Volume 17, Number 1, Jan 1995, p.4

Regional News

Pacific Northwest

Sarah Melching spoke to Seattle Area Archivists on the "Care and Preservation of Archival Collections" at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. The presentation was part of AIC's outreach effort.

Marie Laibinis, now a second year student at Winterthur, interned at the Portland Art Museum during July and August. She inventoried and rehoused the Classical and Asian Bronze Collection.

Sandy Troon will be editing a conservation column for the ITNET Journal , a quarterly publication on international contemporary tapestry issues. For more information contact Sandy at Oregon Textile Workshop, 2335 SW 87th Ave., Portland, OR 97225. Telephone: (503)292-5125.

Regional Reporter:

Jodie Utter
5023 25th S.W.
Seattle, WA 98106 206/938-6190

Texas

Csilla Felker-Dennis carried out an IMS General Survey for the African American Museum in Dallas.

In September, Dee Ardrey began a Mellon Fellowship in paintings conservation at the Menil Collection in Houston, under the supervision of Chief Conservator, Carol Mancusi-Ungaro. Together with Liz Lunning, paper conservator, they have been preparing Cy Twombly works for the opening of the Cy Twombly Gallery, adjacent to the Menil Collection, in February 1995. Dee is also working on several projects investigating artists materials based on the paintings of Franz Kline, Piet Mondrian, and Yves Klein. Recently, Carol was invited to speak at the Midwest Regional Conservation Guild Conference held at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and also at the Getty Conservation Institute.

Ann Zanikos of San Antonio is working on the only known portrait of Rosanna Travis, wife of the Alamo hero, William Barret Travis. She is also treating a group of portraits of Texas Governors for the Capitol Restoration Project.

Richard Trela of the Panhandle Plains Museum in Canyon, Texas, gave a talk on Art in Transit for the Northwest Texas Museum Association.

Marilyn Lenz, of the Texas Memorial Museum in Austin, did a conservation survey for the Higgens Armory Museum in Worcester, MA. The Materials Conservation Lab at TMM has three preprogram interns, Amanda Blosser, Tracy Richardson, and Pat Strong working on objects for an exhibit of the Tinker Collection, a group of Latin American cowboy artifacts that will open in January.

Mark Van Gelder and Jessica Johnson, both of Austin, collaborated on a treatment of WoeMan, a sculpture by Judy Chicago. The work is part of the Holocaust Project, an exhibit on display at the Laguna Gloria Art Museum.

The second group of conservation students began classes last August at the Preservation and Conservation Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin, Graduate School of Library and Information Science. The students are: Margaret Bolger Brown, Austin, TX; Donia Conn, New Prague, MN; Mary (Betsy) Haude, Austin, TX; Ethel Hellman, Williamsburg, VA; Susan Russick, Dekalb, IL; Michelle Smith, Camas, WA. This three year program consists of coursework, a summer project and an internship in a recognized conservation laboratory.

Regional Reporter:

Jessie Johnson
Materials Conservation Laboratory
Texas Memorial Museum
10100 Burnet Road
Austin, Texas 78758 512/471-6090

Rocky Mountain Region

Lori Mellon, Rocky Mountain Conservation Center Director, attended the annual meetings of both the NIC and the Association of Regional Conservation Centers in Washington, DC. She is also developing plans for an RMCC Field Services Office. Before and After photographs by RMCC photographer, Jeff Wells, have been published in NIC's new booklet, Collections Care: Catalyst for Funds and in the Association of Regional Conservation Center's Messages from the Past: Conserving Our Cultural Heritage. He also designed RMCC's new brochure.

RMCC welcomes three new conservators to its staff. Eileen Clancy, formerly of NEDCC, heads the paper lab and brings specialties in parchment and archival materials as well as paper and photographs. Paintings conservators, D. Hays Shoop and Victoria Montana Ryan, graduates of the University of London Courtauld Institute of Art and Queen's University respectively, are already conserving a mural cycle from a Denver Public Schools elementary school and conducting on-site exams of several collections.

