Exhibition: Breaking the Mode

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Exhibition: On Procession

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Exhibition: To Live Forever

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Exhibition: Power and Glory

Something new is coming in January!

What is your favorite of 2008?  Let us know whether it is something listed here or something completely different.

Remember how we said we were going to beef up content on Flickr? Well, it has begun with this set of images documenting the anoxic treatment of a work of art by Thornton Dial.

What is anoxic treatment? Well you either know or you don’t…so if you know, aren’t you dying to see how IMA conservators did it? If you don’t know…aren’t you dying to? Don’t miss out on this chance to expand your vocabulary and knowledge of art conservation.

You will see more conservation on Flickr as the year goes along. The photo-sharing site has proven to be a very useful tool to feature this kind of content. We hope that it is useful in sharing some behind-the-scenes insight for our visitors (and blog readers), but we also hope that those of you who are conservators from other places will find this to be a useful forum for discussion.

And if you visit Flickr you will also find:

• A brand new set of photos Daniel and I created during our visit to the ISEA 2008 conference in Singapore
• New answers to the question: “If you lived forever, what would you take with you?” (Of course inspired by the current exhibition, To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum)
• Photos documenting the Earthworks Camp, a collaboration between IMA and IPS

BM conservator Lisa Bruno and registrar Deana Setzke were here for nearly 2 weeks to oversee the installation all of the artworks into the exhibition cases. As a way to remember all of the hard work that went into the installation of this show, IMA registration department staffer Jesse Speight made a card that I think wonderfully demonstrates all of the things that went into putting this show up.

The Later Canon, 2008, 8 7/8” x 11-3/4″, RoseArt Washable Markers, BiC ‘Wite-Out’ Correction Pen, Pencil,
Sharpie Permanent Marker (black) on File Folder

How long did it take you to prepare all of the artworks for the To Live Forever Exhibition?

We started to work on the first object, Coffin of the Lady of the House Weretwahset (37.47a-b), in the Fall of 2006, and were finishing up treatment on the very last object a week before it all left the building! While we have been working on these objects for a little over a year and a half, we have been working on many other projects as well. This includes exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum as well as preparing BM objects for loans to other museums.

There are a lot of different kinds of artworks in this show — from gold to papyrus to stone to ceramic. Did you work on all of these different kinds of artworks or did you have help from other conservators? Or are you a magician able to do all things in your conservation studio?

Many people have worked on this show. Most of the 121 artworks were treated by the objects conservation staff, headed by Lisa Bruno, and include Jakki Godfrey, myself, and intern Emy Kim (I abandoned the lab for 5 months in the middle of it all to go on maternity leave!). The papyrus piece, The Book of the Dead of Neferrenpet (35.1448a-d) was treated by the paper conservation department headed by Toni Owen, and include Rachel Danzing and intern Caitlin Jenkins. The treatment of Elaborately Painted Shroud of Neferhotep (75.114) was a collaboration between paper, objects and paintings conservation.

The Conservation Department of the Brooklyn Museum (Left to Right, Richard, Carolyn, Tina, Jakki, Lisa, Caitlen, Toni, Rachel, Elaine)

Our paintings conservators include Ken Moser (who is also the head of the entire conservation department), Carolyn Tomkiewicz, Richard Kowall and intern Katie Patton. In addition, we had some outside conservators help us with a few treatments. Hiroko Kariya, who has worked with BM conservation off and on over the past 12 years, spearheaded the treatment of the Coffin of the Lady of the House Weretwahset, getting help along the way from our staff as well as from private conservator Catherine Williams. A textile conservator, Kathy Francis, was brought in to help with the textile components of Mummy of Demetrios (11.600a-b) and one of the Mummified Dogs (37.1984E). And those are just the conservators!

Many other departments worked together to create this show – the curators, registrars, mountmakers, packers, art handlers, conservation scientists, carpenters, painters, and the list goes on.

What kinds of things did you do to prepare all of the artworks for this exhibition?

When any object is requested for display, we start by carefully examining it to understand its current condition, and to determine what treatment it might need to travel and go on display. We keep extensive records of every object that comes through the lab; and we document its condition through a written report and photographs before, during, and after treatment. We adhere to the code of ethics as outlined by The American Institute for Conservation. It’s fascinating when an object with a long history of conservation comes through the lab. For some of these objects we have treatment records going back to 1918.

In terms of what we actually do when we treat an object: far and away, our main focus is on insuring structural stability for objects going on such an extensive tour. We want to make sure the objects are structurally stable enough (meaning they will not break or be damaged) to withstand travel to and installation in so many museums. In order to stabilize objects we may adhere previously broken pieces together with a stable and reversible adhesive, or consolidate flaking paint – again, with a stable adhesive. Integral to the stability of an object is how they are handled, travel and are displayed.

