May 2000 Volume 22 Number 2
May 2000 Volume 22 Number 2
Elisabeth Cornu of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) lectured in a wood conservation course given for Latin American conservators at the National Center for Conservation, Restoration and Museology in Havana, Cuba, in the latter part of March. The practical portion of the course involved the conservation treatment of a carved and gilded Chinese Ancestral Altar in the Chinatown of Havana.
In the Objects Conservation Laboratory at FAMSF Lesley Bone has been working with Australian Aboriginal Artists in the presentation of the exhibition Spirit Country which has been organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The exhibition is currently at the in San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas, and will soon move to the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC.
Natasa Morovic, gilding conservator at the FAMSF, has been working with both the Paintings and Objects Laboratory in the treatment of several French 18th-century frames, 19th and 20th-century American frames, and gilded medieval sculptures.
Katrina Newbury, a third-year student in the Winterthur program, continues as intern in the FAMSF paper conservation lab, where she has been since September. Katrina is researching glass paper, the unusual substrate of a Jasper Johns print she is treating. With Debra Evans, she recently completed a CAP survey of the Los Altos History House Museum. Janice Schopfer is working on the treatment of a series of large-scale cartoons for outdoor murals by Willy Pogany for a Hearst property. Scott Homolka, a student in the Buffalo conservation program, will be joining the lab in the summer to work with Janice on the project.
Carl Grimm in the FAMSF paintings conservation lab received his Ph.D. in Art Conservation Research from the University of Delaware on January 8, 2000. The title of his dissertation is A Study of Authenticity in Paintings Attributed to Albert Pinkham Ryder.
The San Francisco Airport Museums recently received AAM accreditation. A team of contract conservators, headed by Elisabeth Cornu from the FAMSF, and consisting of Blanche Kim, Bonnie Baskin, Julie Trosper, Denise Krieger-Migdail, and Mikhail Ovchinnikov, are preparing a number of museum exhibitions scheduled for the new International Terminal which will open in the summer of 2000. The airport museum has an active exhibition program of cultural objects from around the world in exhibition sites throughout airport terminals. Lucia Coronel, from Ecuador, is a conservation intern in preventive conservation. Lucia's background is in architecture and building preservation.
Heather Shepherd, a pre-program intern, has been working with Niccolo Caldararo of Conservation Art Service conducting research on the conservation of plastic artifacts, as well as the conservation of a 19th-century American folk painting with a particularly challenging varnish removal problem and the backing removals of animation art. Niccolo has been conserving 17th and 18th-century Italian and English paintings and working with Claire Antonetti on conserving drawings by Motherwell and Morris Graves as well as the restoration of several Russian Icons. Niccolo and associate Anne Kahle have also completed a number of projects together for the Getty family, including the conservation of a 14-century Portolan chart.
Along with his conservation work, Dr. Caldararo is currently directing a new project at SFSU in collaboration with Dr. Joseph Romeo of the Molecular Cell Biology Lab and Michelle Kay, a graduate student in Anthropology, on the amplification of DNA extracted from ancient bone sources using ultra-sensitive PCR techniques. Earlier work concerning analysis of ancient DNA conducted in Dr. Caldararo's laboratory in association with Dr. Steve Gabow of the SFSU Anthropology Department, will be published in Ancient Biomolecules this year.
Regional Reporter:
Paloma Anoveros
Lucasfilm Ltd. Archives
P.O. Box 2009
San Rafael 94912
Tel: 415-662-1650
Fax: 415-662 1553
paloma.anoveros@lucasfilm.com
Nancy Odegaard, conservator at the Arizona State Museum (ASM), coordinated a successful workshop on pesticide contaminated museum objects. (See the feature article on page 18.) Members from the American Indian tribes in Arizona were invited to participate, and several conservators representing museums with Southwest collections and interest in the pesticide concern were invited observers. Nancy and Werner Zimmt have developed several spot tests for pesticide detection. Marilen Pool has been researching the history of pesticide use at the ASM and has developed a database of known pesticides used in museums.
The Southwest ceramic collection at the ASM was recently designated a Save America's Treasures project and big plans for preservation are underway. Nancy, Marilen, and a crew of volunteers and interns worked on a special a new exhibit that featured the conservation problems of the collection.
Intern Travis Lane has been accepted as a summer intern at the National Museum of the American Indian. Former intern Tom Braun presented a paper on the ASM prehistoric sandal project at the North American Textile Conservation Conference. Christian Cevey, a conservation student in the Swiss program, will be interning with Nancy during April and May.
