When I came to the IMA in 2002, one of the areas assigned to me was the Garden Terrace building and the adjacent Four Seasons Garden.  The building was constructed in 1939-40 by J. K Lilly, Jr. as a recreation center for the estate, including an indoor bowling alley plus indoor and outdoor swimming pools. The surrounding gardens were designed by Louisville-based landscape architect Anne Bruce Haldeman (the garden’s restoration and interpretation of the place of women in landscape architecture is a goal of the IMA Environmental and Historic Preservation Division).

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Maybe it’s the environment, but around here I’m always obsessing about the littlest things. The other day I devoted eight hours to looking at and learning more about some insects and pests. Needless to say the presence of these things at a museum can lead to big problems for art.

I visited the locally-owned, but world-renown, Insects Limited headquarters to take part in a one-day workshop on museum pest management. Sure I learned about pests in graduate school, but it’s been a while since I studied a bug under a microscope. And to top it off, I had my picture taken by Crista Pack of recent NYT fame.

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