People – Page 3 – AIC Blog Archives: Conservators Converse

Member News from Club Quarters, Winter 2012

New Club Quarters Opens in London on March 18, 2012. Now Accepting Reservations.
Club Quarters, Lincoln’s Inn Fields is located in the heart of London at Kingsway near Holborn and Chancery Lane – with the hotel entrance facing Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Convenient to London’s financial and legal institutions, Club Quarters, Lincoln’s Inn Fields is also within walking distance of the London School of Economics, Covent Garden and the Theatre District. The hotel will feature London’s newest guest rooms and in- room technology, a Club Living Room with social networking area and meeting rooms. The large terrace at the entrance of the hotel faces a 17th century square flanked by period buildings and will offer seasonal dining and cocktails. Low member rates* are now available via Member Services, www.clubquarters.com and through all GDS tools. *To enquire about remaining membership opportunities at Club Quarters, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, please contact your Membership Manager or email memberships@clubquarters.com. *Information and availability for Olympic Season reservations will be forthcoming.

Low Fixed Rates for Small to Medium‐Sized Meeting Rooms
All 15 Club Quarters have small to medium sized meeting rooms, which can be reserved at low fixed rates. Many locations have unique venues, including World Trade Center and opposite Rockefeller Center in New York, both with year round indoor/outdoor dining and event space with stunning views. Central Loop and Wacker at Michigan in Chicago offer brand new Club Living Rooms which contain glass enclosed board rooms. Trafalgar Square in London, offering two grand ballrooms and elegant small meeting spaces, is the most comprehensive meeting and event space in the West End.

Meeting Length Rate*
1 to 2 hours $100/£100
Half Day $200/£200
Full Day $350/£350

Meeting room rental fees also include an audio/visual package of flip chart and markers, projector and screen. To check availability, please call the Club Quarters Meetings Specialist at +1.203.905.2122 or +44 (0)20 7451 5902 or email meetings@clubquarters.com.

* Rates are based on small meeting rooms and some restrictions apply. Larger spaces are available at many locations at special rates.

“Night on the House” Program
The “Night on the House” program is continuing in 2012 with more dates available at all Club Quarters. It is fast and simple for a guest to earn and redeem a “Night on the House”.

Member guests will earn one certificate each business stay which can be validated on the next stay at any Club Quarters
Once validated, the member guest is entitled to a standard room for two on one of the weekend and holiday dates set aside for the program
Certificates are combined and/or stays may be extended at your low member rate
Reservations: call Member Services at +1.203.905.2100 (US) or +44.020.7451.5800 (UK). The program is based on availability and must be requested at the time of reservation. Reservations are subject to a $25/£15 service charge
Additional details can be found at www.clubquarters.com/NightOnTheHouse.php.

Weekend & Holiday Rates for Employees, Family and Friends
Family and friends, in addition to employees, of member organizations, can request weekend and holiday rates at all Club Quarters, with the strongest availability being through the end of March. Even without a “Night on the House” certificate, member guests can enjoy subsidized rates starting at $62 in Philadelphia, Chicago and Houston, $72 in Boston, Washington, DC and San Francisco, $126 in New York and £67 in London. Member guests must request these rates by calling Member Services at +1.203.905.2100 or +44 (0)20 7451 5800.

Breaking up (with a Leonardo) is hard to do!

Dianne Dwyer Modestini, who conserved the “Salvator Mundi,” at work in her studio.

I must admit that I am always relieved when I finish up a project and get it back safely to a (hopefully) pleased owner. But maybe that is because I have never worked on anything like a Leonardo! Working on pieces of immense value and great cultural significance adds another dimension to a conservation treatment.

Read about conservator Dianne Dwyer Modestini’s experience conserving “Salvator Mundi,” da Vinci’s newly rediscovered painting of Christ in the November 10, 2011 CNN article by Laura Allsop Living up to Leonardo: The terrifying task of restoring a da Vinci.

