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

I had the great pleasure of attending the opening party for 100 Acres: the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park a couple of weeks ago.  It was a very festive celebration for Indy’s newest cultural attraction and all of the hard work and dedication it took to take it from concept to reality.  With the exception of a little soggy ground, due to the record June rains, the party went off without a hitch.  The Park is lovely!
The path from the IMA Main Building over to the park is short and sweet as it meanders through the gardens along the way.
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Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park, Guest Bloggers

This post was co-written by myself and Jennifer Geigel Mikulay.

Artworks that are displayed outdoors face different risks than those that are kept inside. The pigeon, for example, is a dangerous bird to bronze sculptures; the acids in guano can actually corrode a bronze patina in a fairly short time. Another risk public artworks face is that we simply stop caring. When we stop noticing the artworks that surround us, their significance and cultural context is lost.

(via Flickr user travelbex)

Enter Wikipedia Saves Public Art (WSPA) which we created as part of our Fall IUPUI Museum Studies class (you might remember our student, Elizabeth Basile, blogged about her personal experience with the project back in December). The logic of this project is to put information about public artworks into Wikipedia so that people won’t forget or stop caring about them. Yes, there’s a lot of guano in Wikipedia, but with its millions of viewers a day and openness to participation, it’s a vital resource for the cultural sector.

Before we started WSPA, there were only a handful of articles in Wikipedia about public art in Indianapolis—not so good for a city that brags about having more monuments than any city other than Washington, DC. Through our efforts, there are now 57 articles (and more each week) about local public artworks on Wikipedia. Since we started WSPA, our articles have been viewed more than 66,000 times. Now we are thinking big about how WSPA can truly become a global project and how to get more people to make articles about public art in their own town.

Recently, we’ve had a lot of help from Lori Byrd Phillips (an IUPUI Museum Studies graduate student) and Sarah Stierch (a soon-to-be George Washington University Graduate student, who runs her own blog, Sarah – Your Favorite Museum Intern. Together, we’ve begun developing “The Process” to help Wikipedians and public art advocates translate information contained in public databases into Wikipedia articles. For example, did you know that volunteers working through Heritage Preservation’s Save Outdoor Sculpture! surveyed Indianapolis in 1992-1994 and found 205 sculptures? Information about all of them is available online through the Smithsonian’s public database.

Thanks to Magnus for making the application that allowed us to make this chart

But a lot has happened in Indy’s world of public art since the early 1990s. That’s why actually going out and visiting the artworks is important—to verify the information contained in the Smithsonian’s database, to make note of any changes, and to use the tools of 2010 to research and share information about those changes. In addition to finding artworks surveyed by the SOS! folks, you can research new artworks that have been installed across the city. We’re grateful to have our laptops, cell phones, and Web-based tools that have allowed us to create these cool things:

Here’s the Flickr map that we are using to plot the location of the more than 500 images we’ve taken of public art in Indianapolis. By mapping them in Flickr we also resolve their GPS coordinates.

Here’s the Google map that we’re using to plot the original 205 SOS! entries from the Smithsonian database. While the Flickr map is a lot easier to use, we are also experimenting with Google Maps because its satellite maps are so much better. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Conservation, Local, New Media, Technology, Travel

The second annual American Idol-style Summer Nights Film Poll is back. This is your chance to tell us what you want to see on the big screen! Last year you voted, we listened, and you watched movies under the stars at the IMA: This is Spinal Tap, Glory, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Mummy, The Big Lebowski, Strangers on a Train, Devil in a Blue Dress, Dr. Strangelove, Sholay and Ghostbusters.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Summer Nights 2008

Now it’s time to mark your calendars for season #34 of Summer Nights, June 5-August 28. As one of the few art museums in the country with an amphitheater, the IMA offers a unique movie-going experience. All you need is a blanket, some friends and a picnic basket full of goodies. And, by popular demand, another special midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is in the works.

VOTE NOW! Below are four categories of films. Vote for your favorite film in each of the categories as often as you like. Polls close at noon on February 25, and results, including the full Summer Nights schedule, will be announced in March on the IMA Blog.

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Filed under: Film, Polls, Public Programs