Category: People

Image caption: 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.

Image Caption: Clockwise from top left: Our host house in Pittsburgh, Winterthur’s campus, Katherine at the Conservation Center, Jessica in Times Square, home away from home – the car, Winterthur’s entrance sign.

This post by Jessica Ford is the first in a two part blog entry. Please check back for the second post by Katherine Langdon. Both Jessica and Katherine are pre-program interns working with Richard McCoy at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

It’s been almost two months since Katherine and I embarked on our epic journey to visit conservation graduate schools: one that tested our navigational skills, our endurance, and our conservation aspirations. Having returned to the IMA in one piece with a strengthened determination towards our goals, I can say that the adventure was certainly a success.

Considering our daunting plan to visit all three East Coast graduate conservation programs (University of Delaware – Winterthur, NYU-IFA Conservation Center, and Buffalo State) in seven days, teamwork was a must from the moment we loaded up my trusty Honda Fit with a week’s worth of personal belongings, snacks, and study material.

Our first stop was to visit the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation’s (WUDPAC) annual Portfolio Day. Although we only got a taste of the breathtaking campus, we were assured that Winterthur was a fantastic place to be by Katherine’s book 1000 Places to See Before You Die. Two eager faces in the crowd of about 70 prospective students, Katherine and I were happy to have a chance to walk and talk for a moment with Professor of Material Culture and Adjunct Paintings Conservator Joyce Hill Stoner and converse in-depth with first-year student Crista Pack.

Second-year student Steven O’Banion gave our group an impressive and detailed review of his recent conservation opportunities. His presentation was followed by a whirlwind tour of the entire department. Pictures and more details of the event can be found on WUDPAC’s website.

From there we drove to the suburbs of Philadelphia, where we took lodging for a couple of nights (more on this stop in Part 2 of our story). Early on a dark Friday morning we set out again, this time by train to New York, New York. Katherine had never been to the Big Apple, and I had been once and loved it. Needless to say we were both quite excited for this excursion. The only challenge was smashing as much as possible into one day.

First, we hit the Conservation Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Open House. Located just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Met, the building is in the tall, narrow, town-house style that one would expect uptown, which resulted in the different labs being neatly stacked on top of each other all the way up to the penthouse paintings lab. It was there that we met 3rd year student Kristin Robinson, who talked to us about the school and her experiences. The program in NYC is distinctly different from the other conservation grad programs in that the degree is actually a MA in Art History with an Advanced Certificate in Conservation. A strong interest in art history is part of what drew me to conservation in the first place, so I appreciate the emphasis. Kristin showed us a small, medieval icon that she was currently working on, which highlighted another benefit of the program – its proximity to the IFA’s prestigious art history program (right across the street). A Latin verse on the painting was illegible, but Kristin was able to find help from the Art History Department’s specialized faculty in puzzling together the correct phrase before restoring it.

In addition to the IFA, the number of important museums located nearby makes the location mind-blowing with respect to resources, art historically and otherwise. Some of the conservation curriculum takes place in the labs of the Met, MoMA, etc., and the network of connections built in this environment surely helps many students obtain 4th-year and post-graduate internships from these institutions as well. Plus, anyone who survives in NYC for three to four years automatically gains a fair amount of street cred.

After our visit to from the Conservation Center we headed to the MET, where objects conservator Beth Edelstein showed us where the conservation magic happens: a subterranean labyrinth of labs full of art objects – musical instruments, jewelry boxes, Islamic wall panels – and no less than 40 professionals to work on them. At one point, Katherine nearly had a heart attack when she spotted a very convincing replica of the Mask of Agamemnon. After Beth’s tour ended, our self-guided tour of the galleries began. After a couple of hours the rest of New York beckoned, and we filled the remainder of our afternoon and much of the night with the sights, sounds, and food of Midtown.

Saturday we were in Washington DC, where Katherine and I split up to cover as much museum ground as possible. While she investigated the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, My husband Duncan and I trekked to the Museum of Unnatural History at a nearby Renaissance Faire.

This tale is only halfway done! Check back tomorrow to learn about the rest of our adventures from Katherine’s perspective including our time in Philadelphia, more about D.C., and our visit to the conservation program in Buffalo, New York.

Wednesday, November 17

7:00 pm

Reception Hall

Michael C. Carlos Museum

571 South Kilgo Circle

Atlanta, GA 30322

Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Conservator Patricia Ewer’s new book Textile Conservation: Advances in Practice, explores the changing role and practice of the textile conservator over the last twenty-five years, and captures the diversity of the textile conservators’ work. Ms. Ewer will explore that diversity through a discussion of several case studies from her recent work at the Carlos, which focused on textiles from the ancient Americas.

Dr Giorgio Torraca, former Deputy Director of ICCROM and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Rome, ‘La Sapienza’ died on September 25, 2010. Dr. Torraca’s contributions include research, publications, teaching and leadership of several major preservation organizations. Read his obituary on the ICCROM website

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is happy to announce the selection of Mary Estelle Kennelly as the Grants Management Officer. Ms. Kennelly has been with the agency since its inception in 1996 and with its predecessor, the Institute of Museum Services, for three years before that. She has held several positions, most recently Associate Deputy Director for Museum Services.

