Disaster Response and Recovery – Page 6 – AIC Blog Archives: Conservators Converse

Free Seminar & Demonstration on Caring for Paintings Damaged by Hurricane Sandy

On Friday, December 14, conservator Rustin Levenson will give two free seminar/demonstrations on caring for paintings damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Artists and collectors can bring one (preferably small) wet/moldy painting on canvas or wood. Limited supplies will be available, along with a supply list, website list, and printed instructions. The first seminar will be in Manhattan from 10-12 PM on Friday, December 14 at Parsons New School for Design, The location is Room 1618, 79 Fifth Avenue. The second will be from 3-5 at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. It will be classroom 001 in the basement of South Hall.

To sign up, or with questions about the seminar, contact Rustin at rustinfl [at] aol [dot] com or through her website artcarenyc.com.

Rustin Levenson graduated with a degree in Art History from Wellesley College and was trained in conservation at Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum. She worked on the conservation staff of the National Gallery of Canada and the Metropolitan Museum of Art before opening Rustin Levenson Art Conservation, with studios in Miami, Florida and New York, New York. After Hurricane Andrew in Miami she rescued over 5000 works of art.

The seminars are sponsored by the Foundation for the American Institute for Conservation

Some call us superheroes

According to Pia Catton in “Conservators Take Up Fight” (November 19, 2012), one of the many articles which The Wall Street Journal has published about the effect of Hurricane Sandy on the visual arts in New York City, conservators are now “art world superheroes” to the galleries and artists whose works were destroyed by the flooding. The widespread dissemination of information about the conservation profession –including its emergency response capability– may be the one good thing to come out of this terrible event.

AIC-CERT and AIC Members to appear on Leonard Lopate, 12/5/2012

Tomorrow afternoon, from 1:20-2:00pm (EST), Lisa Elkin, Jim Coddington, and Cindy Albertson will be guests on The Leonard Lopate Show, a major New York radio talk show on WNYC. The three conservators will be discussing the efforts of AIC-CERT, Alliance for Response New York City, and MoMA after Superstorm Sandy, focusing on a new Cultural Recovery Center opening in Brooklyn.

Lisa Elkin, Chief Registrar and Director of Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History, is an AIC-CERT member, and has been very active in organizing aid to affected cultural institutions. Cindy Albertson, Assistant Conservator at the Museum of Modern Art, is serving in the important role as FAIC NYC Volunteer Coordinator. Jim Coddington is Chief Conservator at the Museum of Modern Art and a Professional Associate member of AIC.

Please tune into this program, and perhaps even call in to join the conversation, on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012, from 1:20 – 2:00pm (ET). Stream the show live at www.wnyc.org, or New York-area locals can listen in at 93.9 FM.

AIC CERT Responds to Hurricane Sandy

On Monday, October 29, New York City was hit by Hurricane Sandy, leading to mass blackouts and flooding in Brooklyn and most of lower Manhattan. Among the areas that were particularly hard hit was Chelsea, home to many of the city’s art galleries and artist studios. A week later, the AIC Collections Emergency Response Teams (CERT) held two back-to-back sessions of the Consortium on Recovery of Works of Art Damaged by Flooding at the Museum of Modern Art. The meeting was filled to overflowing with museum, gallery, and conservation professionals and artists who were still reeling from the disaster they had witnessed.

The Consortium served as a means for conservators to guide recovery efforts across New York City. Lisa Elkin, Director of Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), started off by reminding attendees of the resources open to them, not least of which were the conservators around them. Then Kala Harinarayanan, Director of Environmental Health and Safety at the AMNH, reminded those present that however concerned they may be for collections, their health and safety must remain paramount. She pointed out that surge waters could contain all kinds of hazardous materials, while buildings may have become unstable after the storm. These are important things to keep in mind as we begin recovery efforts. She advised having a companion when re-entering a disaster site, using communication devices, and using personal protective equipment as advisable.

At this point, Beth Nunan, Associate Conservator at the AMNH took over. She covered the nuts and bolts of actually running a successful recovery, stressing the importance of planning prior to beginning the effort. She reminded everyone that documentation was key – not just of the damage to the site and objects, but also of the priorities, logic, and work-flow of the recovery effort. Beth also discussed ways to prioritize damaged objects, which could include business records that could be critical to the continued functioning of a business; storage, and inexpensive sources for needed materials. Caitlin O’Grady, Conservation Fellow at the University of Delaware, concluded the session by discussing various recovery techniques and their suitability to different scenarios, taking us through the merits and drawbacks of freezing versus air drying material, and discussing issues of mold and treatment. The entire presentation can be viewed here.

