{"id":6511,"date":"2012-10-09T16:23:28","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T21:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=6511"},"modified":"2012-10-09T16:23:28","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T21:23:28","slug":"from-the-bench-literally-hanging-by-a-thread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2012\/10\/09\/from-the-bench-literally-hanging-by-a-thread\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Bench: Literally Hanging by a Thread"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of the \u201cFrom the Bench<\/strong>\u201d series celebrating the work of conservators. \u00a0Part scientist, part detective, conservators work to preserve the past for the future. \u00a0This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS supported projects in museums across the United States.\u00a0\u00a0For more information about IMLS funding for museums visit www.imls.gov\/applicants\/available_grants.aspx<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Meg Loew Craft, Senior Objects Conservator, Walters Art Museum<\/a><\/p>\n

The Walters Art Museum was delighted to receive a bequest of over 165 Southeast Asian works of art from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in 2002. The objects complement and enhance the Walters\u2019 Asian collection, which is focused on the arts from China and Japan. This diverse gift includes manuscripts and manuscript cabinets, lacquer Buddha sculptures, painted textile banners, ivory seals, and porcelain teapots, to name a few.<\/p>\n

The new collection was stored in a climate-controlled, secure facility, but it was offsite, which made the art works difficult to access, study, examine, and integrate into museum programming. A grant from IMLS permitted us to gain access to the Duke objects, examine each piece individually for treatment and storage needs, and correlate curatorial and conservation priorities. A symposium was held that brought Southeast Asian scholars and conservators together to discuss the Duke Collection. Focusing attention on the collection has enabled rehousing of two-thirds of the collection into onsite museum storage and encouraged creative thinking on how to incorporate the Duke objects into current and future exhibition galleries.<\/p>\n

A new fire suppression system slated for installation in Hackerman House, our mid-1860s historic building housing Asian art, will necessitate moving the artwork out of the galleries in the near future. This is an opportunity to treat and put some of the larger sculptures and paintings on display in the museum. Information from the survey is being used to help refigure the displays for reinstallation. This is especially significant for eight to ten sculptures and paintings that are too large to fit in our in-house storage area.<\/p>\n

\"Burmese<\/a>
Burmese sculpture of Buddhist adorant. Photo courtesy of Walters Art Museum. Accession number 25.240.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

This Burmese sculpture of a Buddhist adorant, has been examined during the IMLS survey, given the highest priority by both curators and conservators, and will be treated this fall. The carved wood adorant is covered with lacquer and heavily decorated with gold leaf and glass mirror inlays. The jewelry and flames made of leather similarly adorned are the weakest elements. The leather is water-damaged, distorted and brittle. The cracked leather has been crudely repaired \u2013 it is literally hanging by a thread.<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/a>
Back view shows the broken belt. Photo courtesy of Walters Art Museum. Accession number 25.240.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Without the support of IMLS, attention would not have been focused on the Duke Collection. The survey has generated excitement and exposure for these treasures. We anticipate bringing these objects to light with continuing research, online digital images, chats in the conservation window, and display in the galleries \u2013 thanks to IMLS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part of the \u201cFrom the Bench\u201d series celebrating the work of conservators. \u00a0Part scientist, part detective, conservators work to preserve the past for the future. \u00a0This series features the voices of conservators who are working on IMLS supported projects in museums across the United States.\u00a0\u00a0For more information about IMLS funding for museums … Continue reading “From the Bench: Literally Hanging by a Thread”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":6514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allied-organizations","category-bench","category-grants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}