Gretchen Voeks continued to direct conservation projects for several conservation interns. She and Nancy Odegaard organized a week-long conservation tour for 12 visiting conservation students and their professor Jane Richter, from the Danish program.
Conservator Linda Landry completed a small re-housing project for the Central Arizona Project Repository at the ASM in March.
Gloria Giffords is the coordinator and author of the new issue of Artes de Mexico which features the subject post cards or "cartes postales."
John Griswold and Claire Dean worked on an historically important marble monument under the Save Outdoor Sculpture program. Their work included numerous pre-program conservation interns as well as the local conservators.
Regional Reporter:
Nancy Odegaard
Arizona State Museum
Tucson, AZ 85721
520/621-6314
odegaard@u.arizona.edu
The Conservation Center at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) continues to move forward in new and exciting directions under the leadership of Victoria Blyth-Hill, who has been heading the Center for over a year now. The Laser Conservation Research Section at LACMA made its debut to the Collector's Committee, a group of museum donors in the first part of February.
This event began with comments from Victoria Blyth-Hill. Joseph Fronek gave a presentation on the importance of new research and education programs to the LACMA Conservation Center.
Meg Abraham, Principle Investigator for the Laser Conservation Research section, gave a slide presentation, and then demonstrated the cleaning of permanent marker and paint off of marble, shell, and aluminum, as well as the removal of tarnish from silver on mock-up samples, using a ND:YAG laser. The Conservation Sections of Paintings, Textiles, Paper, and Objects were also open for tours.
The LACMA Conservation Center has received a donation of a scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray analysis. This important gift will allow study of surfaces that have been cleaned using the laser. In addition, the Canadian Conservation Institute is helping to develop and implement methods for further analysis of these surfaces. The museum has contracted with Dr. Frank Preusser to design protocols for the preparation of specific research samples prior to cleaning and to help with general experimental design.
Ongoing research at the LACMA laser facility will be described in a presentation at the June AIC pre-session on the use of lasers in conservation. In time, the facility will be available for education and research by conservators, students, and researchers on a limited basis. Interested parties are invited to attend the pre-session at AIC or contact Meg Abraham.
This year, for the first time, LACMA will offer paid summer internships in the Conservation Center that will bring summer interns to Los Angeles, along with a modest amount for living expenses and incidentals. The new Camilla Chandler Frost Endowment will support two students in the summer of 2000; students who will now be able to work on defined projects under the supervision of staff. A list of projects has been developed which impact all areas of the Conservation Center, and students will have a wide spectrum of learning experiences from which to choose. The Center is extremely excited about this enlargement of our educational outreach.
LACMA's textile conservation laboratory is happy to announce that Bronwyn Cosgrove began a one-year internship this past February. Bronwyn, a graduate of the Canberra program, is on leave from the Australian National Maritime Museum.
The Objects Conservation Lab at LACMA is happy to welcome Vanessa Muros as their new Mellon Fellow. She performed her postgraduate work at the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London, where she graduated with a Masters in Archaeology and a second Masters in Conservation from the same institution two years later. She has participated in the conservation of relics recovered in archaeology at sites in Turkey and Jordan and has acted as a conservator at the Institute.
In March, Karen Cristine Barbosa, Paintings Conservator from the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand in Brazil, arrived at LACMA to begin a 10-month advanced internship in the Paintings Conservation section, under the direction of Joseph Fronek. The Museu de Arte de São Paulo holds a distinguished collection of old master and 19th c. European paintings. Karen is the third recipient of the Lampadia Foundation/Getty Grant Program Fellowship, which was developed in 1997 to offer advanced training opportunities to South American conservators in US institutions.
Karen studied at CECOR, the Centro de Conservação e Restauração at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. The faculty there includes Annamaria Neves, LACMA's 1998 Lampadia/Getty recipient. Brazil's cultural arts foundation VITAE generously provided additional funds to allow Karen to bring her two year-old daughter and mother-in-law to Los Angeles, while her husband completes his dissertation at home in Brazil.
Regina Ng, a pre-program intern in Paper Conservation at LACMA was awarded a prestigious scholarship from the Freer/Sackler Galleries in Washington DC. This is a ten-year apprenticeship appointment, and Regina will be working on screens and scrolls in the museum's studios and learning directly from their Japanese master screen and scroll experts. This was a highly competitive position, and LACMA is proud that Regina was named to the position after a year's work as a pre-program intern at LACMA.
