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ICA - Art Conservation
America's first nonprofit art conservation center
October 2011 - Vol 5, No 5
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Noel drilling down

Fall has arrived, and here at the ICA we've rolled up our sleeves and are drilling down on a flurry of projects, installations, and educational opportunities. Given the Paintings Department's off-site treatment in West Virginia, the Objects Department's installation in Pennsylvania, and deliveries, installations, workshops and more around the region, the home office alternates between being a beehive of activity and a ghost town. Here is an update on the incredible projects underway in each of our departments.

Mark & Anne mounting tiles
The last issue of eNews highlighted ICA's treatment of Romare Bearden's Pittsburgh Recollections, an enormous mural comprised of 780 12" x 12" tiles, created in 1984 and originally installed in a subway tunnel in Pittsburgh. Now that treatment of the mural tiles is complete and construction of the new subway station in Pittsburgh is nearing completion as well, it is time for the labor-intensive reinstallation process to begin.

Over the last three weeks, the Objects Department has been adhering the tiles to aluminum honeycomb panels with mortar. The 780 tiles are now attached to thirty-four 4' x 4' and fifteen 4' x 5' panels, each weighing between 135 and 165 pounds. ICA's preparators are busy constructing crates for transporting the tile panels to Pittsburgh for re-installation on-site. Work in Pittsburgh begins next week and will continue through the first week of November.
Octavofest Logo
Throughout the month of October join ICA in celebrating this region's thriving community of book and paper innovators and our magnificent collections of fine and rare books. Lectures, exhibits, tours, and workshops are all going on as part of Octavofest .

Want to learn more about how to care for your family's photos, documents, and other paper treasures? Join the ICA's Education Outreach Officer, Jennifer Souers Chevraux when she presents Caring for Your Paper Treasures at the Avon Lake Public Library on Wednesday, October 18 at 7pm. This program will walk you step-by-step through proper handling and storage of your precious paper artifacts, and provide valuable resources for your own reference library. There is no cost to attend this program and advance registration is not required.

ICA is also offering a tour of our first-class conservation facility and treatment labs on Monday, October 24th at 3:30. Participants will get an up-close look at the state-of-art spaces we use every day in providing the very best care for artwork and objects of all kinds. Light refreshments will be provided at the end of the tour. Please contact Jennifer Souers Chevraux at the ICA to reserve you space today.

Visit www.Octavofest.com, for a complete calendar of Octavofest events.
WV Robert Lepper mural
The Paintings Department is now working onsite in Morgantown, West Virginia treating a 1940s mural by Robert Lepper. The enormous canvas mural depicting the coal mining industry hangs in White Hall on the campus of West Virginia University and is another example of artwork created as part of the WPA initiative. Over the next ten weeks, ICA staff from three of the four conservation departments will be traveling back and forth to assist with the project. White Hall has been under renovation for more than a year, and is set to reopen for classes in the Spring of 2012. Thus, ICA's treatment of the Lepper mural is necessarily a time-sensitive project.

ICA's paintings conservators began work this week setting up scaffolding and prepping the room to protect newly installed carpeting and fixtures. The first step in treating the mural is to remove the protective Coroplast facing panels and polyethylene sheeting, followed by the wax facing tissue, which was directly applied to the painted surface in advance of the building's renovation phase. With the protective layers out of the way, the team will begin removing the existing varnish and overpaint as far as safely possible. The next step is to repair tears and reattach the areas of loose canvas to the wall.

Once the canvas has been treated and repaired, conservators will apply a stable, reversible varnish layer, fill and inpaint losses, reintegrate any remaining insoluble overpaint using conservation grade materials, and locally varnish areas of inpaint to match the surrounding gloss. As the conservation team works to treat the mural, written and photographic documentation of the process will be kept along the way.
CPL map treatment
In addition to checking out the latest bestseller, patrons at the Cleveland Public Library (CPL) can also view many wonderful pieces of Cleveland's rich history. ICA Art Conservation often partners with CPL to conserve some of the more unique works in the collection, including five park plans from the 1890s that were used in the design and creation of some of Cleveland's most beloved parks. These large scale topographic renderings were hand-drawn on thick paper, backed with fabric, and rolled for transport to and from the field.

After many years of use and storage the plans are severely deteriorated. The paper is brittle, fractured, and beginning to detach from the fabric backing. Numerous losses are present already, and many more pieces are close to falling off. Because of their large size - 8 to 12 � feet long and 4 to 5 feet tall - the plans will need to be rolled for storage. Rather than try to mend and reattach the loose pieces to the unstable and deteriorating fabric backing, ICA's paper conservator, Jamye Jamison, decided to try a new technique using Lascaux adhesives to make a heat activated lining paper.

