Before coming to the IMA as a volunteer conservation intern, I worked in a cozy, climate-controlled painting conservation studio in Buffalo, NY.  I thought my work here would be similar, however I quickly found this not to be true and that my primary task of assessing and conserving the four artworks on loan to IUPUI would require hours in the hot, blinding sun.

At the beginning of the summer I set out to photo document each one:  Spaces with Iron, Mega Gem, Portrait of History, and East Gate/West Gate.  From this day of documentation I created detailed condition reports. From there, IMA Conservator Richard McCoy, and fellow conservation intern, Nicole Peters (of recent IMA Blog fame) and I returned to campus to wash all four and then wax the two bronze artworks.  By that time summer was in full swing and the 90 degree day with clear skies made for some pretty interesting (and sweaty) work.

Never having waxed a bronze in my life, I read up on the subject to prepare.  Patrick V. Kipper’s The Care of Bronze Sculpture breaks down each step in process of waxing a bronze artwork, as does the IMA blog from last year, Caring for Bronze in the Community.  It seemed easy enough.  Some light blow torching, applying wax, smoothing the wax out evenly, applying the blow torch again, et voilà!  You can imagine it was not so simple.  At ten in the morning the sun was already scorching hot.  Cleaning Will Horwitt’s Spaces with Iron proved difficult when the water was evaporating faster than we could rinse the suds away.

Rinsing off "Spaces with Iron" before waxing can begin.

After scrubbing off grime and bird guano from the artwork, we added heat to the already hot day with the help of a large propane torch.  Monitored by Richard, Nicole and I created an efficient team, with one of us heating the metal and the other waxing the surface.  At first I was a little unsteady with the large blow torch so I worked as the waxer, however my fellow intern Nicole did not share my jitters and helped out immensely.

Nicole Peters uses a blow torch to heat the bronze surface as Abbott Nixon applies a protective layer of wax.

Once finished with Spaces with Iron there was a great sense of satisfaction … for about one minute, then we remembered we were about to do this all over again with the Zhou Brother’s Portrait of History. Unlike the smooth surface of Spaces with Iron, Portrait of History has a mottled texture which proved difficult not only to clean but to wax as well.

Abbott Nixon cleaning the difficult surface of "Portrait of History" By the Zhou Brothers.

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Filed under: Art, Conservation

As you may have heard, the IMA has decided to make several changes to our membership program beginning September 1.  These changes were first announced to our IMA members via email last week. Since then, we have received several good questions about the changes that we thought we should share with our blogging community.

Why did the Museum change the membership structure?

After five years of the same basic membership structure, the Museum was past due for an update. Therefore, after months of research and benchmarking, the Museum’s development department decided to make necessary adjustments to our program in order to keep it current.

I hear the IMA is instituting paid parking in September. Do members park for free?

Yes, all IMA members will receive free parking as a benefit of membership. Simply bring your membership card with you each time you visit the Museum for entry.

 I just purchased my membership in June. Will my benefits change September 1, 2011?

No. Current members who have an expiration date before September 1, 2012 will not experience any changes until their current membership expires.

 Why did you take away the guest from the Individual and Student membership levels?

We want our members to know that the majority of their contribution is going to support the IMA’s efforts to offer free school tours and educational opportunities to the community, and unfortunately the previous structure could not guarantee this.

 Why did you increase the price of the Student and Individual levels?

A slight increase to these levels was necessary in order to stay current, and is in line with our peer institutions.

 Why did you change the name of the Family membership level to Dual/Family?

We changed the name in recognition of the fact that modern families are defined in many ways. We want our members to be able to share the museum with members of their family, whether that be a spouse, life partner, children, grandchildren, or their closest friends.

 Why did you take away the Sustaining level membership?

With our new structure, we have worked to establish benefits at each level that are distinctive and match the various personalities of our visitors. We did not feel that the Sustaining level offered enough benefits to continue offering it as a distinct level. Therefore, the IMA decided to consolidate two of the upper-level member groups, Sustaining and Associate, by phasing out the Sustaining level and reducing the cost of the Associate to $125.

 Why does the Associate level no longer offer reciprocal benefits?

The IMA has continued to grow its reciprocal program over the years. Today, we have one of the most extensive reciprocal membership programs in the country, offering benefits at more than 500 institutions. Therefore, we decided to start the reciprocal benefit at a higher giving level.

 Will docents still continue to receive reciprocal benefits?

Yes. Our docents, who do so much to support the IMA’s audience engagement efforts, will continue to receive reciprocal benefits with the purchase of an Individual or Dual/Family membership.

We thank you for all of your thoughtful questions and your understanding of the changes. The Museum looks forward to offering more family programs, better communications and additional special promotions in the coming year in thanks for the support of its members.

Filed under: Local

Every so often, it’s a good idea to count your blessings. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, and others have given me this advice over the years – sometimes at moments when it’s the last thing I’ve wanted to do. That’s the point, after all – to slow down just enough to clear your head and get a different and – if the exercise is successful – more positive perspective.

Miller House & Garden.