Maureen Russel is Lead Conservator for the Pharaohs of the Sun exhibition at LACMA and is thrilled to examine the amazing incoming loans from collections around the world. She is also preparing for the upcoming exhibition, Color and Fire, Defining Moments in Contemporary Ceramics which highlights LACMA's large contemporary ceramic collection. She will be attending the upcoming UKIC conference on Ceramics and Glass at Stoke-On-Trent, England in mid-April.
Don Menveg and Sabrina Carli have recently completed the installation of the Robert Therrien exhibition. Don is completing the conservation of the Shepp suite of furniture by R.M. Schindler for the upcoming Made in California exhibition.
John Hirx is the Lead Conservator on the upcoming Scythian Gold exhibition. He is continuing his earthquake mitigation work on LACMA's permanent collection and is now focusing on the Classical galleries. Jean Neeman is also working on this project in the Ancient galleries. She is replicating the base, feet, and ankles of the marble sculptures in styrofoam to determine the weight load distribution of the sculptures for isolator bases.
Roz Westmoreland is working on a six-month contract at LACMA to survey and treat paintings from the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican art. Since February, Roz has treated several works by Rufino Tamayo. Mark Watters of Aitchison and Watters, Inc. has been working on contract with the paper conservation staff on the Mexican artist Jesus "Chucho" Reyes.
Pieter Meyers, Ph.D., after 18 productive years at the LACMA, is formally retiring from the County. He will, however, continue to work as a consultant to the Conservation Center, focusing his attentions on the Museum's permanent collection. He will be researching and writing about ancient gold and silver works of art and participating in the development of projects for the Laser Conservation Research Section.
Laramie Hickey-Friedman, a graduate student in the Conservation Department at the University of Delaware, is spending her third year internship in Decorative Arts and Sculpture Conservation at the J.Paul Getty Museum (JPGM). Laramie's research project is an investigation of the RP system and its possible use for the storage of unstable iron.
Laramie is also working with Jane Bassett on a technical study of bronzes which were on view at the JPGM this winter as part of the exhibition Adriaen deVries, Imperial Sculptor. For installation of the 48 bronzes, which range in size from table display to monumental, museum mountmakers George Johnson and Mark Mitton devised a system in which strong, formfitting mounts could be constructed quickly. Traveling to the previous exhibition venue in Amsterdam, they made wax impressions of each sculpture for the cleats (brackets that hold the sculptures onto their pedestals) which were then cast in bronze in Los Angeles.
Jane Bassett worked with Associate Curator of Sculpture Peggy Fogelman, in creating a didactic exhibition to accompany the JPGM deVries exhibition, entitled Foundry to Finish: In the Studio of Adriaen de Vries. Through the use of models and video, the exhibition demonstrates 13 stages of the direct lost wax casting technique.
JPGM Conservator Joe Godla spent three months this past winter in Paris, studying carving at the atelier of Vincent Mouchez and taking classes at the Ecole Boulle. Joe is currently working on detailed technical studies of the entire furniture collection for upcoming catalogues. Cynthia Moyer has completed the treatment of the Sené furniture suite belonging to the MFA, Boston and has returned to private practice in Los Angeles.
JPGM conservator Brian Considine is busy with the planning for an exhibition of stained glass based on the drawings of Holbein and Dürer that will open at the Getty Museum on July 7, 2000. Brian is currently working on the translation of the three-volume work on the history of marquetry by Pierre Ramond. This will be a future Getty publication.
Jeanne Marie Teutonico, formerly with English Heritage in London, has joined the staff of the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) as Special Advisor to the Director of the Institute, Timothy P. Whalen. She will be advising the director on a range of issues related to the work and mission of the GCI, with particular initial emphasis on the selection and design of Institute projects.
Kristin Kelly has also joined the GCI director's staff. Her initial duties include advising the director on a number of staff development issues.
Wilbur Faulk has joined the GCI staff and will assist efforts to further national and international cultural property protection initiatives, in part by continuing his involvement in St. Petersburg and his participation on the ICOM Security Committee. Wilbur previously served as Director of Security for the Getty Trust since 1993.