Carmen F. Bria, Jr., and Camilla J. Van Vooren of the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts (WCCFA) helped salvage three wall murals by the noted regional muralist Allen Tupper True. The murals (ca. 1940) were painted directly on the wall of a classroom building at the Graland Country Day School in Denver, Colorado which was scheduled for demolition in August 1994. The conservators worked in conjunction with the Gerald H. Phipps Construction Company to successfully remove the 6' x 10' paintings. Following conservation of the murals, they will be placed in a newly constructed building on the same site.

Camilla chaired a panel discussion on Allied Professionals in the Museum Field at the annual meeting of the Mountain-Plains Museum Association in Corpus Christi, Texas. Elaine Sirokman, Administrative Assistant, also represented WCCFA at this same meeting.

Len Evans, WCCFA conservation technician, joined Carmen and Camilla for a week at the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City conserving four large murals painted by Gilbert White in 1927-28. These murals were a memorial to the Oklahomans who died in World War I, and were commissioned by Frank Phillips, famed oil man, whose son died in the war.

Vinod Daniel and Terri Schindel conducted a Non-Toxic Fumigation Workshop at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. A section of a tree, "The Monaco Tree", weighing 6,000 pounds was treated.

Terri was elected to the Textile Specialty Group's nominating committee during the AIC meeting in Nashville.

Abigail Mack is currently working on a preservation upgrade of the objects and the exhibition environment in the North American Indian Hall at the Denver Museum of Natural History. She will also be doing private and contract work in the area.

Jude Southward is currently working at the Denver Museum of Natural History on their IMS grant to complete condition reports and upgrade the storage environment of the Museum's headdresses and feathered ceremonial collections.

Regional Reporter:

Diane Danielson
Rocky Mountain Conservation Center
2420 South University Blvd.
Denver, CO 80208 303/733-2712

New Mexico

Rome Prize recipient, Bettina Raphael, has returned from her six-month stay in Rome; she reports a productive and happy time abroad.

Ellen Rosenthal, a recent graduate of the Institute of Archaeology, London, has begun a Getty Grant Program postgraduate internship in anthropological conservation at the Museum of New Mexico's Conservation Section. Two pre-program interns from Sante Fe's Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) have also begun work at the Museum of New Mexico; Denise Scott, under a grant from the McCune Foundation, and Elizabeth Gorman.

David Rasch reports working with Deborah Bell at the Smithsonian Institution on problems associated with pesticides containing mercury at the U.S. National Herbarium. David also assisted in designing a pest management program for the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

Regional Reporter:

Landis Smith
208 A Gonzales Road
Sante Fe, NM 87501 505/466-0475

San Diego

Betty Engel participated in the Phoenix Art Museum's exhibition: "This Old Painting: The Magic of Art Conservation", during October. The exhibition included a functional conservation studio, where conservators treated various objects from the museum's collection. Betty joined with Glen Wharton and John Griswold over the past nineteen months in the reconstruction design phase, now successfully completed, of the House of Hospitality, Balboa Park. They have been working as consultants to the Project Architect, M. Wayne Donaldson, FAIA, together with Project Historian, William Chandler. Also involved was Rosa Lowinger, who contributed condition studies of a sculpture by Donal Hord.

The Balboa Art Conservation Center welcomes Laura Downey, paper conservator, to the staff and Elisabeth Reissner, Fellow, to the Painting Conservation Department. Laura comes to BACC from an internship at the Wes- tern Regional Paper Conservation Laboratory/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco while Elisabeth is a recent graduate of the Courtauld Institute, London, with a Conservation of Easel Paintings Diploma. BACC also welcomes Karen Abend as a pre-program student.

Alfredo Antognini, conservator of paintings, had an exhibition of his recent paintings at the Alcala Gallery, La Jolla, during September.

Regional Reporter:

Frances Prichett
5235 35th Street
San Diego, CA 92116 619/283-0368/5011

Greater Los Angeles and Santa Barbara

Klaus Lindenberger began a year of study last August in the paintings section at the Los Angeles County Museum Conservation Center. Klaus received funding for the position from the Carl Duisberg Society and will specialize in the treatment of 20th century paintings. His projects have included paintings by John McLaughlin, Adolph Gottlieb, and John Graham.

