Conservation

What is Conservation?

Conservation, defined as the preservation of cultural property for future generations, is one of the primary missions of the IMA. The Museum’s conservation staff conserves, maintains, preserves, and researches the Museum’s collection, adhering to national and international codes of ethics and care. Conservators and conservation scientists are professionals with advanced training in art history, science, studio art, and related fields with exceptional expertise in their area of specialization.

Preventative conservation strives to prevent deterioration by controlling and monitoring the environment that works of art are exposed to, such as exposure to light and ultraviolet radiation, maintaining proper temperature and humidity levels, and by establishing standards for exhibition, storage, handling, and transport.
Remedial conservation stabilizes and/or repairs deterioration that has taken place with safe, reversible treatment methods and materials. The object is thoroughly examined and all phases of examination and treatment are documented with written reports and photographs.
Conservation science conducts scientific analysis and testing to address questions about material composition, artists’ techniques, deterioration mechanisms, age and/or authenticity and conducts research and testing towards advances in conservation materials and/or techniques. Technical Art History is a term sometimes used to describe the blended knowledge and skills of the curator/art historian, conservator, and conservation scientist in interdisciplinary and collaborative study and research.
Training the conservation staff trains students for entry into graduate level formal programs in art conservation and accepts interns from the training programs as part of their degree requirements. The IMA Conservation Department has an established history of training and mentoring emerging conservation professionals and it remains committed to continuing this tradition.
Specialized documentation for preservation of works by living artists; especially installation or site-sensitive artwork, electronic or media-based art, conceptual art, ephemeral art, or art made with unsustainable materials is a new area of conservation expertise.

IMA and Conservation

The Museum’s professional conservation efforts started in the 1940s with the then John Herron Art Museum contracting well-known first generation American conservators such as Sheldon Keck, James Roth, and Louis Pomerantz to preserve some of the Museum’s finest paintings. The Museum became a charter member of the Intermuseum Laboratory (Oberlin, Ohio) in 1952, and incorporated a small conservation laboratory into the newly renamed Indianapolis Museum of Art in its new building in 1970. In 1975, the appointment of Martin J. Radecki as Chief Conservator led to the implementation of the American Institute for the Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works ethics and standards for practice and established a preventative program for collections care. Beginning in 1977, graduate program-trained conservators were hired, and in the same year, the IMA established a Regional Services Program to assist institutions (primarily in Indiana) with their conservation needs. Regional Services conservators have provided conservation work for over 220 institutions or public collections and over 300 individual collectors, including conservation survey assessments throughout Indiana, as well as Illinois and Kentucky as part of the Conservation Assessment Program or Institute of Museum Services programs, and on-site mural conservation such as the enormous Thomas Hart Benton mural cycle at Indiana University. The IMA Conservation Department is staffed by conservators with specializations in paintings, works on paper, textiles & fashion, and objects & variable art, as well as conservation technicians, a part-time photographer/imaging specialist, and an administrative assistant in a 7,700-square-foot laboratory housed in the museum’s main building.

A 2,000 square foot state-of-the-art conservation science laboratory opening in 2010 will complement the existing paintings, paper, objects and textiles conservation laboratories. The science lab and specialty treatment labs will work in tandem to support the understanding and preservation of the Museum’s permanent collections. This ambitious initiative is made possible by a generous $2.6 million grant from Lilly Endowment which will provide for the instrumentation and renovations necessary to build a scientific laboratory. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $1.5 million challenge grant to establish an endowment for a senior conservation scientist position. The Mellon Foundation also provided $250,000 to recruit and hire the scientist while matching funds are raised.

The Challenge

The IMA must raise an additional $1.5 million to secure the $1.5 million matching grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. An additional $1,000,000 is needed to reconfigure the current conservation footprint. A longer-term fundraising goal will endow conservation operations in perpetuity. For information on how to contribute to this project, email development@imamuseum.org or call 317-923-1331 x 434.