Marta de la Torre has assumed the directorship of the GCI Information and Communications group, which includes the Information Center and publications. She will continue to supervise the development of the UCLA/Getty master's program in archaeological and ethnographic conservation, the GCI's research on the economics of heritage conservation, and the work of the Latin American Consortium for Preventive Conservation.
Neville Agnew is now principal project specialist in the GCI director's office. This new assignment will permit him more time to pursue project and science based work, including the China Principles project and the wall paintings conservation project at the Mogao grottoes.
The GCI hosted a group of visitors from the Canadian Conservation Institute in January. The aim of this three day meeting was to explore avenues of potential collaborative research, in particular a laser cleaning project in conjunction with LACMA Environmental research. James Druzik, Stefan Michalski, Jean Tétreault and Cecily Grzywacz are serving on the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) committee to revise the ASHRAE Applications Chapter on Museums, Archives and Collections, Chapter 20 - 1999 volume.
Over the past six years, Ran Boytner of the UCLA Institute of Archaeology and the Museum Research Laboratory of the GCI have been collaborating on research to resolve problems in Andean dyestuff identification. Textiles were widely appreciated by all the cultures of the Andeas. The UCLA-GCI team has analyzed over 450 dye samples. This spring Ran and Narayan Khandekar from the GCI will intensify their research utilizing the facilities of the GCI Air Pollution Analysis Laboratory and working with GCI's Cecily Grzywacz and David Carson.
At the 17th annual conference of the California Mission Studies Association held at Mission San Gabriel Arcangel on February 18-20, Getty Trust President Barry Munitz delivered the Keynote address describing the Trust's efforts in conservation in California and around the world. Bill Ginell was a Guest Speaker who gave a presentation on the GCI's tests and results of the Getty Seismic Adobe Project.
His talk was entitled Improving the Seismic Stability of Historic Adobe Structures. It included a video showing the damage modes of half-scale model adobe buildings when subjected to seismic simulation shaking. The video also showed how retrofitting can minimize catastrophic structural collapse.
The Autry Museum of Western Heritage welcomes the newest member of the conservation staff, Assistant Conservator Tania Collas. Tania graduated with an MA in Art Conservation from the State University College at Buffalo, N.Y. She has been working in private practice in Los Angeles since 1998. Tania will continue to maintain her private practice as her now, slightly more hectic, schedule allows. Tania, Richard Moll and Linda Strauss are deep in the throes of final installation for the Autry's latest show, Buffalo Bill's Wild West which opened on March 4th for a four month run. The Far East will meet the Old West in the upcoming On Gold Mountain exhibition July 23 - Jan. 6, 2001. The exhibition traces the experiences of Chinese Americans in California. The conservators are currently treating objects ranging from a gilt and lacquered multi-armed Buddhist deity to a 1930's George Chan oil painting of a sultry nude.
The Sculpture Conservation Studio's Rosa Lowinger published an interview in the December issue of Sculpture Magazine with a collective of Cuban sculptors called Los Carpinteros. Rosa recently led a one week trip for the National Trust for Historic Preservation to Cuba. The group met with some of the country's leading architectural preservation professionals and conservators. Two more Trust trips are scheduled to Cuba this year, and Rosa will also be leading a group to the Havana Biennale in November. Other SCS conservators have completed the Save Our Sculpture project of the restoration of the Vanishing Warrior sculpture at the Thomas Starr King Middle School.
Andrea Morse and John Garrett have recently returned from a trip to Phoenix where they completed several projects for the Heard Museum and the Phoenix Art Museum.
Susanne Friend of ConservArt Associates, Inc. gave a talk on January 18, 2000 at the University of Southern California Fisher Art Gallery about the ongoing conservation of Maynard Dixon's 1914 murals from the Anita Baldwin Estate.
In January, ConservArt Associates, Inc. removed historic tiles located on the facade of the Hollywood Tile building (now destroyed) in Hollywood, CA. This was done in conjunction with the Historic Resources Group for TrizecHahn Development. Following this, Dr. Duane R. Chartier of ConservArt Associates, Inc. was invited to give a three hour talk on March 7, 2000 on the history and conservation of ceramics and tile in architecture to the students in the School of Architecture of the University of Southern California.
Duane and Susanne also gave a talk on March 14, 2000 on conservation issues for collectors. The talk was sponsored by Christie's and the American Art Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It was held at Christie's and covered topics such as collections care and management. It also gave a better understanding of what conservation should and should not do.