Elma O'Donohue joined the paintings section at Los Angeles County Museum of Art last September for her 4th-year internship from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Last fall Elma restored a pair of small panels by Bartolo di Fredi, in preparation for the reinstallation of the early Italian Renaissance galleries at LACMA. The reinstallation, which opened in December, is accompanied by a special exhibition focusing on the early Italian collection which will continue through February. A short catalogue of the collection published for the exhibition includes articles by Joe Fronek and staff on panel painting techniques and materials.

Laurie German, furniture conservator, has a new address: P.O. Box 24 C40, Los Angeles, CA 90024, phone: 310/289-4429.

In September, Denise Domergue spoke on conservation during a seminar at the University of Judaism entitled "The Informed Collector".

The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History sponsored a noon lecture series on conservation for faculty, staff, and students on campus. Topics included a demonstration on the use of lasers to clean stone by Meg Abraham, archaeology/conservation science student volunteering in the lab; the treatment of Kung San artifacts at the Peabody Museum by Jo Hill; and a discussion of conservation treatments and philosophies at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum by postgraduate intern Mary Gissing. Also included in the lecture series was a showing of The Fine Art of Faking It, a 60-minute video program discussing the use of science in the interest of art.

In October, Emily Dunn accepted a two year contract in the Objects Conservation Department at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she will be involved primarily with general collection projects.

Last fall, Duane Chartier of ConservArt Associates performed a relatively difficult relocation and installation of a 4800 lb. glass sculpture by Susanne Pascal. The work entitled Seated Torso had been sculpted in situ from a much larger block of glass in the artist's backyard in Beverly Hills. The relocation was complicated because the weight of the sculpture was unknown, due to wide variations in the density of the glass. Moving the sculpture required a 65-ton crane. The sculpture was lifted onto a 65' flatbed truck and transported to Charlottesville, VA, where it was installed by lowering it through the roof onto a fountain base in a new private carriage museum owned by Mr. John Kluge.

Sara Reiter accepted a one year National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Textile Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art beginning in September, 1994.

Stephanie Cooper has been accepted into the Art Conservation Program at Buffalo State College, where she began the three year program this past September.

Cara Varnell has just returned from a one month research trip to Great Britain and Europe researching current methods of tapestry conservation, display and storage. She will present a paper to the AIC Textile Specialty Group in Minneapolis on one or more aspects of her trip.

Catherine McLean is overseeing a large upholstery conservation project at LACMA funded in part by the J. Paul Getty Trust. Upholstery conservator Elizabeth Lahikainen will be among the participants in the project.

The Paintings Conservation Department of the J. Paul Getty Museum welcomes Gene Karraker, who has joined the staff as Conservator of Frames. Hélène DuBois, who arrived at the Getty in October from the Hamilton Kerr Institute at Cambridge University, is the department's intern for the coming year.

This fall Elisabeth Mention spoke as the opening night lecturer at the Phoenix Art Museum on general painting conservation issues, and Mark Leonard spoke at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C on "Luminous Illusions: The Development of Oil Painting Techniques in Italy".

The J. Paul Getty Museum Antiquities Conservation Department, with the assistance of the Decorative Arts Conservation mount makers, completed the installation of the exhibition of antiquities from the collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman. The show, "A Passion for Antiquities", will be at the museum through January 15. The department had two visiting conservators recently. Stone and plaster conservator Alexander N. Zainchkovsky from the State Russian Museum spent two weeks observing methods of conservation in the laboratory. Architectural conservator Thomas Roby spent a week in the lab and lectured on his work at the Petra site in Jordan. Jeff Maish recently attended the 4th annual conference on Non-Destructive Testing of Works of Art in Berlin. He also delivered a paper at the AIC meeting in Nashville on the documentation and conservation of gold wreaths in the collection. Julie Unruh began her 1994-95 internship in the department. Julie recently graduated from the Queen's Art Conservation Program in Kingston, Ontario.