Beneath the Wrappings: Conservation of Emory’s Old Kingdom Mummy

In 1921, William Arthur Shelton, a professor in Emory’s Candler School of Theology, purchased an Old Kingdom mummy from the sacred site of Abydos in Middle Egypt. In storage at the Carlos Museum for over 90 years, its linen in tatters, its head in a separate box, and many bones missing or exposed, the mummy provided an extraordinary challenge for conservators Renee Stein and Mimi Leveque. This video documents their almost year-long treatment of the mummy in close consultation with curator Peter Lacovara, students and faculty at Emory University, doctors at Emory Hospital, and other consultants.

For more information, visit carlos.emory.edu

View the 16 minute video on Emory’s YouTube channel

AIC Collection Care Network Charge

The founding members of the Collections Care Network (CCN) are excited to announce the network has been approved by the AIC Board of Directors. Now we are beginning the work to create a voice for collections care, preventive conservation, and all of its practitioners. On January 31, founding committee members will meet to begin planning how to encourage and implement the ideas voiced in the Charge prepared for the CCN by the AIC Board of Directors and included in full below. We want to add your ideas and concerns to that discussion. Please post comments here on the blog or contact Rebecca Fifield at Rebecca.fifield@metmuseum.org , no later than January 30 with any ideas or issues you would like the committee members to consider at the Jan 31 meeting or in the coming months.

AIC Collection Care Network Charge

Purpose

The AIC Collection Care Network (CCN) was created in recognition of “the critical importance of preventive conservation as the most effective means of promoting the long-term preservation of cultural property” (Guidelines for Practice of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works, #20) and to support the growing number of conservators and collections care professionals with strong preventive responsibilities and interests. Its purpose is to:

Create awareness of preventive care
Identify and develop standards and best practices, training, and other projects to advance preventive care in institutions of all types and sizes, locally, nationally, and globally
Provide resources to support collection care and conservation professionals
Work with related groups to reach and support key collections care constituents

The Collection Care Network is a Division of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and is therefore bound by the Bylaws of the AIC and policies set by the AIC Board of Directors. Any revisions to the CCN Charge require written approval by the AIC Board of Directors.

Composition

The initial officers of the CCN are chosen by the organizing committee, in staggered terms, and presented to the AIC Board of Directors for approval. Thereafter, candidates for open positions are prepared by the CCN officers for approval by the AIC Board of Directors. All officers must be current members of AIC. Officers include a chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, communications and outreach officer, editor, and chair emeritus. Terms of office are three years with an option to serve a second term if other officers approve. The Board liaison to the CCN is the Board Director for Committees & Task Forces; the staff liaison is the Membership Director.

Standing Charge

Create a network of collections and conservation professionals committed to the preventive care of collections. The network will support current AIC members and work to encourage non-member collections care professionals to become AIC members.
Advance the understanding that preventive care preserves our cultural heritage in a way that post-damage, interventive treatment cannot restore.
Advocate for professional recognition of all collections care professionals and support the development of the role they play in institutional preservation planning.
Encourage collections and conservation professionals to exchange preservation information, ideas, and research.
Provide preventive care programs and resources that will be of interest to the broad spectrum of constituents the CCN intends to serve.
Network with related collections and conservation organizations to better support shared goals.

Praise for Find a Conservator and AIC

A recent mailing, Conservation, from the Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation contains a brief article about AIC’s online resources and the benefits of membership:

Sometimes the virtual world of the web is a collector’s best friend, especially when a simple click can help you save anything from a collection of old master drawings to a christening gown.

The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works website at www.conservation-us.org is a case in point. This veritable treasure chest of resources offers advice on how to choose a conservator and how to find one in your part of the country. It offers helpful tips for caring for all types of things, including architectural structures and detailing, manuscripts, prints, books, tools, jewelry, tableware, quilts, costumes, samplers, and flags.

The AIC also offers you the opportunity to establish connections with others who share your interest in preservation through publications, conferences, workshops, and daily networking opportunities. The Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation is a proud member.”

Nora Kennedy 2011 HP Image Permanence Award recipient

Congratulations to Nora Kennedy, Sherman Fairchild Conservator of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the 2011 recipient of the HP Image Permanence Award. This award is given by the Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) in partnership with the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and is sponsored by the Hewlett-Packard Company.

