September 1998 Volume 21 Number 1
September 1998 Volume 21 Number 1
Andrea Morse, Objects Conservator, having previously worked at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art for over 12 years, and then started her own business, Objects Conservation Lab, International, has now become a partner with Rosa Lowinger at the Sculpture Conservation Studio. The Studio has just finished conservation of the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood and is presently working on the restoration of the L.A. Times Building in downtown Los Angeles. Rosa Lowinger is scheduled to conduct a general survey of the Palais de Glace collection in Buenos Aires, Argentina under the auspices of a Getty Grant Program. Caroline Saka-guchi got married and occasionally goes by her new name, Kunioka. She continues to work as technician and office manager for the Sculpture Conservation Studio and take classes to satisfy conservation program requirements. She recently worked with Carolyn Tallent on a project for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Conservators Eduardo Sanchez, Aneta Zebala and Marisa Kuizenga recently completed the conservation treatment of a mural painting by Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish at the new Visitors Center of the City of Hope hospital in Duarte, California. Conservator Chris Stavroudis and conservation scientist John Twilley consulted on the project.
Aneta Zebala and Toni Mathias are happy to announce the arrival of their first child Oliver Lucas who was born on August 31, 1998 in Santa Monica, California.
In October, Linda A. Strauss returned to the museum world, accepting the position of Chief Conservator at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage after spending four years in private practice in Hollywood. Her business, Conservation of Fine Art Objects, will continue to operate at the same address under the administration of Tania Collas. Tania brings her additional expertise in archaeological and ethnographic objects to the decorative arts and sculpture practice.
The objects conservation lab at LACMA is delighted to have three new staff members to help with the heavy workload. Mina Gregory is the new Mellon Fellow, Odile Madden is completing her fourth year internship for the NYU program, and Sabrina Carli's contract has recently been extended. We are thrilled to announce that John Hirx has been hired permanently as assistant conservator. The objects lab has recently completed the installation of "Ancestors: Art and the Afterlife", an exhibition that explores ancestor worship and funerary rituals in Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa. This is the inaugural exhibit for "LACMA West", formerly the May Co. building. The exhibition will be open for the entire year and is geared towards children ages 6 - 12 and their families.
Maureen Russell, Odile, John and Sabrina treated numerous artifacts, as well as oversaw case design, mounts, environmental monitoring, and the installation of a Day of the Dead altar created by a second grade class from El Sereno Elementary School here in Los Angeles. Don Menveg, John, Sabrina, Odile, and Mina are currently working on the reinstallation of the South and Southeast Asian permanent collections. Maureen has recently returned from a courier trip to the Epcot Center in Florida where she retrieved a collection of pre-Columbian sculptures. She also traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago to courier the Ancient West Mexico show which showcases 250 ceramic sculptures. The exhibition opened at LACMA in mid-December.
The paper Conservation lab at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is delighted to welcome Margot Healey onto the staff as the new Assistant Paper Conservator. Margot, a recent graduate of the Art Conservation program at Buffalo, comes to LACMA from a one-year internship at the Western Regional Paper Conservation Laboratory of the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco. Regina Ng will be volunteering two days a week in the paper lab with Victoria Blyth-Hill, Chail Norton and Margot Healey working on a variety of projects. Regina has a BFA from Cornell University and interned at The National Gallery of Art on an AIC summer internship in 1997. She is preparing for application to the conservation graduate programs next year.
Only a month after her marriage, Chail (Topping) Norton, couriered her first artwork to, of all places, Tokyo. A great learning experience for a pre-program student and her new husband! In September, Victoria Blyth-Hill, spent two days at the Williamson Gallery at Scripps College in Claremont, California conducting a conservation survey of their collection of more than 700 Japanese woodblock prints. At the end of October, Victoria has been invited to spend a week at the Indianapolis Museum of Art consulting on the conservation of their Tibetan thanka collection with colleague Claire Hoevel. Beginning in November, the paper lab will commence a survey of the Lewin Collection of Mexican Masterpieces, a recent LACMA acquisition, which includes more than 2000 works of art on paper. Chail and Regina will be the mainstay of the project, with Victoria, Margot and Terry Schaeffer's help and supervision in unframing, removing acid housing and improving storage.