Jeff and Susan Maish became proud parents of daughter Erika Angela Maish, born September 27. Susan will be on leave for 6 months.

Regional Reporters:

Virginia Rasmussen
Conservation Center
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036 213/857-6168

Sasha Stollman
Wharton & Griswold Associates, Inc.
549 Hot Springs Rd.
Santa Barbara, CA 93108 805/565-3639

San Francisco Bay Area

Kathleen Orlenko and Debra Fox returned to St. Herman's Theological Seminary in Kodiak, Alaska to continue disaster recovery of a water-damaged historical collection in August. They were joined by Hoover Institution Archivist Olga Verhouvskoy Dunlop. The collection, which is owned by the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Alaska, consists of primary source material, printed matter, and artifacts which reflect the cultural and religious life of Russian Alaska from the 18th to the 20th century. The team worked to address the physical and organizational needs of the collection. Debra and Olga returned in October to complete stabilization of the collection. As well, training was given to the staff on handling and construction of protective enclosures. A report on the significance of the collection and its recovery from disaster was given to the Alaska State Historical Society at its November meeting. The initial effort to thaw, separate and dry 52 cartons of frozen material was carried out in August of 1993. Kathleen, Olga, and Debra remain as consultants for the continuing care and development of this collection.

Zukor and Noennig Conservation has made some staff changes since former assistant, Diane Fullick, left for the Winterthur Graduate Program. Paper conservator Janice Mae Schopfer joins Z & N on a part time basis while continuing with the Western Regional Paper Conservation Lab. Angela Sinacropi has become a valuable part time assistant. Angela has been assisting with projects at the Oakland Museum and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The lab has been busy with private projects from very large modern prints by Frank Stella, Jim Dine and Richard Estes to the Gleeson Library collection of wood block prints by Eric Gill, some no larger than a postage stamp.

The Paintings Conservation Department at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco has undertaken an extensive conservation program in preparation for re-installation of the Palace of the Legion of Honor, scheduled to reopen in November, 1995. Head Paintings Conservator Carl Grimm attended the Varnishes Colloquium in Ottawa, Canada, in September. Paintings Conservation is pleased to welcome Carrie Thomas, Getty Advanced Intern. Carrie, a former graduate of the conservation training program at the University of Canberra, Australia, was most recently a conservator at the Victorian Center for Conservation of Cultural Materials, Melbourne, where she was mainly treating 19th-century Australian and British paintings; she will be concentrating on 19th and early 20th century paintings from the Museum's collection. Alina Remba is the new Third Year Intern from Buffalo State College. Alina is concentrating currently on the treatments of a Dutch painting by Dirck Hals and a Flemish painting attributed to Jacob van Strij. The Museums are also happy to have pre-program interns Amy Henderson and Elise Effmann, who are especially helpful with current exhibitions, and Paul Chenowith, who is vastly upgrading the computer capabilities of the studio. Former Assistant Paintings Conservator Jennifer Sherman, who has accepted the position of Kress Postgraduate Fellow at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York University, reports that she is very happy in her new position.