Carolyn Tallent enjoyed the usual variety of private practice. In February she completed a six day on-site treatment of two large contemporary paintings in a storage area below City Hall in downtown L.A. The paintings had been slashed by vandals and left unrepaired for four years. At present she has in her studio an early Hans Hofmann and a portrait by Sir Peter Lely. She has also been overseeing all the visitors to the four fabulous kittens born to her cat Redding.
Sharon Shore and Tania Collas are working together to conserve and restore a Charles and Ray Eames molded plywood screen comprised of six panels. The canvas hinges, severely degraded with tears and discolorations, are being replaced using a combination of textile and object conservation techniques. This project presents the challenge of preserving the integrity of the original screen while restoring its function and structural stability.
Regional Reporter:
Virginia Rasmussen
Conservation Center
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
213/857-6168
vir@art.lacma.org
Brian Howard surveyed 22 Remington bronzes for the Gilcrease Museum in preparation for a Frederic Remington exhibit in 2001. The exhibit will be in partnership with the National Gallery, Washington, DC. Gayle Clements, Conservator at the Gilcrease Museum Department of Conservation, will begin work reducing the varnishes of five nocturne paintings by Remington in preparation for the same exhibition.
David Wagoner has been hired to design the packaging and instructional booklet for the children's kit Acid Rain's Harmful Effects on Cultural Monuments and Buildings. David is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Savannah, Georgia.
Regional Reporter:
Gayle S. Clements
Department of Conservation
Gilcrease Museum
Tulsa, OK
918/596-2780
clem@webzone.net
Regional Reporter:
Laurence Pace
1645 Haku Street
Honolulu, HI 96819-1648
808/833-1999
fax 808/839-0320
lapace@lava.net
After working as a freelance conservator at various institutions throughout British Columbia for the past three years, Cynthia Cripps is moving to New Zealand to start a job as Objects Conservator at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch. Before leaving, she completed a conservation survey of the historical medical collections at the BC Medical Assn. Museum Archives & Museum. The survey focussed on assessing and researching the hazards posed by the pharmaceutical and medical instrument collections and developing storage and handling procedures for staff safety.
J. Claire Dean briefly joined the Marines this January when she worked in the field at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, at Twentynine Palms, California. In April she is briefly returning to the Rock Art Research Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and the bush, where this time she hopes to avoid encountering any "black mambas."
Jamie Hascall and former Burke Museum Exhibit Designer Gary Wingert have been working on a variety of mountmaking projects. Most recent have been the mounting and installation of exhibits at the Wanapum Dam Heritage Center in Vantage WA, and continued work with a distinguished collection of Pre-Columbian art in the Seattle area.
Hiawatha Johnson and Elzbieta Osiak are planning treatment of three murals by Ed Quigley, located in the Irvington School in Portland. Trained at the Chicago Fine Arts Academy and the Art Institue of Chicago, Quigley settled in Portland and painted the murals in 1936, under the Works Progress Administration. His work is located in collections of the Oregon Historical Society, Goldendale, Washington, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, the Huntington Collection and elsewhere. His work took on a new direction when he became interested in the Yakama Indians with whom he worked on trail drives and horse round-ups. As a result of his experience he painted Western scenery and animals. While the murals have received abrasions, marks and grime due to their location, and were partially vandalized with spray paint in 1999, they are stable and in surprisingly good condition. The conservators' treatment plan includes cleaning, local stabilization, restoration of losses, and surface protection.
The Seattle Art Museum has received a $70,000 grant from the King County Arts Commission for the building and fitting out of a paintings conservation lab in their Venturi building.
Rita Kauneckas has received two contracts from the Montana State Historical Society in Helena. One is to prepare a number of Native American artifacts and textiles to complement the exhibition, Life on the Upper Missouri: The Art of Karl Bodmer. The exhibit runs April 6, 2000 - February 28, 2001. She is also completing the cleaning of several contemporary oversized textile wall hangings located in the lobby of the Montana State Justice Building.
In the past year Rebecca Pavitt has treated several collections of Cape Dorset prints, including MacMillan Blodel's recent deacquisition. Most of the prints were from the Cooperative's early years (late 50's - early 60's) and presented the special cleaning and flattening challenges which are so typical of prints from that period. She has taken plenty of slides, with a view to future presentations. Ekatrina Pasnak, a pre-program intern, spent several months in Rebecca's studio, where she stabilized and partially remounted a Japanese Buddhist scroll.