John Twilley has resigned his position as Senior Research Scientist in the Conservation Center of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art after 13 years in order to pursue independent work in Conservation Science. After a brief period for relocation, he expects to resume working closely with conservators, curators and architects, undertaking scientific work that is thoroughly integrated with treatment planning and technical investigations of artists' techniques. He continues as Adjunct Professor in UC Riverside's Graduate Program in Historic Resources Management. During the transition period he can be reached most readily via e-mail at: jtwilley@sprynet.com. Last year John's work with Leavengood Architects on the sandstone restoration of the Seattle Asian Art Museum's facade won an award for design excellence from the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Completed some years earlier, the project had initially been passed over by the committee of judges because the building "still looked the same" after the partial rebuilding of the entrance addressed serious stability problems!
Susanne Friend, Duane Chartier and Marina Hajek would like to welcome Erica Dungan to ConservArt Associates, Inc. Erica is their new research and administrative assistant and has a master's degree in art history from Brown University. Duane Chartier spent the week before the WAAC meeting in San Francisco, installing a 12' x 34.5' arch-shaped oil painting on cotton for the artist Willard Dixon. The installation site was the area above the judges' bench in the Supreme Court Chambers of the Earl Warren Building. The painting was marouflaged onto 1" custom aluminum honeycomb panels made by ConservArt and joined with their custom joining system. ConservArt Associates is currently de-installing art works located in an historic mall (1972) in Huntington Beach. The mall was created by architect Edward Carson Beall and his ceramicist wife, Barbara Beall, for Chevron and incorporates shore bird themes. These include 19 tile murals, triumphal entrance ways lined with steel pelicans on top of decorative telephone poles, didactic dioramas filled with bird specimens, fossils and descriptive information as well as many other items. The mall is to be destroyed and most of the art works will be removed and reinstalled in the civic center, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and other public places in Huntington Beach.
Joe Fronek traveled to South America last November to visit conservation facilities and interview candidates for the Lampadia/Getty internship position at LACMA. Joe went to Buenos Aires, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. While visiting the Centro Nacional de Conservacion y Restauracion in Santiago, Joe engaged in discussions about setting up advanced courses for conservation in Chile.
Robert Aitchison and Mark Watters are pleased to announce a new address for Aitchison and Watters, Inc., Conservators of Art on Paper, 2630 Green Oak Place, Los Angeles, CA 90068-2508. Phone: (323) 957-1700 (note new area code). Aitchison and Watters will be working with Maureen McGee treating 24 German Expressionist works on paper from the Grunwald Center collection at the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum and they will be performing a conservation survey with Antoinette Dwan of 2,702 photographs and other works on paper in the L.A. Mus. of Contemporary Art Collection, both are funded by IMLS grants.
Roz Westmoreland has completed the technical reports of 92 Dutch and Flemish paintings in the Norton Simon Museum. This two-year project is part of the forthcoming catalogue of that collection expected in the near future.
Regional Reporter:
Virginia Rasmussen
Conservation Center
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
vlr@art.lacma.org
Victoria Montana Ryan, RMCC Paintings Conservator, treated a mural and decorative painting at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Matthew Crawford, Objects Conservator, represented the RMCC at the recent WAAC Conference in Oregon. In response to severe flooding in the area, Matthew and Victoria recently performed an on-site disaster assessment survey at the City of Greeley Museum.
Lori Mellon, RMCC Director, attended the annual ARCC and Heritage Preservation conferences in Washington, DC in October. RMCC has hosted several tour groups recently, including Museum Studies students from Univ. of Col.-Boulder and Metro College. RMCC was featured in a Denver Post article on 10/18/98. The Conservation Outreach Services program, sponsored by RMCC, has been favorably received by several interested museums. If you would like more information concerning the program, please contact RMCC, 2420 So. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208.
John Kjelland has been treating a private collection called the Montana Territorial Collection.
Eileen Clancy was in Oklahoma City in August, giving a presentation at the Daystar Foundation and Library, and surveying Native American works on paper at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Camilla Van Vooren and Carmen Bria of WCCFA gave a presentation at the Boulder Public Library in September. The event was sponsored by the Leanin' Tree Museum of Western Art. In October, Camilla and Eileen Clancy traveled to sites in New Mexico surveying WPA works for the state.
Regional Reporter:
Diane Danielson
Rocky Mountain Reg. Con. Center
2420 South University Blvd.
Denver, CO 80208
(303) 733-2712
ddaniels@du.edu
Vicki Cassman, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, is teaching cultural anthropology, museum studies and a textiles seminar in the Anthropology Department.
