Volume 2, Number 2, May 1980, p.5

Special Projects

Colorado

The Rocky Mountain Regional Conservation Center has undertaken, with excellent results, a study of photographic methods for retrieving illegible information contained in documents and maps for the Bureau of Land Management. This research is being done by the RMRCC photographer, Mark Canjar. The research will provide the BLM with a foundation for a very long term preservation project aimed at conserving the documents and the information they contain. These documents contain information related to the earliest surveys of the United States. The Center finds this a fascinating project and a real surprise to discover such an archive in Denver.

Hawaii

The Pacific Regional Conservation Center has been actively engaged in the preparation of 300 artifacts to be included in the exhibition: "Hawaii--The Royal Isles." This will be a travelling exhibition and will be seen at seven major museums on the mainland during the next two years.

Los Angeles

The J. Paul Getty Museum Antiquities Conservation Laboratory recently completed a collaborative project with Rockwell International Space Division. The Museum acquired an Etruscan bronze votive trident, in two parts, each measuring approximately ten feet long. The bronze required infusion under vacuum with benzotriazole. Since the Museum does not own a vacuum chamber large enough to accommodate the bronze, engineers at Rockwell generously donated the use of one of their large chambers for the treatment. The bronze was taken to the Space Division of Rockwell in a container built at the Museum, along with sufficient BTA in ethanol and the anti-corrosion treatment was carried out there with the help of Rockwell technicians.

The Paper Mill in conjunction with Jim Druzik of the Norton Simon Museum is continuing to work on a classification system for nontechnical art people that serves as a guide to the use of proper conservation materials. Jim Druzik is doing most of the lab work and Wally Dawes of the Paper Mill is acquiring new materials. The objective will be to publish their findings ("The Preventative Conservation of Art"). At this point the project is in its gray format and needs further refinement and more time.

San Francisco

Along with the frenzied activity of making the AIC program arrangements the Conservation Laboratory of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has also prepared a new educational film "Paintings: Rx for Survival." This film will be showing concurrently with the AIC Annual Meeting in San Francisco.