Taking a page from textile conservation and with a lot of trial and error, a technique was devised to apply 2:1 mixture of Lascaux 498HV:Lascaux 360HV to Japanese paper creating a layer of adhesive on one side, while leaving the other adhesive free. With the object face down, the old fabric backing is peeled from the back of the paper and the pieces are tacked together with a film of the same Lascaux adhesive used for the lining paper to keep them in place. Six to eight inch vertical sections are released from the fabric at a time and then the new lining paper is laid down and attached with heat. In this way, all the small fractured pieces can be kept together and aligned properly while the backing is removed in sections. The edges of the lining paper are folded in to create a sturdier perimeter for handling. With the more flexible and stable Japanese paper backing, the objects can be rolled around six inch diameter archival tubes for long-term storage causing minimal stress to the thick brittle paper.
Emma's handiwork
The Textile Department is focused on the reproduction of a pair of richly embroidered door curtains that will eventually hang in the parlor of the Hayes Presidential Home in Fremont, Ohio. The original six by ten-foot portieres are too fragile for continued opened display and will be placed in long-term storage. Reproduction work continues as the yellow satin-weave background fabric has been custom-woven on a 19th century loom by a third generation of heritage weavers in Pennsylvania. Following patterns traced from the original panel designs, two conservators and a textile intern are hand-embroidering the surface of the fabric with scrolling vines, fruit and floral designs.

The original historic portieres were made in Ottawa, IL by the Decorative Art Society and took 2 years to complete. The Women's Christian Temperance Union of Illinois presented them to Lucy Hayes in Fremont in 1881. To date, the ICA stitching team has completed over 300 hours of surface design embroidery.
Matt scanning slides
Matt Jurns began work as ICA's Office Manager/ Archivist on August 2nd. He first came to the ICA in 2010 as a graduate student from the Kent State School of Library and Information Science, serving as our archives intern while completing his practicum. He returned to us in January, and worked as our Administrative/Library Assistant until his recent promotion. In his new role, Matt handles the historical records of the ICA, as well as many of the day to day operations of the front office.

In other news, the ICA's 59th Annual Meeting is fast approaching. Join us here at the ICA on Wednesday, November 16th at 4:30pm for a very brief business meeting followed by a project presentation from our Objects Conservator, Mark Erdmann, and light refreshments. RSVP by phone or email to Matt Jurns (216-658-8700, or matt@ica-artconservation), if you plan to attend.
Maschke Roof Party
September 18th, the ICA hosted an architectural tour of two of Cleveland's newest landmark homes. Perched on a hillside together, the "white boxes" designed by Cleveland architect Robert Maschke have become one of the Detroit Shoreway's most recognizable features. The weather cooperated providing a gloriously warm and sunny Sunday afternoon as guests toured the homes, mingled with their hosts- ICA board members Chuck Mintz and Robert Maschke- and enjoyed wine and hors d'oeuvres on the rooftop of C-House. Proceeds from the event are helping support ICA's ongoing programming and service to arts and cultural organizations around the region.
C2C Logo
Ohio Connecting to Collections is looking for a few good plans! The ICA, State Library of Ohio, Ohio Museums Association, and Ohio Historical Society, to continue our successful 2009-2011 "Connecting to Collections" partnership, are developing a website which will highlight the best preservation practices in the state and will serve as models for other organizations in the process of developing or revising their policies. .

We are interested in receiving policies dealing with the following preservation functions for possible posting on the website. As the project expands, there will be calls for other types of preservation policies. We are looking for excellent examples from all types of cultural heritage organizations - libraries, archives, historical societies and museums of all sizes.
  • Mission Statements recognizing the importance of preservation
  • Strategic Plans that include preservation activities
  • Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Plans
  • Environmental Control Policies, including information about "going green"
  • Security Plans or Policies
  • Exhibit Policies dealing with preservation of exhibited materials

Please submit your policy documents to Missy Lodge at the State Library of Ohio for consideration. The State Library and a Project Advisory Group will select sample policies for each area of preservation practice mentioned above for the project website. Policies should be submitted to [email protected] by October 31, 2011.
ICA Storage Facility
Don't forget, ICA is currently accepting applications for its 5th Annual Subsidized Survey. We will choose one institution to receive a free collection survey focusing on a select group of artifacts. An ICA conservator will visit the recipient institution to examine the objects on-site for up to two days, and written condition reports and treatment recommendations will be provided. The institution will be asked to contribute only the travel costs associated with on-site visits. The goal of the award is to help the recipient institution identify preservation needs, and Information gained through the assessment can help raise funds for addressing those needs.

Any non-profit cultural institution demonstrating a commitment to collections care is eligible to apply for this survey.
Click here for more information, or to download a PDF version of the subsidized survey applicationfrom the ICA's website.
Applications are due via email, mail, or fax by November 11, 2011.
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All photographs courtesy of John T. Seyfried and Jennifer Souers Chevraux, copyright ICA - Art Conservation, 2011.

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Jennifer Souers Chevraux, Education Outreach Officer
ICA-Art Conservation

p: 216-658-8700 f: 216-658-8709