Laura Downey, to complete the Ansel Adams internship at the Center for Creative Photography, curated a small exhibition entitled the Photographer's Mount, and is continuing to work part-time for CCP. Laura can be reached at: 1803 East Tenth St., Tucson, AZ 85719, (520) 903-1404.
Gloria Fraser-Giffords, paintings conservation, attended the IIC Conference in Dublin. She will be speaking in Nov. at Spelman College in Atlanta on "Color and Form in Mexican Art." Tonja King and Amy Linker, interns in the studio, are currently helping with a huge mural project.
Martha Grimm, textile conservation, is completing projects for the Illinois State Museum and the Missouri Historical Society and wrote a catalog for the Chinese Textile exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum.
Nancy Odegaard, Arizona State Museum, spoke about pesticides in museum collections to tribal representatives of the ASM Cultural Advisory Group in August at Honda on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. She taught the Spot-Test Course at the Campbell with Scott Carroll and is currently completing the manuscript for publication. Thomas Braun is the third-year graduate intern from the Winterthur-University of Delaware Program. ASM pre-program interns include Tonja King, Audrey Harrison, Travis Lane, Teresa Moreno, and Fernando Ixtlilxhochitl.
Terri Schindel, Arizona Historical Society-Central, organized a workshop with Heritage Preservation at Ft. Verde State Park to discuss the Care of Collections and Issues of Preservation at Historic Sites.
Gretchen Voeks, National Park Service, is conducting a survey of plastic materials with Sharon Blank, a photographic condition tracking project, and various conservation treatment for park collections including the ledger drawings and 7th Cavalry documents of Little Big Horn.
Regional Reporter:
Nancy Odegaard
Arizona State Museum
Tucson, AZ 85721
(520)621-6314
odegaard@u.arizona.edu
Elisabeth Czerwinski reports from Burnaby, B.C. that she and husband Franck had a fabulous baby girl named Leah Marielle Labarrere on July 18, 1998. She will be back at the Burnaby Village Museum in January of 1999.
J. Claire Dean is recovering from making the local arrangements for this year's meetings at Timberline Lodge and she would like to thank everyone that came for making the event such a success by simply being there. Immediately before the meetings Claire did field work in Utah and New Mexico with John Griswold, and then spent three weeks in China assessing the condition of some archaeological material due to come to the U.S. for exhibition in 2000.
Jack Thompson sends news from Portland about interesting projects including restoration of a 400 year-old Hebrew scroll of the Book of Esther and preparation of an article for Leather Conservation News, about that project entitled "Restoring Sacred Objects". He has recently edited/published the first English language edition of "Leather: Preparation and Tanning by Traditional Methods" by Lotta Rahme, originally published in Sweden in 1991, and translated by David Greenebaum; and "Iron & Steel: Forging - Hardening -Tempering" by Charles Holtzapffel, originally published in 1843.
Corine Landrieu and Patricia Leavengood report that Art Conservation Services is moving from Pioneer Square to a new studio on Eastlake Avenue in Seattle.
Jamie Hascall is happy to announce that Hascall Museum Services has a new mountmaking facility in Seattle after years of working at museum facilities. Most recently he lead a four person mountmaking team on the Vancouver Art Gallery's travelling exhibition of Northwest Coast Masks: "Down From The Shimmering Sky".
Peter Malarky will be moving his painting conservation studio in January 1999 as well as taking over the PNW regional reporting for the newsletter.
Linda Roundhill is moving her objects conservation practice to 18121 157th Ave. N.E., Woodinville, WA 98072, (425) 481-0720.
Conservation Associates of the Pacific Northwest has been conducting a series of workshops in Snohomish County WA since the fall of 1997 in conjunction with the League of Snohomish County Historical Organizations, most recently on textile conservation. They are trying to plan for a workshop on metals preservation but are in need of one or two presenters on this topic willing to come to the area. Inquiries are welcome.
Regional Reporter:
Jamie Hascall
Hascall Museum Services
2335 N. 61 St.
Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 352-0728
jhascall@accessone.com
In September, paintings conservators Betty Engel and Gary Hulbert attended IIC's 17th International Congress in Dublin, Ireland entitled "Painting Techniques: History, Materials, and Studio Practice". Nora Jean Smith, restorer of paintings, also attended the conference.
Also in September, Frances Prichett, paper conservator, attended the four day course "Removal of Pressure-Sensitive Tapes and & Tape Stains" at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation.
