Kathryn Brugioni Gabrielli, Casey Mallinckrodt, Ainslie Harrison, and Sheila Payaqui
Abstract
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts substantial support for a three-year collaborative conservation–curatorial initiative to carry out the documentation, archival research, scientific and technical analysis, treatment, and exhibition of the museum’s exceptional collection of historic African art. The project team of four conservators and three curators worked closely together in working groups as well as in consultation with members of source communities and with allied professionals across the world. These included other conservators, art historians, specialist scholars, and scientists. Conservators partnered with scientific research facilities for materials analysis outside the museum’s capacity, and curators reached out to other institutions and archives. The project generated information and scholarship that has contributed to the material and cultural understanding of the collection and has guided the handling and exhibition of the objects. While this work has helped repopulate the collection’s lost or discarded histories, it has also raised ethical questions about the discovery and distribution of privileged information. A wide array of object and inquiry types were represented by this project. A selection of case studies will be discussed to illustrate the development of collaborative models of study and to demonstrate the impact of broad-reaching, interdisciplinary cooperation to enhance material and cultural understanding, to correct misinformation, and to reveal provenance.