In November Jack Thompson traveled to Israel. He visited conservation labs at the Jewish National Library (JNL) and the Israel Museum & Rockefeller Museum as well as Yehuda Miklaf, a bookbinder/designer/printer in Jerusalem, and book conservator Uri Kolodni in Tel Aviv. He also gave a talk to a group of conservators at a gathering hosted by Nellie Stavisky in Jerusalem. In Haifa he visited Patrick Ravines in his conservation lab at the Baha'i World Centre. Also in the north, he visited Clive Silverman, a traditional parchment maker at Kibbutz Beit Rimon, near Nazareth.
In the south, he visited Natan Kaaren, hand-papermaker at Kibbutz Sde Yoav, and private hand-papermaker Izhar Neumann, from Zichron Ya'akov, between Haifa and Tel Aviv. Izhar Neumann has a commercial sales shop next to his papermill. Natan Kaaren is carrying on some of the work on the use of Mitnan fiber (Thymeleaea hirsuta) to produce a uniquely Israeli paper. This research was begun by Joyce Schmidt at the Beersheba Paper Workshop, which is no longer in operation.
Two highlights of the trip were the opportunity to examine pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls and their sewing, and the collection of Jewish bindings (not the text blocks, but the covers) at the JNL. Tova Szeintuch, Head of Conservation at the JNL plans to analyze these covers over the next few years. At least one of the covers dates back to Byzantine times. Elements of some fore-edge clasps and wooden board repair techniques are very interesting.
In January, Jack traveled to his cabin in Idaho to examine progress on the development of his one-acre pond. The pond will supply water to power the new 8 ft. diameter overshot waterwheel which will operate a nine-hammer medieval-style papermill there. The pond is 3 ft. deep. Approx. 20% of the pond has been dug down to the target depth of 8 ft. It was not yet the wet season, but the pond was holding water/ice overall. The excavation has revealed 4 distinct layers. Top soil, blue clay, redclay, and a yellow, sandy clay. The yellow-sandy clay layer is being covered over with blue clay where it appears, to keep the water in place until it is needed at the mill. The top soil is being moved to a garden area west of the pond; the red clay is being moved to a site near the road for eventual use in a kiln to make bricks, roof tiles, and dinner ware; the blue clay is being kept in reserve to plug holes in the pond. Later this year Jack will begin building wattle & daub hovels for participants to live in during workshops.
Regional Reporter:
Peter Malarky
Phone (206)409-7672
pmpc@att.net
Hays Shoop, Rocky Mountain Conservation Center (RMCC) Painting Conservator, has been conserving a group of large murals from St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Denver. The fire-damaged murals were painted in the 1920s by Denver artist, Albert Byron Olson, and depict five scenes from the life of Christ.
Teresa Knutson, Textile Conservator, recently visited the Kit Carson Museum in Taos, NM, to perform a Conservation Outreach Services survey of their costumes and textiles. She also provided advice on storage and display techniques.
The recent installation of new computers at RMCC resulted in some modem problems that may have affected delivery of faxes and email. Thank you for your patience. Hopefully, the problems have been rectified.
Carmen Bria of the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Art (WCCFA), treated two WPA United States Post Office murals in Missouri: one in Pleasant Hill by Tom Lea and the other in Higginsville by Jacque T. Bowen.
Camilla Van Vooren, WCCFA, and Eileen Clancy are lecturing and teaching for the IMLS/Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums Preservation for a New Century project initiated by the Colorado Historical Society. Camilla is presenting four lectures and workshops on paintings conservation, and Eileen is presenting four lectures and workshops on paper conservation at various locations in Wyoming and Colorado.
Paul Messier will be presenting workshops on photograph conservation this summer for the same IMLS grant. Eileen also presented a public lecture at the Colorado Historical Society on the care of family photo collections.
The Denver Art Museum's third-year conservation intern, Jessica Fletcherfrom Buffalo State College, has just completed a difficult treatment on The Bandman by Red Grooms. Typical of the artist's work, the piece is a statement of inherent vice. Treatment was based on correcting structural flaws and creating a support for storage and handling.
Carl Patterson and Judy Greenfield continue the survey and rehousing of nearly 20,000 Native Arts collections at the Denver Art Museum. The project includes creating unique storage mounts for most of the collection.
Conservation work at the Denver Museum of Natural History continues with some significant personnel changes. After several years working on contract at the museum, Gina Laurin has left to pursue a career as a private conservator. Jude Southward remains as head of the Conservation Department.