Sarah Gates, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Textile Conservator, completed the 3-week course, "Scientific Principles of Textile Conservation," in Budapest taught by Dr. Agnes Timar Balazsy. She reports that it was an incredible course and can't recommend it enough, even if they blistered away with no air conditioning, not even fans, in 100 degree-plus weather. Dr. Timar and Dinah Eastop of the Textile Conservation Center, Hampton Court, will be publishing a book on the same subject with Butterworths next year. Textile intern JoAnne Hackett completed a very successful summer internship with Carey Howlett of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation where she completed more than the expected number of upholstery projects. She will be applying to grad programs for Fall '95 and is completing chemistry classes at City College. The Department welcomes Lorraine Lune of Sacramento, who will also be applying to grad school for Fall '95. She has done previous work on baskets at the State Indian Museum. The Department was awarded one of the few NEA equipment grants for the purchase of a new tapestry workframe and dye room equipment. They have followed it up with an application for a tapestry conservator to help conserve the huge 16th c. Triumph of Fortitude. Former FAMSF textile conservator Birgitta Anderton has moved back to San Francisco after over ten years in England.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's paper conservation lab (WRPCL) moved to the top floor of Crown Point Press and is enjoying the large north-facing windows and proximity to the printing operation of the Press. WRPCL will be in this location until May 1995, when staff members hope the Legion of Honor renovations will be complete for their return to a new lab. The recent move was made easier by the help and clever carpentry abilities of Luis Larrazábal, WRPCL's new Getty funded intern. Luis is the paper conservator at the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico. Betsy Talbert is the lab's new pre-program volunteer, presently working on a cased photograph rehousing project. Bob Futernick recently chaired sessions of "Interdisciplinary Cooperation in Managing the Conservation of Our Cultural Heritage", a three day meeting sponsored by the Getty Conservation Institute and the National Institute for Conservation of Cultural Property. In August, Janice Mae Schopfer attended a week-long course "Preservation of Photographs" at George Eastman House, cosponsored by RIT Image Permanence Institute, in Rochester, New York. Instructors for the course included James Reilly, Debbie Hess Norris, Grant Romer, and Doug Nishimura.

Elisabeth Cornu served on the planning committee of the symposium Painted Wood: History and Conservation held November 12-14, 1994, in Williamsburg, Virginia. At the conference Alejandro Reyes-Vizzuett presented a poster on the 15th c. polychromed ceiling belonging to the Fine Arts Museums. Mark Harpainter and Chris Augerson co-authored the paper "The Painted Furniture of Arthur and Lucia Mathews 1906-1920".

At the Asian Art Museum Teresa Heady, textile conservator, has joined the staff on a part-time basis.

James Bernstein and Debra Evans taught a week long course in inpainting works of art on paper at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies in Mt. Carroll, Illinois. For those of you who haven't been to the Campbell Center, Debra highly recommends it for its beautiful environment (a small college campus that's practically an arboretum with its variety of trees), its friendly atmosphere (participants stay in dorms and eat together), well supplied classrooms, and local haunted house (an amazing work of outsider art). In November and December, Jim worked on a large Mark Rothko painting at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Donna Brock is serving her first pre-program internship in paper conservation with Carrie Ann Calay and Julia Thompson. Donna is also taking chemistry courses at Contra Costa College. Paloma Garcia-Añoveros will also join Julia and Carrie Ann in January 1995, commencing her private practice in paintings conservation. Paloma received her training at the National School for Conservation and Restoration in Madrid, Spain, and she is currently completing a Master's Degree in Museum Studies at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda. The Oakland Museum just completed an IMS-funded survey of its photographic collections, with consultant James Reilly of the Image Permanence Institute. During the project two collections encompassing more than 100,000 nitrate and acetate negatives were segregated and rehoused, and plans developed with assistance from Harris Environmental Systems to construct dedicated nitrate and acetate cold storage vaults for the museum's large photographic holdings. The Oakland Museum just opened an exhibit celebrating 25 years of collecting California. The exhibit essentially "turns the museum inside out," and includes a section that explores conservation ethics and approaches. Conservator John Burke, Assistant Conservator Krassimir Gatev, Conservation Technician Valerie Huaco, and JFK intern Paloma García-Añoveros all worked on treatments for the exhibition. The Oakland Museum is currently conducting an IMS-funded survey of its sculpture collections, with particular attention to outdoor sculptures. Dale Kronkright is the consulting conservator on the project, which will be completed in Fe-bruary. Research continues at the Oakland Museum Conservation Center on practical methods to decrease fading in framed artworks through the use of low oxygen atmospheres. Paloma assisted in the research as part of a summer internship in conjunction with her JFK internship. In August, John was in Jamaica as part of a UNESCO Cultural Heritage project, visiting museu ms and archaeological sites, and consulting on the development of a national conservation laboratory and conservation training programs.

Theresa and Bill Andrews are pleased to announce the birth of their son, August William, on September 21st. She continues her private practice in photograph conservation between feedings.

