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ICA- Art Conservation
2915 Detroit Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
p: 216-658-8700
f: 216-658-8709
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News From Our Neighborhood
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Spring has finally sprung in Cleveland, and if you have been hibernating this winter, you may have missed all of the growth in our corner of Ohio City. When the ICA moved to Cleveland from Oberlin twelve years ago, we were the first arts organization to stake out space in this sleepy section of Ohio City. More than a decade later, we now anchor a bustling, hip section of the city nurturing a burgeoning arts scene. With the Bop Stop directly across Detroit Avenue from our building and the Transformer Station, which partnered with the Cleveland Museum of Art to host the Ohio City Stages concert series last July (pictured above), located across from our Church Street entrance, we truly are now a keystone in this renaissance.
There are so many new neighbors and reasons to make a trip to visit the ICA, we thought we would feature of few of them here. Come for a tour of our conservation labs and stay for a juice, coffee, tea, or even a spin class.
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Egyptian Coffin in Paintings Lab
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This incredible object is visiting the ICA from the Kalamazoo Valley Museum in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The an cient Egyptian coffin, essentially a painted wooden box, once held the mummy of Bao-Bao, daughter of Shepentanefret. It was discovered in 1901 during the excavations at Qubbet el-Hawa. The museum received the coffin in 1932 as gift from the estate of Albert M. Todd, an avid collector of rare books and antiquities.  Bao-Bao lived during the 26th Dynasty, or Saite Period, late in the dynastic history of ancient Egypt. Inside the coffin, small traces of the wood tar and wrappings used to preserve the mummy can still be seen on the floor of the box. (See photo on the left.) While the coffin contains many hieroglyphics and decorative images, scholars determined that it was actually never finished before use, which explains the many blank areas between decorative elements.
Conservation Treatment
A comprehensive examination and condition assessment of Bao-Bao's coffin was carried out and a subsequent treatment proposal formulated. Treatment will involve consolidating loose polychromy (paint) with an appropriate conservation adhesive and removing the extensive surface dirt. The inside of the coffin is covered with a heavy layer of soot, probably from coal burning furnaces in the private homes where the coffin was displayed for decades. Missing areas of paint will not be recreated, as the goal of this project is preservation, not restoration. |
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Free Stamp Project
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Free Stamp, to like-new condition. After years of weathering and deterioration endured by this iconic artistic treasure, the City of Cleveland recognized the need to preserve this Cleveland landmark for future generations. Treatment of the Free Stamp is set to begin later this spring.
The Free Stamp conservation project, initiated by The Sculpture Center, is a unique collaboration of the City of Cleveland and the technical experts at ICA and Thomarios. ICA is leading a team of national experts in several specialties, including outdoor sculpture conservation, and its importance is not lost on ICA's staff. "I am honored to be involved in restoring the Free Stamp, and look forward to seeing it through to completion." said Mark Erdmann, Objects Conservator at ICA. The Free Stamp is not the first of Oldenburg's works to be treated by ICA. ICA has also worked on the Giant Three-Way Plug of the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio, and the Inverted Q of the Akron Art Museum. Thomarios, an Akron-based firm with expertise in restoration and metal coatings, will provide technical support for the treatment and restoration. All interior and exterior surfaces will be thoroughly prepared and repainted using high-performance coatings from Sherwin Williams matched to the original colors.
Commissioned in 1982 by the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, the Free Stamp was created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Brueggen, and installed in its current location of Willard Park near Cleveland's City Hall in 1991. Mr. Oldenburg has been consulted by ICA in the Free Stamp project, and contributed to the aesthetic decisions made regarding specifics of the treatment, ensuring that the results remain faithful to his and Van Brueggen's original vision for the artwork.
Earlier this month, ICA Executive Director, Albert Albano, ICA board member Aaron Marcovy and Case Western Reserve University Art History Professor Emeritus Edward Olszewski, visited Mr. Oldenburg at his New York studio to discuss the conservation project, and to interview the artist about the Free Stamp. Mr. Marcovy digitally recorded hours of the interview and discourse, and together the team plan to produce a short documentary film about Oldenburg and the Free Stamp project. Details on this exciting aspect of the project will be forthcoming.
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ICA - OMA Disaster Planning Workshop
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 Disaster Planning Redux: Polar Vortices, Super-Storms and Sinkholes, Oh My!
When:
Monday, June 23, 2014 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Where:
ICA lab facility, 2915 Detroit Ave., Cleveland
(entrance in the rear on Church Street)
Cost:
$10 for Ohio Museums Association members, $15 for nonmembers
In just the past 18 months we have seen hurricane storm-surge warnings along the shores of Lake Erie, museum galleries fall into subterranean sinkholes, debilitating snowfalls before Halloween, and more polar cold than most museums are used to handling.
In this new climate reality where change is the only constant, is your museum properly prepared? It is time to dust off your disaster plan and get serious about preparing for the disaster you never thought possible.
Join us for this half-day workshop where we'll help you map out the possibilities, plan appropriately, and give you the know-how to create a response team and tool kit at your museum. Don't simply assume your museum is ready to handle the worst that mother nature can throw at you, make sure you are.
Presenters: Jennifer Souers Chevraux, Education Outreach Officer, ICA - Art Conservation and Dr. Ware Petznick, Director, Shaker Historical Society
Registration: Complete registration details available on the OMA website under professional development/workshops
This professional development program is provided in collaboration with the Ohio Museums Association.
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Education & Outreach
|  ICA staff has been busy in 2014, traveling around our local community and beyond to promote the ICA's mission of public service, and to participate in professional meetings at the highest level. From the Happy Dog University talk given by Paintings Conservator Heather Galloway at a local pub to the Pecha Kucha Cleveland presentation given by Education Outreach Officer, Jennifer Souers Chevraux at The City Club of Cleveland we've been raising awareness of public art conservation projects among the residents of greater Cleveland.
 As part of Cleveland State University's (CSU) celebration of Black History Month, Paintings Conservator Wendy Partridge presented a lecture on the WPA mural series by African- American artist Elmer Brown to group of college students, faculty, staff, and members of the general public. These two murals were saved through a partnership between CSU, Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, and the ICA, treated at ICA's labs and subsequently installed in the CSU Student Center ballroom, where Wendy delivered her lecture.
ICA Executive Director, Albert Albano, traveled to Chicago to attend the annual meeting of the College Art Association, and present "The Old Master Glow and the Myth of Patina" as part of a panel of sessions entitled, "Secrets of the Old Masters: Materials, Manuals, and Myths." The panel session was sponsored by the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
Jennifer Souers Chevraux traveled to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas to represent ICA and the Ohio Museums Association at "Museums United" hosted by the American Alliance of Museums and supported by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Museums United convened representative statewide museum leaders from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands to discuss and strategize ways state organizations could meet the needs of and expand existing support for their constituent museums. |
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In Other News
|  ICA was recently featured in articles in the Plain Dealer and Belt Magazine, highlighting the important work we do to save this region's cultural heritage.
To keep up with all the latest news about ICA projects and programs, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, see what we're pinning to our Pinterest boards, and visit the "What's New" page of our website. |
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For additional information, or to schedule a visit to the ICA, please contact Jennifer Souers Chevraux, Education Outreach Officer.
jennifersc@ica-artconservation.org
ICA - Art Conservation
2915 Detroit Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44113-2709
p: 216-658-8700
f: 216-658-8709
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