At the end of the meeting, attendees adjourned to a separate room to discuss more specific problems faced by those in the audience. This was where the true magnitude of the problem became clear. One attendee was dealing with forty-five different insurance companies, none of which had given permission to move the artworks to a stable area. Another had soaked canvases and no space to dry them flat. As questions arose, the conservators in the room worked together to find solutions to common problems. Eventually the room broke up into the various specialties, with paper conservators in one corner, paintings conservators in another, and so on, each dealing directly with attendee concerns.

The Consortium equipped all those dealing with recovery with a broad base of knowledge relating to the differe issues involved. In addition, it served as a gateway to getting involved with recovery efforts throughout New York, as among other things, attendees had the chance to sign up to volunteer their conservation services.

Additional Resources:

Museum of Modern Art – Hurricane Sandy: Conservation Resources

AIC CERT – Hurricane Response Google Group

Author’s note: A version of this post has also be posted to the NYU Conservation Center blog.

AIC-CERT Offers Vital Resources to those Affected by Superstorm Sandy

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (FAIC), is offering crucial disaster response assistance to cultural organizations and artists in need. In the first 10 days after the storm struck, the 24-hour hotline (202-661-8068) fielded over 55 calls from collectors, artists, and museums. Five AIC-CERT members are currently in the field working with small collections, galleries, and artists in Manhattan and Brooklyn with more team members to arrive this weekend. New York area conservators have also volunteered and are assisting team members in the recovery effort.

The Foundation has begun to purchase supplies for drying and treating collections and a warehouse space has been identified from which these materials can be distributed. A survey to collect information concerning current needs and resources available has been sent to members of the New York arts community in cooperation with the New York Alliance for Response and the New York Regional Association for Conservation.

An online forum has been set up by AIC-CERT to ask questions regarding the salvage, triage, and treatment of art and historic artifacts or to offer volunteer assistance (https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/aic-cert-sandy-response ). Information from the Consortium on Conservation, held November 4^th at MoMA and featuring speakers from AIC-CERT and MoMa’s conservation staff, can be found on the MoMA’s website (http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/conservation/recovery ) as well as their Inside/Out Blog (http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/category/hurricane-sandy-aftermath-tips-for-artists).

AIC-CERT volunteers have provided assistance and advice to dozens of museums, libraries, and archives since 2007. AIC-CERT teams were on the ground following Tropical Storm Irene and flooding in Minot, North Dakota in 2011, the Midwest floods in 2008, and in the Galveston area following Hurricane Ike later that year. AIC-CERT members and other AIC conservators participated in an 18-month-long project in Haiti assisting with recovery of cultural materials damaged in the 2010 earthquake.

AIC-CERT is supported and managed by the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation (FAIC). In 2007 and again in 2010, FAIC received funding from the Institute of Museum & Library Services to support an advanced training program for conservators and other museum professionals that resulted in a force of 107 “rapid responders” trained to assess damage and initiate salvage of cultural collections after a disaster has occurred. These well-prepared professionals are currently ready to assist in New York and surrounding areas.

The Foundation thanks Sotheby’s for their leadership gift in support of our work following this disaster. We would also like to offer special thanks to AIC-CERT Coordinator Beth Antoine; New York volunteer leaders Lisa Elkin, Jim Coddington, Rebecca Fifield, and Cindy Albertson; Richard Kurin and Corine Wegener of the Smithsonian Institution; Larry Reger and Lori Foley of Heritage Preservation, and all AIC-CERT team members assisting with response to this disaster, including Viviana Dominguez (CA), Susan Duhl (PA), Hitoshi Kimura (FL), Vicki Lee (MD), Caitlin O’Grady (DE), Steve Pine (TX), and Chris Stavroudis (CA).

Resources and information on disaster recovery and salvage can be found on the AIC website at www.conservation-us.org/disaster . The public can also call AIC-CERT at 202.661.8068.

Learn more about Professional Liability Insurance from Huntington T. Block

To protect yourself and your clients, American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works (AIC) offers a customized insurance program for its members through Huntington T. Block (HTB) Insurance Agency, Inc.

1. Conservators’ Property Insurance – providing coverage of others in your care, custody and control that includes a Conservators’ Errors and Omissions (E&O) sublimit

2. Business Insurance Program – property and liability coverages will protect your business.

For the past five decades, HTB is the leading U.S. based specialty fine art insurance broker serving the insurance needs of museums, galleries, private collectors and conservators.

If you wish, we invite you to consider seeking a competitive quote proposal from HTB.