We work with a mount maker to create mounts or supports that an object may travel on and are displayed with. For example, when you walk through the exhibit, look at the two dog mummies. They are attached to padded boards, and held in place with metal mounts that secure the mummies to the board. Or, look at the ceramic Female Figure, (07.447.502). If you look closely, you’ll see a metal mount, painted to look like part of the object, which is holding the figure safely in place. Once you start to look, you’ll see mounts everywhere! We worked with several mountmakers for this exhibition, including David Geiger, Chris Bamford, Tracie Sachs and Larry Bamburg.

We also work with special art packers to make crates with appropriate materials to minimize any vibration while the object travels. All of these factors play into the structural stability of an object.

After all of the structural stability concerns have been addressed, we focus on the aesthetics of an object (making it look nice). This often means we will clean an object. How we clean an object depends on what material it’s made from. Obviously, we wouldn’t clean a ceramic and a mummy in the same way. The cleaning process (and stabilization process) is only undertaken after extensive examination and documentation of an object and discussion with the curator. After cleaning, we would discuss with the curator the extent of compensation if certain parts were missing.

Which artwork did you spend the most time working on?

The Coffin of the Lady of the House Weretwahset (37.47a-b) took the most work. While the bottom section of the coffin had been on display at the museum before, the lid probably hasn’t been on view for a hundred years. It needed both stabilization and cleaning. I won’t go into the details of the treatment but here are a few before and after treatment pictures – you can see what a dramatic difference conservation made.

Left: Lid of the Coffin of the Lady of the House Weretwahset, 37.47, before treatment Right: after treatment

Can you talk about conservation’s role in determining how these artworks are displayed? For example, did you advise on the mounts that will be used to support the artworks while on view or did you help determine things like the light levels at which the objects can be lit?

For every object that goes on display, conservation will weigh in on almost every aspect, working with curators, registrars, designers, and mountmakers. We recommend types of mounts, light levels, environmental requirements (temperature and humidity), safety requirements (type of vitrine, if the case needs to be alarmed, or platform can be used, to name just a few), handling and installation requirements (including case design and materials), packing requirements as well as how long an item can be displayed. If an object will travel to another museum, we work with the registrars to review facilities information of every venue to make sure our requirements can be met.

How did you get all the artworks from the Brooklyn Museum to the IMA?

Artwork can travel by many means of transportation, from special air-ride trucks that minimize vibration, to airplanes – both cargo and passenger – to ship. While I can’t go into the details for how the objects traveled to the IMA, I will tell you that a courier was near the art at all times. This person made sure they arrived at the IMA safe and sound.

What’s it like for an artwork to travel halfway across the country?

Scary! No, not really. There is so much preparation for a show like this, and a huge team of excellent professionals working together to ensure that these objects travel safely. It’s fantastic that people all across the US will have an opportunity to see and learn about these amazing objects.

What’s your favorite artwork in the show and why?

I love them all. When you conserve an object, even if you don’t really like it at first, you end up spending so much time with it and learning its secrets, that you end up liking them all in the end. If I really had to choose, my favorite piece would be the Coffin of the Lady of the House Weretwahset (37.47a-b). It needed a lot of treatment, so we spent a lot of time getting to know her. What was really neat is that the coffin was reused in antiquity [go here (for a video that discusses this]. On the side of the coffin, you can see where the previous occupants name was scratched out and the name of the second occupant was written in. I know that the curator, Ed Bleiberg, went into this in much more detail in the catalog. I also love the shallow saucer (09.889.29) because it’s so simple and such a fundamental shape. They used these shallow bowls 5000 years ago and we’re still using shallow bowls today. Finally, I love the footcase of a mummy (73.89). I find it fascinating that even in death the Egyptians are stomping on their enemies (look on the underside of the footcase)!

I noticed one of the artworks in the show is a gaming board. I believe the game that is played on there is called Senet. Have you ever played Senet (of course, not with the museum piece!)?

I have not – but it sounds like fun! [You can go here to play an on-line version of Senet]

Since this show is called To Live Forever, and demonstrates some of the ways Egyptians dealt with the idea of the afterlife, did you find yourself considering your own mortality when working on this show?

Not really – I was too busy for that! When working with such ancient objects I always think about the people who made them. I think about every day things like what they may have looked like – what they had for lunch the day they were making that particular object – what they were chatting about with the other people in the workshop. I think about all the hands the objects passed through until now – ending up in my hands. I especially love handling an object, like a tool or a piece of ceramic, where you can feel the finger impressions of the maker. I think about the mummies in this show, like Demetrios, and what an amazing journey he has been on. Thousands of years old – living in Egypt in a time when no one there even knew the Americas existed, and here he is, in Brooklyn, NY. He’s even been in Brooklyn longer than most of us have been alive. Now he’s going to travel all over the US.