Lucy Pearce has returned to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Paintings Conservation Department to work on a series of paintings by J.C. Leyendecker from the Haggin Museum in Stockton. She is also assisting in treating SFMOMA permanent collection works for the new museum opening in January 1995.

Ria German completed her Art Conservation Degree at Buffalo State College in August, and joined SFMOMA as the Getty Fellow in Paintings. So far she has treated works by Josef Albers, Willem De Kooning, Nathan Oliveira, Georges Roualt, and Ethel Schwabacher. Narelle Jarry is the Getty Fellow in Paper Conservation at SFMOMA. She recently completed her conservation training at the University of Canberra in Australia. She is working on a series of architectural drawings by Mario Botta, architect of the new SFMOMA building, to be included in an inaugural exhibition showcasing his dramatic museum design.

Paula De Cristofaro was instrumental in directing the move of the SFMOMA Painting Collection over the summer. She is now completing treatments on a number of permanent collection works including Andy Warhol's monumental National Velvet.

Neil Cockerline gave a presentation on conservation at the Haggin Museum on October 20th, as part of their annual lecture series. He focused on the treatments of works from their collection including a recently completed treatment of a large 19th c. painting by Daniel Ridgway Knight.

Paloma García-Añoveros is completing an internship in the SFMOMA Paintings Conservation Laboratory as part of her graduate studies at JFK University. She has been working on the treatment of a painting by Wolfgang Paalen.

Regional Reporter:

Theresa Andrews
4341 Edgewood Avenue
Oakland, CA 94602 510/482-4698

(Special thanks to Debra Evans and Pauline Mohr for assisting Theresa by compiling news for this issue!)

Hawai'i

Laurence Pace was Facilitator for the Western Museums Association Preconference Workshop entitled "Cultural Consideration in the Care and Conservation of Ethnographic Objects and Organic Materials," sponsored by the Bishop Museum and the American Institute for Conservation. Speakers at the Workshop were Karen Coote from the Australian Museum, Dana Olores, Toni Han and Laura Gorman from the Bishop Museum. Included in the workshop was a tour of the Bishop Museum artifact storage facilities and the Conservation Labs led by Linda Hee and Downey Manoukian. Linda also took part in the "Recycle Your Museum" Seminar and Workshop. Laurence Pace also attended and gave a brief presentation at the Institute of Museum Services Field Hearing held during the WMA Conference in Honolulu.

Julie Ancheta, the administrative assistant for Bishop Museum Conservation Services, has left her position to return to school full time. She has been replaced by Sheri Wilson.

Linda Hee attended the "Pest, Insect and Fungus Management" conference in Boston and visited labs in the area. Dana Olores, Collections Care Intern at Bishop Museum, travelled to Washington, D.C., Boston, Santa Fe, and the Northwest coast visiting museums and cultural centers. Bishop Museum has hosted several interns from Pacific Islands over the past months who spent time in the conservation labs. Pacific Islanders attending the WMA meeting also visited the lab. Laura Gorman met with Neal Putt of ICCROM to discuss training initiatives in the Pacific.

Greg Thomas attended the 3 day BEVA Course taught by Gustave Berger in Skaneateles, New York. He also spent a couple of months with Perry Huston on the Mainland.

Regional Reporter:

Laurence Pace
2109 A Liliha St.
Honolulu, HI 96817 808/595-7500

About Regional News

Once again, it seems appropriate to remind all of our membership that the Regional News Column is for all members! While we are most fortunate to have a great group of regional reporters, it is impossible for each of them to contact every member three times a year to solicit professional and personal news for the Newsletter. Therefore, it is up to you to contact your regional reporter with any news you would like to share with the membership.

For this issue, no news was reported from the following regional reporter, thus I encourage you to send in your Oklahoma news in the future!

Oklahoma:
Gayle Clements
Gilcrease Museum
1400 Gilcrease Museum Road
Tulsa, OK 74127-2100 Ph: (918)596-2780

Remember the deadline for the Regional News Column for the May issue is March 6.