“Established in 2006, the HP Image Permanence Award recognizes advances in colorant and print media materials that significantly increase permanence; advances in predictive science that increase the validity of permanence predictions or provide insight into optimal storage and usage conditions; and/or educational efforts that raise awareness of the effect of storage and usage conditions on permanence.”

Nora is specifically being recognized for her outstanding contributions that advance the longevity of photographic and fine art images created via modern digital methods in the form of her co-leadership with Debbie in organizing the Mellon Collaborative Workshops in Photograph Conservation, the creation and distribution of digital sample book and for leading the creation of the Photograph Information Record (PIR). Since any single digital print process can change in behavior from generation to generation in only a few years, the PIR is an important link between the object and the actual materials that produced it. It’s the best tool that we have at the moment to prevent an information black hole in institutions that collect digital prints.

Nora’s willingness to engage contemporary artists in discussion regarding materials choices, exhibition and mounting (all related to preservation) as well as the general care of photographs including digital prints was also noted by the awards committee.

For more information about the award see http://www.imaging.org/ist/membership/honors_desc.cfm?AwardCode=HPIP

Posting courtesy of Doug Nishimura, Image Permanence Institute.

Preserving the history of conservators and conservation

Did you know that the upcoming AIC Annual Meeting will celebrate the 40th anniversary of AIC? At such a milestone it is important to ensure that we are preserving our own history. As part of the January AIC wiki Edit-A-Thon month we have launched a new section on the wiki to record information on the History of Conservation and Conservators. This is just a start in developing a template for entries but we hope that people will be interested in adding information on colleagues who are no longer with us, their own practices and labs to record for posterity. Thanks go out to AIC member Rebecca Rushfield for pushing this project forward. If you are interested in participating or adding information on the wiki please use the Email AIC’s e-Editor contact form at the bottom of this blog page.

Information on other important contributors to our field is available in other areas as well. You can access information on the FAIC Oral History Project on the AIC website.

In other news, conservator Jean Portell is working on a biography of Sheldon and Carolyn Keck and is hoping to receive recollections and comments from colleagues. Take a look at the piece she wrote for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Heights Couple Who Made Art Shine Like New and to learn more about two of the field’s pioneers.

A Conservator takes a crack at a Gustave Baumann mystery

Excerpt from http://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/blog/

Artist, printmaker and woodworker Gustave Baumann has a well-deserved “beloved” status in Santa Fe, his home for the final 53 years of his life. The Palace Press at the History Museum re-created his studio, using his original materials, tools and furnishings. The New Mexico Museum of Art owns a number of his prints (some of them on display in an exhibit right now) and the replicas and originals of marionettes he carved for theatrical performances.

So what’s a conservator from Indiana doing here this week prowling around his legacy? She’s trying to solve a couple of lingering mysteries that Baumann left behind.

“We’re going to do a museum exhibit of his prints, drawings and paintings in 2014,” said Claire Hoevel, senior conservator of paper for the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which holds a complete set of prints Baumann made during his youthful stint in that state’s Brown County Art Colony.

“Attached to that exhibit is a huge analytical project to find out exactly what his materials were — pigments, bindings, gessos, the fibers in his papers. Our hope is to gain a very thorough understanding of Baumann and his processes, how he worked, and his enormous accomplishments.”

Thanks to the bottles, cans and jars of materials Baumann left after his 1971 death — materials that are now part of the Palace Press’ exhibit — Hoevel has an opportunity rare in conservator circles. …

Anton “Tony” Rajer Obituary

Full text of Tony’s obituary is available online on the greenbaypressgazette website

Anton (Tony) William Rajer, art conservator, teacher, humanitarian, from Green Bay and Madison, Wis., passed away suddenly of a heart attack on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011, at 2:30 p.m. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was restoring a 4’8″ x 22′ WPA mural for Harrison Elementary School. Tony was born in Sheboygan, Wis., in 1952 to Mr. and Mrs. Anton Rajer (both now deceased).