Regional Reporter:
Frances Pritchett
5235 35th Street
San Diego, CA 92116
(619) 283-0368
Bishop Museum CRCC: Cultural Resources & Collections Care. The conservators have been revamping their environmental monitoring equipment by changing over to electronic dataloggers. They are continuing to clean and stabilize quilts for the Prince Albert Foundation collection (the new washing sink has been a big help).
Beverly Lambert consulted with a film crew for The Father Damien story, working at the Queen Emma Summer Palace. Research continues on optimal storage conditions for degrading plastic for the Genevra Coombs button collection, as well as stable mounting resin for Entomology slide collections and display materials for upgrading of cases in Hawaiian Hall.
Laura Gorman has completed Oddy testing of display materials as well as the treatment of objects for newly installed galleries of Asian art at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and a bronze plaque commemorating the 1935 Pacific flight of Amelia Earhart for the City of Honolulu.
Gregory Thomas recently completed the treatment of an oil on canvas full length portrait of Princess Kaiulani and paper conservation for a former client from Texas. He is currently treating a 9'x9' oil on canvas painting, Homage to Kilauea, by L. Calcagno for the Hawaii Convention Center (State Foundation for Culture and the Arts). Greg examined a large religious painting for a historic church in Lahaina, Maui for future preservation.
Laurence Pace has recently completed the restoration of a large buon fresco, originally painted in the 1950's, located in the cafeteria of St. Francis Medical Center in Honolulu.
Larry also oversaw the remounting of a large oil on canvas for a traveling exhibition of contemporary Filipino artists, currently on view at the University of Hawaii Art Gallery. Work continues on paintings by such local artists as Hudson, Walden, Hitchcock, Doi, Young, and Twigg-Smith to name a few.
Regional Reporter:
Laurence A. Pace
Painting Conservator
phone: (808) 833-1999
fax: (808) 839-0320
email: lapace@lava.net
In June, Dr. Susan Barger taught an intensive course in "Care of Museum Collections" for the University Fine Arts Museum at the University of New Mexico. The class included both undergraduate and graduate students and museum professionals from all over New Mexico. Participating lecturers were: Betty Fiske (Winterthur), Randy Ash (Denver), Patricia Morris (Sante Fe), Kittu Longstreath Brown (UNM), Kate Guscott (UNM), Dr. Linda Weiner (Santa Fe), and Dr. Nancy Odegaard.
Renee Jolly has been appointed the conservator for the Neutrogena Collection housed at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. Debby Juchem helped with preparations for the opening.
Martha Little has moved into a new studio attached to her house and can be reached at 2300 W. Alameda #C7, Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 473-4003.
Patricia Morris received an NEA grant in conjunction with the School for American Research to conserve Native American Paintings on Paper.
Luis and Rebecca Neri Azgal have opened a private practice in Albuquerque working on paintings, objects, ethnographic materials, wood, and furniture. Their recent projects include working on the New Deal Task Force for the restoration of WPA art work and the restoration of a large Mexican painting of the Last Supper that belongs to Regis College.
Bruce Takami is recovering from a double brain aneurism that occurred in Nov. 1997. Janis Chastain-Takami is continuing their business in basket conservation.
Betina Raphael is working with Randy Ash and Laine Colter on the Mexico Retablo Collection in Las Cruces in preparation for a major traveling exhibition.
In addition to his work at the Museum of New Mexico, David Rasch is currently working privately on contracts from the NPS for items from the collections of the Pecos and Salina National Monuments.
Christine Young of Nashville and curator, Dr. Kathleen Howe supervised summer intern, Perry Chisoe Choe, from NYU conservation program. Kate Guscott of the Museum of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico ran a Conservation matting and framing workshop for the New Mexico Association of Museums' Annual Meeting in Farmington, NM in September.
Regional Reporter:
Dr. Susan Barger
3 Moya Lane
Santa Fe, NM 87505
(505) 466-3709
barger@unm.edu
Heida Shoemaker has volunteered to act as Secretary for WAAC.
The SFMOMA is very happy to announce the appointment of the museum's first objects conservator, Michelle Barger. Michelle graduated from the Univ. of Delaware/Winterthur graduate program and worked at the Philadelphia Mus. of Art before moving to the Bay Area, where she worked privately with Tracy Power. She has had her hands full taking care of the Alexander Calder retrospective, which is attracting record crowds at the museum.
Tammy Flynn Seybold, paintings conservator and sports fan, is currently treating a self-commissioned portrait of baseball legend Ty Cobb. The painting retains marks from thrown knives: evidence of Cobb's opinion of the finished work.