One piece in the show is the now-famous mummy, Demetrios, that the Brooklyn Museum had CT scanned. Can you tell us anything in particular we should look for when we see this piece?

You should take some time to look at that beautiful portrait, and the gilded parts on the body. I love that his feet were drawn on the linens and gilded.

I’m not really sure how productive I would be in -40 degree weather (really, who wants to sleep in a snow filled bedroom or use a frozen porta-potty, but it’s been cool to read how these conservators recently completed treatments on an historic iron-alloy match box and a sewing box, reams of paper and a screw packet, to name just a few things.  Their adventures in this dark and frozen world are always worth a read and besides where else are you going to hear about people riding around in Haaglands and Piston Bullies?   I wonder what kind of license you need to drive one of those things.

Besides imagining myself working in a snow-filled tundra, I’ve been digging around on the internet for other blogs about art conservation.  Not surprisingly I can find only one blog devoted to conservation in Antarctica, but what did find out is that there are a lot more blogs related to book and paper conservation than any other specialty in my profession.  I enjoy the irony of this: that the people that are responsible for preserving the thing that the internet seems to be eliminating are the ones that seem the most interested and comfortable using it.

Take for example blogs by Jeff Peachey, Holly Robertson, and Beth Heller.  Jeff Peachey always has something interesting to share about working as a book conservator: from talking about type-setting tools to posting about one of the larger topics currently being discussed in my profession: certification.  Holly Robertson’s blog Do I really want to touch that with my hand? provides a behind-the-scenes look into a book conservator’s work at the University of Virginia Library.  And Beth Heller’s blog Beth Heller Conservation covers a lot of territory (who knew she had something from her collection traveling to space?)

In addition to blogs about book and paper conservation, there are a few blogs out there about archaeological digs.  The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology Dig Diaries (hosted by the University of Michigan), is a blog where you can find out what conservators Suzanne Davis and Claudia Chemello are doing at the site in Tel Kedesh Israel.  Besides reading the weekly updates and seeing the field pictures, I’m a big fan of the Find of the Week.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention who I believe is the first person to blog about an art conservation project: The Brooklyn Museum’s Lisa Bruno first post back in 2006 was about a large-scale treatment of a replica of the Statue of Liberty.  Since then, the BM has posted all sorts of conservation-related material: from the installation of a “Period Room”, to John Steele’s own “Dig Diaries”,  to an in-depth discussion of the conservation of an Egyptian mummy that’s currently on view here at the IMA as part of the To Live Forever exhibition.

I don’t claim to have uncovered all of the blogs out there about art conservation.  Have you seen any that are interesting?  If so, will you leave me a comment with a link so I can check it out?

Maybe CT Scan of the Week is more accurate. But we all know what a mummy-scan means… To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum opened this past weekend, highlighting ancient Egyptian art from the Brooklyn Museum!

This summer, I was at the IMA leading up to the debut of the website, and now during the exhibition opening. It has been really exciting to see all of the planning and thought that goes into making a website entertaining and informational for the online visitor.

The works of art in the exhibition detail Egyptian beliefs of afterlife, including where you go, what happens, and what you need. The IMA web team has tried to highlight a variety of the objects that are in the exhibit on the website with an online gallery, an interactive mummy-scan, and an interactive timeline of the objects, showing the works from Brooklyn contrasted with works from the IMA’s collection.

The Nugget Factory also filmed and produced videos with Brooklyn’s conservator (below) and curator, which are featured on the website, as well as being played in the gallery. New videos will be going onto the website throughout the run of the exhibition

There is also a page from the TLF Flickr set, featuring pictures of people around the Indianapolis community and their answers to the question, What can’t you live or die without? Check out some of the hilarious answers. I don’t think my picture is up yet, but I think my choice is black mascara and my cat Osiris. That surely will get me some bonus points with the green guy.

I also got to be a part of a very unique event the IMA hosted this past Saturday. Despi and Daniel decided to preview the digital content of the TLF site, as well as some other aspects of the advertisement and design, to the other museums who will be hosting this traveling show at a later date.

I think there was generally a lot of excitement about what they would be able to do for their own exhibitions with access to content like this. It’s also a great way to show a wide variety of audiences and professionals in the field the type of work that is done here, increasing the renown and reputation (and notoriety?) of the staff at IMA. I don’t know if anything like this has happened before, but I think it’s brilliant.