He received a certificate in French studies at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris (1974) and then completed his BA in art history and chemistry at UW-Milwaukee (1977). Tony then went to the Churubusco Regional Conservation Center, in Mexico City, Mexico for a Certificate in Art Conservation and then was awarded a funded advanced internship for another Certificate in Conservation from Harvard University Art Museums in Cambridge, MA (1987). He then completed another Certificate in Mural Conservation at the ICCROM, in Rome, Italy (1992). Through his international studies and travels Tony spoke five languages fluently – French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and English. He was an Associate Conservator for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO, an Art Conservator for the Texas Conservation Center in West Texas, Project Conservator to the restoration of the Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison, WI and Project Director for SOS! (Save Outdoor Sculpture) Wisconsin Chapter, a grant program supported by the Smithsonian Institution. The SOS! position resulted in Tony co-authoring the book, ‘Public Sculpture in Wisconsin: An Atlas of Outdoor Monuments, Memorials, and Masterpieces in the Badger State’ in 1999. In 1987 Tony began his own art conservation business for museums and private clients and he managed Fine Arts Conservation for 24 years.

Tony also taught throughout his career at UW-Madison in Continuing Education, teaching Introduction Art Conservation, The Business of Art, and Latin American History. Tony was a multi-year Fulbright Professor at the University of Panama in Art Conservation in 2002-2004 for the restoration of the National Opera House in Panama City, Panama. In 2005 Tony received a U.S. State Department grant for teaching in Malaysia. Tony volunteered at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks where he worked with the Red Cross and FEMA as he was working on the installation of a folk art mural at the Folk Art Museum in NYC at the time of the attack. Additional service to disaster communities includes New Orleans, Malaysia, and Haiti. Tony was a member of the AIC (American Institute of Conservation) and ICOM (International Council of Museums) as well as Wisconsin Visual Artists. He conducted a multitude of conservation assessments and worked with CAP-Heritage Preservation at various sites including Ten Chimneys in Milwaukee, The Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison and the Wriston Art Center at Lawrence University. Tony’s most recent book is ‘Museums, Zoos, and Botanical Gardens of Wisconsin’ through University of Wisconsin Press.

Tony married Christine Style in 2000 and was a loving stepfather to Sarah and Victoria Davitt. Tony referred to himself as the ‘art doctor,’ You ignore, I restore it.’ ‘You tear it I repair it.’ Tony was most active in his dedication to the preservation of Nek Chand’s ‘Rock Garden’ in Chandigarh, Northern India where he traveled at least once a year for well over a decade and was an active volunteer for the Nek Chand Foundation. Tony’s accomplishments throughout his career touched so many different communities in the States and abroad. His command of language made for rich and meaningful relationships. His love of humor, history and folk art developed through being a Roman reenactor, as a folk art auctioneer in tux and turban, and his numerous art history, conservation and disaster relief lectures to groups of all ages throughout the world His philosophy was to “look, listen, observe and recommend, always with an eye towards practical solutions that a team approach can implement.”

Anton (Tony) Rajer is survived by his sister Judy Meier (Ron), wife, Christine Style and her two daughters, Sarah and Victoria Davitt, Ruth and Peyton Muehlmeier, Pam, Steve Kitt, Cody, and Cassidy Doucette, Scot, Jill, Courtney, Lizzy and Christine Muehlmeier, Lyndsey and Jeff Glasner, and Daniel Muehlmeier. Tony was a registered tissue donor, allowing him to continue to generously extend life to others – through the Iowa Organ Donor Network. He will be greatly missed.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.prokowall.com. In lieu of other expressions of sympathy, a memorial fund is being established.

On the Road to Conservation: A Pre-Program Road Trip – Part II

Clockwise from top left: JessiKat on the Buffalo campus, Niagara Falls, the Liberty Bell, JessiKat back home, JessiKat outside UPenn's museum, Katherine with Buffalo's mascot. Center: Reading Market in Philadelphia.