“I’m very excited to take on this new challenge,” Kennelly said. “I believe in IMLS and its mission, and am looking forward to working with the museums, libraries, and archives that use IMLS funding to serve the American public.”

In her new position, Ms. Kennelly will join IMLS’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer, and take primary responsibility for ensuring uniform grant administration throughout the agency; developing, recommending, and implementing post-award grant administration policy; and managing all fiscal grant requirements for the agency. She will work with the Office of Library Services and the Office of Museum Services to ensure compliance with federal requirements and agency policies so that IMLS’s grant programs meet the highest management and fiduciary standards while furthering the agency’s mission.

In addition, Ms. Kennelly will act as the agency liaison to the government-wide Grants Management Line of Business (GMLoB) taskforce as well as the Grants.gov initiative, and serve as the agency’s primary member of the Grants Executive Board.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute’s mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development.

Lisa Bruno is currently serving as the Secretary on the AIC Board. In addition to fulfilling regular duties of a member of the AIC board of directors, the secretary also ensures that records are maintained of all AIC business, annual general meetings, and AIC board meetings. She first became involved in AIC as Objects Specialty Group Program Chair in 2001. She finds it enlightening to discover how AIC advocates for conservators and our profession, and feels that it is a privilege to help play a small part.

Lisa is currently the Head Objects Conservator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (you can see what they are working on via the lab’s blog), and also works in private practice at Amann and Estabrook Conservation in NYC. She is a graduate of the Art Conservation Department at the University of Delaware, Winterthur Museum. In her free time Lisa competes in triathalons and is in training for the upcoming New Jersey Devilman Half Ironman Lite being held on May 8th, right before this year’s AIC Meeting. Come to the meeting to see if Lisa survived!

At the 2009 AIC annual meeting Issues Session several people commented that it would be nice for members to understand the workings of AIC a bit better. The best way to really learn about how AIC works is to get involved but, I hope that by profiling AIC Board members, staff and here on the blog, our members will find that they understand a bit better what people are doing to serve their profession and their colleagues. Maybe you’ll be inspired to volunteer if you aren’t already! Check back here regularly for further posts.

Now for a bit about me, the AIC E-editor…

The launch of the new AIC website in the spring of 2009 finally gave the us a platform onto which we could realistically take advantage of current technological capabilities, meaning that this was an exciting year to become AIC E-editor.

The E-editor job signifies that within AIC’s structure there are three ways in which we produce and disseminate content (the journal – JAIC, our newsletter – AIC News and, now, our website and associated online resources such as CoOL). As such I am a member of the AIC Publications Committee where I advise on and maintain standards for AIC publications in regards to electronic formats. I report to AIC’s Executive Director, Eryl Wentworth, and, on the AIC Board, the Director of Communications. On a day-to-day basis I work mostly with Brett Rodgers, AIC’s terrific Publications Manager.

One of my primary responsibilities is providing oversight of the website content with particular emphasis on the development of content for our audience of professional conservators. I work with Brett to both maintain site content as well as helping generate new content that will be of interest to our members and the general public. Some examples of this include:

– Soliciting and editing submissions for the Stories in Conservation feature on the AIC website – please contact me if you have a Story to submit!

– Working with various AIC committees and task forces to help them generate useful professional content for the website. In the past year I have been working with the Oral History Project, the Green Task Force and the Emergency Response committee.

– Communicating with the Specialty Group officers regarding the website and its use. Discussions are currently underway on how to best integrate SG websites with the AIC site. Additionally, we want to help SGs use the capabilities of the AIC website and database to their advantage if your SG is working on a project where the website, web publishing or the wiki site may be of use, please let me know.

– Liaising with the AIC Wiki catalogue group. We are excited about the transition of the SG catalogues to the wiki site and look forward to helping other AIC members learn how to use this platform for the benefit of all of our members.

In my position I am also encouraged to provide general feedback on how AIC is or should be using other web resources such as social networking sites. The creation of this blog is an example of this effort. We hope that our membership will use this site as a way to interact with colleagues across specialty groups to discuss issues of interest to us all. Additionally, now that AIC has assumed responsibility for CoOL I am also excited to be part of the group that will begin to assess how we can be appropriate stewards of this important resource for the international preservation community.

In short, my job is to be a liaison between my colleagues in the AIC membership, and the AIC Staff and Board. I hope that everyone will feel free to contact me if I can be of service.

When I am not working on AIC projects I am a partner in A.M. Art Conservation, LLC, a private practice in the New York area that provides preservation consulting, conservation treatment and collection management services to institutions and individuals. I am Co-Chair of the Integrated Pest Management Working group which produces the www.museumpests.net website and mother to twin boys and a baby girl.

We are saddened to post the following press release regarding the passing of longtime AIC member Toby Raphael.

AIC and IIC member Richard McCoy did some interesting live-blogging from the Salzburg Global Seminar, Connecting to the World’s Collections: Making the Case for the Conservation and Preservation of our Cultural Heritage, on the IIC blog.

The veteran blogger’s posts – about one per day of the seminar – offer a combination of autobiographical musings, local history, conference review, philosophical questioning, and even a conservation song by Joyce Hill Stoner.

Well done!