For more details on the above insurance products please click here, or you may contact HTB’s Ever Song by phone: 800-424-8830 or by email: ever.song@aon.com. Also visit the website at www.huntingtontblock.comProfessional Liability Insurance from Huntington T. Block

AIC-CERT Mentioned in New York Times Article

“At most of the art galleries in Chelsea the water that poured in from the Hudson River during Hurricane Sandy has been pumped out, and the business of sorting out artworks — separating those that survived intact from those that didn’t, figuring out which of the damaged works are reparable — is well under way. Gallery owners no longer sound as despondent as they did last week, when they returned to their businesses in the strip between 10th and 11th Avenues, from 18th to 29th Streets, and found flooded basements, high water marks five feet up their walls, and a loss of art, documentation, catalogs and reference books, to say nothing of physical spaces that will need to be rebuilt”

Additional resources for Hurricane Sandy response

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, our thoughts are with those affected during this difficult time and we at AIC would like to provide as much support as we can.

On Sunday, November 4, speakers from the American Institute for Conservation Collections Emergency Response Team (AIC-CERT) and Museum of Modern Art’s conservation staff conducted an introductory workshop to relay helpful information to the many artists and galleries whose works were affected by Hurricane Sandy. They provided suggestions and answered questions on how to safely handle damaged paintings, drawings, books, sculptures, and other artistic and cultural materials. Resources, including the PowerPoint presentation from the workshop, are available on the MoMA website’s Recovery page . MoMA has also issued Immediate Response for Collections, a document offering step-by-step guidelines for dealing with artworks damaged by flooding, and we will continue to lend knowledge and support to those caring for collections affected by the storm.

The Alliance for Response is a national program on cultural heritage and disaster management. The New York City branch of this organization strives to connect emergency responders with representatives of the cultural heritage community throughout the 5 boroughs. Our goal is to strengthen mitigation and response capabilities through training exercises, development of local planning efforts and improved dialogue and partnerships.

In order to do this, we invite you or your institution to become an Alliance for Response New York member. As a member, you will receive information via email on response seminars and activities, as well as emergency alerts. As you receive information from us, we encourage you to work with your institution to disseminate that information as you see fit. We also hope that you will encourage other cultural institutions to join as well, no matter how large or small. For now, if you wish to become an Alliance for Response NYC member, please email Tina March directly at tina.march@brooklynmuseum.org and provide your name, title, institution affiliation, contact information including mailing address, email and phone number.

In addition, due to the devastating effects of hurricane Sandy on the NYC arts community, we are asking conservators of all specialties in the NYC area to contact us if they would like to be connected with institutions and individuals in need of assistance. Please note this in your email along with your area of expertise.

Also, for those of you who may unfortunately have suffered damage to your property as a result of Hurricane Sandy, Alexandra Darraby of the Art Law Firm (ALF) would like to offer pro bono services to AIC members from any practice area or committee for handling storm damage-related issues including communications with clients, adjusters and brokers, what to sign or not sign, preservation and documentation of potential evidence before and after claim, loss or “salvage”, inventory assessments and other related issues. Please email info@artlawfirm.com if you feel this would be helpful to you.

Galleries Need Disaster Plans Too

The destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy to many Chelsea area art galleries described in recent issues of The New York Times (“Where Creations Faced Destruction”, by Allan Kozinn, November 1, 2012) and the Wall Street Journal (“Cultural Community Suffers Losses”, November 2, 2012) points up the need for art galleries, like museums, to have disaster plans. Of all the gallery directors quoted in the articles, only two had made any (albeit inadequate) preparations for flooding—one moved works from the basement to the first floor and the other used waterproof storage containers in basement storage.

AIC-CERT to Offer Advice for Cultural Works Damaged by Hurricane Sandy at Free Public Event (New York City)

A free public presentation on recovering wet art and cultural materials will be held Sunday, November 4 from noon until 2 p.m. at The Museum of Modern Art . Speakers from the American Institute for Conservation Collections Emergency Response Team (AIC-CERT), along with conservators from MoMA, will provide suggestions and answer questions on how to safely handle and dry wet materials such as paintings, drawings, books, sculpture, and other artistic and cultural works. The consortium will take place in MoMA’s Celeste Bartos Theater, in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building, 4 West 54 Street, New York.

The presentation is designed to be of special help to the many artists and galleries whose works were affected by Hurricane Sandy.

MoMA has also issued a document, Immediate Response for Collections, that offers guidelines for dealing with art damaged by flooding. It offers step by step measures that can be taken to conserve artworks in a variety of mediums that have been damaged by water, including library and archive collections. It also includes a list of suppliers and emergency services that can provide some of the services listed in the document. The document is available on the Museum’s web site, MoMA.org.

The American Institute for Conservation (AIC), the national association of conservation professionals, is offering free emergency response assistance to cultural organizations.

* Call AIC’s 24-hour assistance number at 202.661.8068 for advice by phone.

* Call 202.661.8068 to arrange for a team to come to the site to complete damage assessments and help with salvage organization.

Resources and information on disaster recovery and salvage can be found on the AIC website at www.conservation-us.org/disaster. The public can also call AIC-CERT at 202.661.8068. Donations can be made at www.conservation-us.org/donate.