The IMA is also hosting a handful of events in celebration of the TLF exhibition, which will be the meat of your bullet list this week.

• Friday July 18th, starting at 6pm, is an afterlife Double Feature with Performance Immortal, a dance show by NoExit Performance, inspired by the To Live Forever exhibit, and after that, Summer Nights features The Mummy.
• August 9th at 11am and 14th at 7pm join us for the tour Immortality in Art, a look at To Live Forever and immortality in cultures throughout the IMA’s galleries.
• Thursday, August 28th at 6:30pm is Deciphering Egyptian Art, a lecture on some of the forms seen in the To Live Forever exhibition.
• You can always check out programs and events for classes, tours and lectures on the IMA calendar.
• Some ancient Egyptians painted their coffins yellow in imitation of the gilded coffins of royalty.
• The Nile river flows North through Egypt, and is 4135 miles long.

Enjoy poking around the website and let us know what’s thrilling you to death.

Good news, right? Until the day when scientific advancements make living forever possible, everyday blogger-types like myself can pursue other life-extending options gleaned from those who do it best.

The Danish people seem to have figured something out. Ranked (once again) as the “happiest people in the world” in a recent international survey, one would expect the Danes to also have a longer life expectancy. Some suspect it’s low expectations that keep them content, while others say it’s the city’s way of life, with nearly one-third of Danes biking to work and another one-third taking public transit. Others suggest it’s the laid-back, carefree lifestyle they lead with free healthcare and top-notch education systems. I am not sure how Americans can avoid worry, but Hoosiers can certainly benefit from a better public transit system. The sooner it is on track, the sooner we’ll be whistling our way to work.

Next up, Japan boasts the healthiest population in the world, with a woman’s life expectancy averaging 86 years. A diet rich in fish, rice and seaweed helps keep heart disease and cancer under control, while government-sponsored fitness programs help the Japanese stay trim. My advice — spin class and sushi for dinner tonight. I hear the Wii Fit is also to die for.

Leading the world in smarts, the Finnish students come out on top. They attribute a good education system to student-teacher relationships, pupils’ enthusiasm to learn and an environment conducive to learning mathematics, with strict rules minus the high anxiety. Determining the smartest population is impossible because there is no standardized global exam. Staying mentally fit has been a proven factor in reducing the onset of disease. So it’s back to reading Middlemarch and playing Settlers of Catan next Friday for me.

To state the obvious, I think we can agree that happiness, health and intelligence all contribute to longevity. So my plug for an instant fix — RSVP for tomorrow’s exhibition preview and party for To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum at the IMA. Bring a friend, have a drink and learn a little about the ancient Egyptians’ quest to live forever.

• Get your tickets here

  

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…)

Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” Well here at the IMA there is plenty to be busy about. Anniversaries, openings, and celebrations abound in 2008 and well into the figurative afterlife.

First, the Alliance is celebrating her 50th Anniversary. When Dwight asked Jim if he’d like to form an Alliance, Jim said “Absolutely, I do.”

Let me tell you about the IMA’s Alliance, which is a little different. The IMA is greatly supported by five Affiliate organizations and the volunteers. The Affiliates are support groups and collectors clubs that have varied interests ranging from Contemporary, Asian, Design, and Horticulture.

Then there is the Alliance, a group of over 300 women who have dedicated themselves to the museum for half a century. As with all of the affiliate groups, I’m their liaison to the museum – any and all things they need go through me. I love my job, primarily because I meet and work with literally hundreds of people who love and support the museum as much as I do. Perhaps none are more passionate than the ladies of the Alliance.

Jane Graham, Senior Editor, is writing a complete history of the Alliance that will be published in September. She has discovered all kinds of interesting facts in looking back over time. “I really have enjoyed the research—the Alliance kept such good records over the years. They were very meticulous about everything. I was able to finds lots of information that I thought would be interesting to the members.” Early day scrapbooking at it’s finest.

Beginning with the founder Jo Jameson, the story will be told about the Alliance’s successes and how they have always helped the museum through money, members and ever-changing images, and have served as ambassadors of the museum throughout the city and beyond.

The IMA is celebrating her 125th year this year, from its beginnings as the Art Association of Indianapolis in 1883. Another publication is being written called Every Way Possible: 125 Years of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and highlights the founders, donors, collectors, directors, curators and others who were key to its development over 125 years. Major art acquisitions and collections are also featured. On October 11th there will be a grand soiree fundraiser under a clear top tent that is sure to be talk of the town for years to come.

Egyptians believed that “death was an enemy that could be beaten through proper preparation.”