The paintings conservation studio at FAMSF welcomes Charlotte Seifen, a third year intern from the Winterthur program. Also joining as a pre-program volunteer is Monica Griesbach.
John Burke presented a session at the last AAM meeting on microenvironments, with Christine Del Re, Beth Merritt, and Sally Shelton. John fumigated a large number of artifacts from the Lucasfilm collection using a carbon dioxide atmosphere, including the costumes of Chewbacka the Wookie, and Indiana Jones. John also surveyed a major collection of decorative arts recently donated to the Filoli Museum. In early August, John travelled to Aberdeen, Scotland, and presented a four-day workshop on microenvironments at Marischal College at the University of Aberdeen.
Other ongoing projects at the Oakland Museum Conservation lab are the restoration of the ceiling of the Sunol Water Temple, conservation treatment of the Gladding McBean terracotta decorative sheathing by John and Molly Lambert, and an ongoing project to construct a cold storage vault for the museum's large nitrate film collection which includes the works of such luminaries as Dorthea Lange and Roger Sturvesant.
Regional Reporter:
Tammy Flynn Seybold
530 Hampshire St. #300
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 551-1600
seybold@earthlink.net
Jill Whitten and Rob Proctor moved to Houston in July and established a private painting conservation practice. Jill is treating a collection of Frederic Remington paintings for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in preparation for the opening of its new Beck Building in the year 2000. In addition to coping with renovation on their new studio, Rob is putting together the program for the 1999 AIC meeting in St. Louis as Chair of the Paintings Specialty Group.
Csilla Felker-Dennis, objects conservator, Dallas, recently completed two CAP grant projects, one at the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Museum in Austin and the other at the Fulton Mansion in Fulton, TX.
Paper and photographic materials conservator, Stephanie Watkins, has recently joined the staff of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center as head of the paper lab. She was formerly senior conservator and head of conservation services for the Missouri State Archives and Local Records Preservation Program.
Clara von Waldthausen, a third-year student specializing in photograph conservation in the conservation training program at the Instituut Collectie Nederland in Amsterdam, began a one-year internship in October with Barbara Brown in the photograph conservation lab at the HRHRC. Barbara and Clara have been busy with work for exhibitions as well working on priority treatments for the collections.
In September, Martha Simpson Grant, objects conservator in Austin, and Ken Grant, paper conservator at the Harry Ransom Center, presented a lecture and day-long workshop on the museum environment entitled "Tool Time: Environmental Monitoring for Museums" at the Strecker Museum, Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The workshop was organized by the Texas Assn. of Museums to provide information about their environmental monitoring kit program which is available to their member institutions.
Karen Pavelka reports that the Preservation and Conservation Studies (PCS) Program at the University of Texas at Austin is pleased to welcome the following students who began their course of studies in the fall of 1998. Jennifer Baldwin, Rene de Ville, Megan Holloway, Anne Marigza, Heidi Nakashima, Jim Neal, (conservators) and Stephen Cooper, Christian Kelleher, Adrienne King, Brigid Spackman and Anne Tully (preservation administrators). Four students will begin internships in January, Beth Doyle at Harvard, Leslie Long at the Library of Congress, Kristin St. John at the Indiana Hist. Society and Kevin Turner at the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Laura Turner will continue her internship at the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The PCS program also co-sponsored a day long workshop: "Have You Got the Blues? Architectural Records: Their Identification, Management, Storage, and Treatment" presented by Lois Price and Joan Irving and organized by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia. The other co-sponsor of the event was AMIGOS Bibliographic Council, Inc. located in Dallas. In other PCS news, Gary Frost, using the recently acquired scanning station, has designed a new course that integrates conservation and digital technology. In November, Karen Motylewski will participate in a panel discussion, organized by TAM, investigating conservation infrastructure in the state of Texas.
Sara McElroy, paintings conservator at the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, and Cheryl Carrabba Carrabba Conservation, Inc., Austin, Texas, both presented talks to the Forum lecture series organized by the PCS, Sara spoke on "The Changing Role of the Conservator" and Cheryl's topic was"The Reality of Private Practice".
Regional Reporter:
Ken Grant
Conservation Department
Harry Ransom Humanities Res. Center
University of Texas at Austin
P.O. Box 7219
Austin, TX 78713-7219
(512) 471-9117
fax (512) 471-9686
kgrant@mail.utexas.edu
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