the Palace of the Legion of Honor this fall.

Jill Sterrett Beaudin, SFMOMA paper conservator, took part in a career day, sponsored by the California Academy of Sciences, for high school students excelling in science. Two workshops were conducted which included information on conservation training and demonstrations on various paper conservation techniques. Jill and Getty Fellow Narelle Jarry conducted a CAP survey for the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Special consideration was given to the design of a new storage area to accommodate the works on paper collection.

SFMOMA received funding from the NEH for an exhibition devoted to the designs of the Bay Area architect, William Wurster. Leslie Kruth will be completing necessary conservation treatments of drawings as part of this grant.

SFMOMA Conservators Will Shank, Jill Sterrett Beaudin, Paula DeCristofaro, and Lucy Pearce, with Conservation Technician Sarah Grew, spent April in Mexico City preparing works from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection for travel and exhibition at SFMOMA in the Spring of 1996. They were joined for the project, a collaboration with the Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City, by Alina Remba of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Lucy Pearce will be working for another year as Assistant Paintings Conservator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Ria German, Getty Fellow in Paintings Conservation at SFMOMA, returned from a two week trip to Germany where she conducted research on the materials and techniques of several contemporary German artists. Ria also conducted interviews with artists Gerhard Richter and Georg Herold to ascertain the artists' views on the longevity and permanence of their artworks. The ongoing research is being funded by the Getty Foundation.

Neil Cockerline took a six week leave of absence from SFMOMA to travel and work with Carson & Barnes 5-Ring Circus under the Big Top. He toured with the show through Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Kansas.

SFMOMA Chief Conservator Will Shank will spend three months at the Tate Gallery, London, as a Fulbright Scholar this fall. With the Tate's paintings conservators, he will undertake a study of the museum's color field paintings, concentrating on research into the technique and conservation treatments of works by Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.

In 1996, the Asian Art Museum plans to publish a catalog of a third of its Chinese Ceramics collection, which spans 3000 years. Kathy Gillis has been hired by the museum to examine and carry out treatments prior to photography. Kathy is also working part time as an assistant conservator at the Oakland Museum Conservation Center (OMCC).

John Burke co-instructed a course for the International Academic Projects (London) titled: Preventive Conservation of Geological Materials. The course, organized by Sally Shelton, dealt with conservation of Natural History collections and was offered at the San Diego Museum of Natural History. John's co-instructor was Chris Collins, Conservator at the Sedgwich Museum (Cambridge). John and Dale Kronkright have completed a NEA funded survey of outdoor sculpture for the Oakland Museum including works at Laney College and Estuary Park. Dale has also been working at the OMCC on a group of 9 large outdoor granite sculptures by San Francisco sculptor Beniamino Bufano. The sculptures, the first animals that Bufano carved in the mid 1930's, are part of the San Francisco Civic Art Collection managed by Debra Lehane. Assisting with the project are John Burke, Kathy Gillis, Angela Sinicropi and Susana Zubiate. In June, Dale collaborated with Genevieve Baird, Glenn Wharton and Debra Lehane on the conservation of Henry Moore's 1973 work Large Four-Piece Reclining Figure in front of San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall. Debra found emergency funding from both the San Francisco Art Commission and the War Memorial Board to care for this important work. Treatment was carried out in collaboration with the Moore Foundation in the UK. Larry Rief, of Baird/Rief Conservation assisted on the project, and Angela Sinicropi provided technician assistance.

Mark Harpainter is currently at work on objects from the Furniture Collection of the Stanford University Art Museum and the FAMSF. He employed a low-tech mounting system, first published by Clint Fountain in the 1993 Denver Wooden Artifact Group Postprints. This technique, though not usable with staining, does offer the convenience of quick (minutes from sampling to microscope stage) examination of cross-sections. It may be of particular use on-site with a small microscope.

Karen Zukor has been asked to be a member of the steering committee for Preservation West, which had its first venue in San Francisco in April 1995, showcasing services and products in the preservation and restoration fields. In June, Karen also gave a lecture on the conservation and preservation of paper artifacts in the McCune Collection at the Kennedy Library in Vallejo. The McCune Collection consists of rare books and printing equipment, relating to the history of printing and the history of early CA.

Valerie Huaco, and Marty Lewallen are happy to announce the birth of their son, August who was born on June 17, 1995. Valerie formerly worked at the Oakland Museum Conservation Center, and now works at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley.

HAWAI'I

Linda Hee left the Bishop Museum Conservation Services Dept. and is now employed by the Tropic Lightning Museum, a division of the Army Museum of Hawaii. Linda continues to provide textile and tapa conservation services to the public on a private basis.

The NEH awarded funding for a two year project at the Bishop Museum to provide new storage for ethnology collections. Laura Gorman is the project director. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs will support a second Collection Care Internship for a Native Hawaiian at the Bishop Museum.

Pace Art Conservation Enterprises, Inc. moved to a new location. Their new address is 1645 Haku St., Honolulu, HI, 96819-1640, tel. (808)833-1999. Laurence Pace is working on portraits of four past governors of Hawaii for the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and the Honolulu Academy of Art's 1951 painting, Savage Rose, by Richard Pousette-Dart, funded by the NEA.

Paintings Conservator Gregory Thomas worked with Deborah Dunn, Curator of the Mission Houses Museum, to exhibit Portrait of Sophia Bingham while undergoing conservation treatment. This visually displayed the efforts of the museum to preserve its collection and increased public awareness of conservation.

In Memoriam
David James Skipsey
February 7, 1966 - August 22, 1995
Assistant Paintings Conservator
M. H. de Young Memorial Museum