But I wonder, maybe the Egyptians thought there just wasn’t enough time in this life, which is why they continued the party on into the afterlife? And if the mummies of those times were anything like the mummies coming to rock the IMA on July 11th for the opening of To Live Forever, then maybe they were onto something.

Pink Floyd assures me “You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.” So eat the birthday cakes and toast the anniversaries, cause life is just to short and there’s just never enough time.

To date we have created a number of sets, usually to document an event at the art museum, and some groups that support specific projects. Lately, though, whenever someone says, “I have this great project and want to share it…”, we respond with, “Flickr!” And while it is true that we will be creating a handful of new sets that feature some super-cool behind-the-scenes images, we also have some other stuff up our sleeves, too.

Recently we have started thinking more seriously about what Flickr can really do for us, or more accurately what it can do for you. We have evolved in our thinking about it primarily as a place to share memories of things past and are newly focused on making what we share more exciting and encouraging you to share your own stuff. How are we doing it?

First of all, we are creating more sets and groups and thinking about how we manage them, promote them and what role they play in our on-line exploits. The most recent example is coming to the To Live Forever site. We have created a set that plays a role on the site by adding visitor feedback that puts faces with ideas, and we are working on a collaborative group for the site, too (come back soon to hear more about that). We hope that individuals will engage with the TLF site through the Flickr components and find ways to make personal connections to the big idea of that exhibition.

We have created groups in the past, most recently the big push was the ‘My Fashion’ group we created to offer Project IMA designers a place to share their fashion with the world. While these images weren’t IMA produced, the goal of the group wasn’t really all that community driven…we had an objective and mediated the content through partnerships with contributors to offer IMA site visitors additional content. This project was good and useful for Project IMA, but it really didn’t express our desire to build online communities. So what’s the difference?

We have discovered that the difference is in the process. Sort of like the difference between good science and bad science. Allowing the experiment to reveal its own results versus having an objective to prove and building an experiment that will make it true. Even though we created ‘My Fashion,’ to support an IMA project, it has taken on a life of its own, with new members outside of the scope of our project contributing to a new identiy for that group. It is this evolution that I find most compelling.

While we have learned a lot seeing our own Flickr projects change and grow, we also keep an eye on what the museum community is up to. We were recently shamed and inspired by the Tate’s new Flickr project, Street and Studio. (Check it out and enter!) And we are always learning a thing or two from the Brooklyn Museum, that recently made its way onto The Commons. (Congrats!)

There are also some museums that we would love to see more active on Flickr, like the van Gogh Museum that has a mere 15 images. That number seems disproportionate for the insanely popular artist it represents. On the flip side, the Milwaukee Art Museum has a visually rich display of images with a contemporary feel. If you are a museum considering Flickr, check out all the names I am dropping and perhaps this article or this one will push you through any remaining doubt…

As for us, over the next couple of months you will start to see a couple of different things from IMA…you will still see sets, but more of them will have more heavy-hitting content that will give you a glimpse into the real work of an art museum. You will also see groups that ask you to contribute with renewed focus on what your ideas will combine to create. In my opinion we haven’t yet been very successful as Flickr scientists, but we are observing, learning and internalizing and we will get better. While our efforts have at times been a bit clumsy, they are sincere, so I hope you will visit us on Flickr and come along for the ride as we figure it all out.

There are all sorts of things going on in the world o’ new media these days. I thought I would tell you about a few of them. Tomorrow, I will spend the day with a few other IMA staffers, likely holed up in the IMA Cafe taking advantage of the free wi-fi in there to drink coffee and upload the majority of the content to our newly developed website for To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. If you look at it now, you will only find a taste of the design, but by this time next week, it will rock your world.

I received an e-mail from Shelley Bernstein giving a shout out to a project the Walker Art Center has going on right now called, My Yard Our Message. This project is a really cool and interesting one, inviting any artist to submit designs to this non-partisan competition and the winning submissions (selected by on-line viewers) will be made available for order as political yard signs. Want to submit? Get to it. You have until June 30th. Want to vote? Mark your calendars, voting begins July 1st.

Other IMA Nugget Factory news? Daniel and I need to get to work on our ISEA presentation for the upcoming conference. I think we have both forgotten this part after completing and submitting the paper a few weeks(or maybe months) back. The editing nuggets have really put together an amazing exhibition trailer for To Live Forever that you will get to see when the site launches. We are all very proud of this entire project and are so glad to have had such tremendous support from the Brooklyn Museum as we are creating it. I am sure you will hear more about that collaboration.

Well, that is all the news that is fit to print today. It has been a relatively slow weekend, but is shaping up to be a fast and furious week. So don’t forget to check back in!