Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

It’s official – time flies. And I can’t stop thinking about it. Thursday night while watching my most recent guilty pleasure, Swingtown, the teacher asked the students to write a paper on the subjective nature of time. I hadn’t really thought about it like that before, but time – like art – certainly is subjective. My compulsive thinking about time started with my boss, Leann Standish, leaving the IMA last week after five amazing years at the IMA and moving onto do big things at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I made her a scrapbook capturing moments with our team since my first day here nearly 4 years ago and this too has made me keenly aware of time. Am I the only one completely baffled that 2008 is half over?

It’s been a good year so far. I celebrated my “golden birthday” this year when I turned 28 on March 28th, which supposedly brings luck (I can’t complain.) Many of my girlfriends’ male counterparts have turned 30 this year (mine included) which means lots of parties and duh, birthday cake. Another highlight of 2008? Obviously the release of the Sex and the City movie. I have inadvertently begun asking myself questions a’ la Carrie Bradshaw. What does it all mean? When it comes to time, is it really on our side? (Gazing out my imaginary NYC apartment window with my tank top and “Amber” necklace…)

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As a new segment this summer, the IMA Blog will be featuring a Tuesday Photo of the Week, highlighting juicy tidbits of info including works of art, artists, news, events, or locations.

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I work on the “service level” of the IMA, which is really another not-so-pleasant-way of saying the basement. But this is fine with me because that’s where the majority of the IMA’s art lives (just about everything that is not currently on view is down here except the works of art on paper, which are stored on the ground level). While I wouldn’t call the service level Fort Knox, it’s the most secure level of the building (as far as I know there are no actual tanks in the security department’s arsenal). I’m an assistant conservator of objects and I work with seven other regular staff conservators, two conservation technicians, one administrative assistant, and one graduate intern from Buffalo State College. We’re divided into our areas of specialty: objects, paintings, textiles, and works of art on paper. In short, the conservation department is responsible for the physical well-being of the entire collection while it’s on view, in storage, or on loan to other museums. In addition to being care-takers of the art, we also research the collection in an effort to answer questions related to its condition, structure, technology, and authenticity. If you want more general and specific information about art conservation go here.

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