Matthew Crawford joined the DMNH Conservation Dept. in February as a full-time staff member. In addition to overseeing the day-to-day operation of the conservation lab, Matt will be involved in collection policy development through the Collections Management Committee and will be collaborating with the Exhibits Department in the ongoing renovation of Crane Hall, which features the museum's Native American collections.
Regional Reporter:
Diane Danielson
Rocky Mountain Reg. Con. Center
2420 South University Blvd.
Denver, CO 80208
303/733-2712
ddaniels@du.edu
Corinne Dune recently moved to Austin where she is opening a private practice in the conservation of photographs. Corinne comes from Paris where she worked for several museums including the Musee d'Orsay, the Musee de l'Armee, and Musee des Arts et Metiers as a consulting conservator. She graduated from the Institut de Restauration des Oeuvres d'Art in Paris where Anne Cartier-Bresson directs the four-year program in photographic conservation and preservation. Corinne is not entirely new to the Austin area -- she completed an internship at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center in 1993 under the supervision of Barbara Brown.
Judith Hastings reports that Brad Epley has joined the staff of the Menil Collection as Assistant Paintings Conservator in September, 1999 after a post graduate internship at the Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge, England.
Richard Trela is conducting paint tests to discover the original colors and paints in Pioneer Hall at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, TX. The hall is part of a current renovation of part of the facility, the largest historical museum in Texas. Richard also completed the examination and proposals for treatment on the eight murals in Pioneer Hall, as well as installing protective coverings over the murals. They will be covered for the duration of the renovation which includes asbestos abatement.
Richard also completed the treatment of the third bomber folk art piece from the American Airpower Heritage Museum in Midland, TX and a fourth is underway in this ongoing project. In February, he gave a talk at the museum about conservation to the advisory committee and specifically related some of his remarks to his work on the collection as well as giving an overview of conservation in museums. The American Airpower Heritage Museum is the headquarters of the Confederate Air Force, a collection of historic warplanes. All of their bomber folk art pieces have been accepted as Save America's Treasures Designated Projects.
The conservation staff at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRHRC) at the University of Texas at Austin, hosted History and Use of Medieval Pigments, a week long workshop from March 13-17. The workshop was presented by Cheryl Porter, who has lectured and taught throughout the UK, Europe, Australia, and the US on the history, analysis, and conservation of pigments and dyes and has been director of the Montefiascone Library Conservation Project in Italy since its inception in 1988.
The workshop was organized by Olivia Primanis with assistance from other conservators on the staff of the HRHRC. Twenty-nine participants attended the week long series of lectures and workshops that included morning lectures on the production of traditional pigments and the practice of the medieval scribe and illuminator. Traditional recipes and techniques were tested at the smaller afternoon workshops.
Regional Reporter:
Ken Grant
Conservation Department
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
P.O. Box 7219
Austin, TX 78713
512/471-9117, fax 512/471-9646
kgrant@mail.utexas.edu
John Kjelland has moved from Missoula, MT to Santa Fe, NM to establish Artisan Restoration Services. His fields of expertise include folk art & transparent coatings and the structural care of wooden objects such as furniture, sculpture, and other selected objects. He is happy to find in Sante Fe such a diverse group of people and cultural material. He can be reached at (505) 984-8922, BOX 215, 1704-B Llano St., Santa Fe, NM 87505.
Renee Jolly is working on the second exhibit of the Neutrogena collection, Curiouser and Curiouser: A Walk through the Looking Glass. The exhibit will open on June 3, 2000, and there will be an opening party sometime in August.
M. Susan Barger is teaching Materials Science of Art: Case Studies in the Detection of Arts Fakes and Forgeries during the spring term at University of New Mexico. Her book with William B. White, The Daguerreotype: Nineteenth Century Technology and Modern Science, will be available in a paperback edition published by the Johns Hopkins Press in April 2000. The hardback edition of this book from the Smithsonian Press has been out of print for three years.
David Rasch has been performing treatments on artifacts of Western Americana for a new gallery at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. In addition he continues his work for the Spanish Colonial Arts Society Museum in Santa Fe. That organization has received a building permit for its new Collections Center, and the ground breaking is scheduled for the first of May 2000. David is planning the move of their collections into the new storage facility.
Regional Reporter:
Dr. Susan Barger
3 Moya Lane
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505/466-3709
barger@unm.edu
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