This entry by Katherine Langdon is the second part of a two-part blog post. Read the first entry by Jessica Ford below (posted 1/12/2011). Both Katherine and Jessica are pre-program interns working with Richard McCoy at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

I’m Katherine Langdon, pre-program intern in conservation at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and prospective conservation graduate student, and today I am continuing the story begun previously by my fellow intern, Jessica Ford. If you didn’t catch her blog entry you should begin there.

After our delightful and fast-paced visit to Winterthur for the WUDPAC Portfolio Day we spent the night in nearby Philadelphia. Philly turned out to be an ideal way-station for our travels, not only as a central hub of the east coast, but also as a bustling capital of culture and American history.

Our Thursday began early with a drive to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, where we had an appointment with Head Conservator Lynn Grant. As I have a background in archaeology, I was especially keen to see how conservation was approached at an archaeologically-focused museum. Lynn was very generous with her time and expertise, answering our slew of questions. We started with a tour of the collections in storage, where nearly a million objects are protected long-term – in fact the collection is so large that only about 3% of their artifacts can be on display at any one time. All of this is in the care of the two (soon to be three) full-time conservators and their assorted interns. The museum, housed in a historic building on the university campus, recently began renovations on much of the service area, so although the conservation staff currently operate in a makeshift lab, they anticipate having great new facilities in the near future.

Thrilled with the thorough visit, we thanked Lynn and stepped out into the very rainy city for an afternoon of exploration. This was Jessica’s first visit to Philly, so I made sure we hit all the major sites, beginning with lunch at the Reading Terminal Market. The rest of the afternoon we wandered through historic Philadelphia, finally visiting the Liberty Bell Center, which contains one small and uplifting exhibit, and touring Independence Hall, which is currently undergoing its own massive conservation project.

As you read yesterday, we spent the following day in New York City before catching a late bus to Washington, D.C. I headed for the National Mall, where I visited for the first time the D.C. branch of the National Museum of the American Indian, built in 2004. I loved the unique design of the building itself and its flowing exhibits, and I was pleased to see that the exhibits included a wide range of cultures and time periods, including some breathtaking contemporary pieces of art. That evening Jessica, Duncan, and I reunited in time to attend a gallery opening downtown where some of Jessica’s artwork was on display.

After spending Sunday driving to upstate New York, we headed to Buffalo State College to get to know the campus and to meet with second-year art conservation student Christine Puza. As we approached the school, two copper peaks towering over the campus caught our attention. A bit of research revealed that the building was part of the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane (known now as the Buffalo Psychiatric Center or the Richardson Olmsted Complex), designed by H.H. Richardson in 1870 and now out of use. The state of New York has committed to a restoration of the complex, which could someday perhaps provide great research and conservation projects for the neighboring school.

The friendly Buffalo State campus gave its art conservation program a more collegiate atmosphere than the independent departments of NYU and Delaware. I was surprised that the three programs could have such different, yet equally pleasing, settings and characters. At Buffalo, the Art Conservation Department is proudly housed in Rockwell Hall, the main campus building, near the music department. (The school clearly has its priorities in good order.)

Christine met us here and gave us an in-depth tour of the various labs, where she told us about the coursework underway and shared her own projects. As we entered one room filled with students’ original artwork she explained that the Buffalo program emphasizes the simultaneous development of hand skills and intimate knowledge of historical artistic techniques, taught by having the students replicate traditional methods of manufacture, such as painting with egg tempera. First-year students even design their own projects to focus on crafts of personal interest (smithing or flintknapping, e.g.).

The artworks used for conservation training are brought in from outside sources. People or museums can bring in their items for evaluation and treatment, with the understanding that it might be a few years before a student chooses it for a personal project. Christine was excited to show us her current paper conservation project, the removal of a poor backing from a woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai. In the objects lab she pulled out a damaged wooden box she was working on and told us that the second year students enjoy the opportunity to go “shopping” for such projects in the storage facilities of the next-door Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

After a delicious lunch with Christine at the Indian buffet near campus, we realized that the perfect autumn weather would be best spent on a visit to Niagara Falls, only a twenty-minute drive away. There the crowds were sparse and the trees were just unveiling their seasonal chromatic brilliance. Refreshed by this natural masterpiece, we began our long drive home to Indianapolis.