Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

Ever since Indiana Jones began his pulpy adventure series into far-flung and exotic locations, the discovery of artifacts has gone from a virtually unheard of profession to a glamorous one, seemingly designed for a dichotomous group of swashbuckling rogues and charming intellectuals.  Archaeology has evolved (much like its subjects) from the cavalier work of aristocratic colonialists like Lord Elgin and Captain Cook to a field far more accessible to the public.  Some of said discoveries may even take place in, wonder of wonders, Indiana.  Mine was free of cannibalism and international conflict, but not, I promise, free of intrigue.

Now, Dear Reader, you can by a mere flick of the clicking finger discover what we’ve discovered at the IMA, which, I think, is pretty rad in the stealthy world of museum administration.  Most recently, what we’ve unearthed is not from Jaipur or Nimrud, but from an apparently long-forgotten box on a shelf.  But sometimes it happens that real life discoveries are just as romantic as those of Dr. Jones’s folklore.

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CoOL logo

I remember the first time I saw the CoOL web page (Conservation Online).  It was about 1995 and I was a student working in the Lilly Library’s Book Conservation department when Jim Canary told me to check it out.

I really can’t think of a topic that isn’t covered at CoOL.  I can remember spending hours digging around all of the pages when I first saw it.  It seemed to answer all of my questions about my interest in the profession and point to ones that I hadn’t thought of.  Have a look at all of the “Conservation Topics,” or look at the number of national and international organizations who have their home pages associated with CoOL.  Dig around there.  It’s amazing.

Perhaps most importantly, though, look at the ConsDistList, an e-mail distribution list that at last count had just under 10,000 subscribers.  This dist list has been going strong since 1988 and has been one of the most important ways for conservators to share and find information on a truly international level.  It has been the central hub for information sharing within the conservation community.

Yesterday that changed when Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources announced that Stanford is no longer going to support CoOL and that the ConsDistList had produced its last instance.  Bang.  It’s over.

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As the IMA website indicates, we have taken official possession of the Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana. This will make the second National Historic Landmark property the IMA has in its collection (Oldfields-Lilly House and Gardens being the first). How’s that for bragging rights! As a practical matter however, home ownership is not all fun and games in this situation. Ahead lies a road of challenges for the staff working on MHG teams.

Columbus is an hour’s drive south of Indy, which makes it difficult to explore the house and conduct business with the current local staff. Director of Lilly House Operations Bradley Brooks, head of our team of six, has spent a lot of time on the phone and making the trek south in the run-up to taking possession of the property. He has interacted with everyone from members of the Miller family to a nephew of  Eero Saarinen. Bradley has been, and continues to be a very busy beaver.

The task of converting a residential property into a museum showcase has been an educational experience for our team, so far. It has forced us to look at all the things we do here at the museum, a lot of which we take for granted, and formulate how to adapt and transplant these practices to a former family home fifty miles away.

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And now, a word from IMA’s Richard McCoy:

Ellen Carrlee is an objects conservator who lives in Alaska.  We’ve never met in person and only know each other through these internets.  Along with our other friend and objects conservator, Daniel Cull, we’ve decided to take turns this week writing aboutour ideas for “New Directions” for the American Institute for Conservation (AIC).  I was a guest blogger for Ellen on Monday. My post up there in Alaska is filled with lots of crazy ideas.  On Friday, Daniel Cull will make a post on his blog… who knows what he’s cooking up.  Here’s Ellen’s offering:

Straight from Wikipedia:

Elitism is the belief or attitude that those individuals who are considered members of the elite—a select group of people with outstanding personal abilities, intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes—are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most weight; whose views and/or actions are most likely to be constructive to society as a whole; or whose extraordinary skills, abilities or wisdom render them especially fit to govern.

First things first: we need AIC and I respect the vital role it plays in our professionalism.  You could say I was suckled at the AIC teat.  Back in 1993, I was trying to find someone who would tell me what the heck “conservation” was.  I made a long distance phone call to Jay Krueger, who my uncle told me was a friend of a friend, and one of this mysterious breed called “conservators.”  It was quite a short conversation, and the upshot was “ask AIC.”  I sent away for their brochures (by mail!) and poured over the requirements of the programs.  It was the first of many times I turned to AIC to tell me what I needed to do.

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I just re-read my article in CeROArt; not because I’m a total  narcissist, but because a friend of mine told me yesterday that there was lots of typos in it.  The article, “Collaborating in the Public’s Domain”, was published this Wednesday and is about the potential for conservators to find news to work together to preserve cultural property with the help of museum visitors.  Daniel Cull reviewed the article here.

I’m kind of surprised that Mr. Cull didn’t beat me up about the 10 or 20 typos in the article.  After thinking about this for a while I’ve come to realize that the typos don’t bother me.  Really they don’t.  I’m more interested in the ideas, the Content written with a big “C,” and feedback.

CeROArt

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