The Miller House and Garden is a preservation project that has many blessings to count. I was reminded of this not long ago when I received a call from a gentleman in North Carolina who had become involved in efforts to preserve Richard Neutra’s Kronish House in Beverly Hills, California. Richard Neutra’s work is a defining element of California modernism – think of Julius Schulman’s photos of his Kauffman house in Palm Springs.  Unfortunately, the Kronish house is considered extremely vulnerable in Beverly Hills’ high-value real estate market and preservation-averse regulatory environment.

For the moment, it seems that the house has been granted a brief reprieve from demolition, which will allow Dion Neutra, Richard’s son, and others interested in the property to pursue a means to acquire the property and put it to a sympathetic use.  It will be a tremendous challenge, no doubt, but preservation is always a challenge, and each project presents its challenges in a unique fashion.

Richard Neutra's Kronish House (photo courtesy of Marc Angeles / Unlimited Style / August 1, 2011).

The Miller House and Garden project, in comparison with many others, almost seems to have had a charmed existence from the start.  While talking about the Kronish house with Dion Neutra, I became even more aware of the extraordinary alignment of stars that helped us along.

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Filed under: Miller House

The moderate weather over the last couple weeks has been glorious. Just to get a break from the relentless 90s helped to heal the body and spirit. And the 60s at night? Oh my lands. Too wondrous for words. I think it did the plants as much good as it did me. Of course, I’d liked to have a bit more rain with the cooler temps, but if it had to stay dry I’ll take cooler and dry over hotter and dry. Sometimes you gotta bargain a bit with nature.

I wanted to touch back on a blog I wrote in January, the first one in 2011. In that blog I talked about Hydrangea paniculata Little Lime™.

This was a new cultivar from Proven Winners^® and Spring Meadow that was supposed to be more dwarf than “Limelight.” Well, according to my plant at home, it really is. I put a two or three gallon plant in last fall. As you may remember (it has been awhile), we had a very wet spring. Hydrangea paniculata prefers wet over dry. I also had mulched my garden with rabbit manure. My soil is already pretty good. Despite all those conditions for large growth I am happy to report my Little Lime™ is in full bloom and barely 2 feet tall. But look how wide it is compared to height. Very nice.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

This summer, the IMA hosted a group of educators for a special teacher workshop inspired by our newest addition to the artwork in 100 Acres, FLOW (Can You See the River?), a project by New York based artist Mary Miss. Our goal for the workshop was to help teachers think about ways to incorporate the project into their classes, with the aim of engaging students in conversations about environmental, social, and economic sustainability while increasing student’s awareness of the White River and its watershed. Being an “art person,” I realized that to engage with this project and truly see the river as Mary instructs, I would need to supplement my arty knowledge with a little bit of science and history. And when you are trying to learn something, I have discovered that the best way to do so is to be locked up with a room full of teachers. So what did I learn? Here are a few highlights:

• Our friends at the Cell Motion BioBus, a 1974 San Francisco transit bus converted into a mobile science laboratory, showed us an awesome little creature called Daphnia,which is found in a range of aquatic (including the White River) environments and are visible to the naked eye (granted, they are still very small). Daphnia are tiny crustaceans with translucent exoskeletons, making them really interesting to view under microscopy.
• The partnership between the IMA and USGS, that has been a crucial part of  Mary Miss’s project, began several years ago when the IMA commissioned artist Maya Lin to create a piece for our collection. Lin was interested in mapping the bottom of a Lost River in Bedford, IN. Lost Rivers get their name from the fact that they flow underground. The USGS helped to map the river bottom and the cavernous ceiling. To learn more about Lin’s piece, appropriately titled Above and Below, check out this Art Babble video.
• There are a ton of similarities between the IMA and the Marian University Eco Lab. Both places benefited from wealthy individuals with ties to Indianapolis industry that also had country estates located along the White River. James Allison’s house (of Allison Transmission and co-founder of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) and the surrounding land were donated to Marian University and became the northern part of the campus, while the IMA’s Oldfields, the home of J.K. Lilly Jr. (of Eli Lily and Company and Eagle Creek Park) was donated to the Art Association of Indianapolis (later becoming the Indianapolis Museum of Art). Behind each of the country estates was a patch of land that was used for various purposes. The land behind Allison’s home was once used as cattle pasture and a driving course (check out the picture below), eventually becoming a 55 acre nature preserve for the university known as the Marian University EcoLab. The backyard of the Lilly family was also used for many things, such as farmland, a stone quarry (helping to build nearby Interstate 65), and now as 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park.

A great Aha! moment from this workshop was my realization of the genius of Mary Miss’s project title: FLOW (Can You See the River?). She is asking us to literally look at the river, but also to see the many ways in which it affects our lives. The teachers that attended the workshop helped me see the power of the word “flow.” Sure it refers to the movement of water,  but we also use it to describe the circulation of blood in the body or the way traffic moves (or doesn’t) during rush hour. To me it implies a Zen-like interconnectedness in the ways in which we share biological features with a creature like Daphnia or a shared history like that of EcoLab and 100 Acres.

Miss’s project opens September 22nd, which means you’ve got a little time to do some research to find out how you are connected to the river. So c’mon, learn something about the river. I dare you.

Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park, Local, Public Programs