ICA - Art Conservation
America's first nonprofit art conservation center
July, 2014 
Vol 8, No 3

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ICA- Art Conservation

2915 Detroit Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44113

p: 216-658-8700

f:  216-658-8709
In This Issue:
News From the ICA
ICA's summer is busy with offsite projects and programs. In June, the Paintings department traveled to Jamestown, New York to remove a mural from the public library in advance of a building renovation project. Now, our paintings conservators are busy working on conservation of the Allen Memorial Art Museum's ceiling. While the weather is warm, the Objects department is taking care of outdoor sculpture projects like the Free Stamp and a Civil War monument in Milan, Ohio. Here in July, our Textiles conservator will be treating a two-story Lenore Tawney sculpture installed in the lobby of the Frank J. Lausche Building, while our education department conducts collection preservation programs and assessments for our member institutions. 

It is also a busy time in our up-and-coming HingeTown neighborhood, with the Cleveland Museum of Art's Ohio City Stages concert series being hosted by the Transformer Station each Wednesday this month, the grand opening of the Music Settlement's Bop Stop on July 13th, and the Cleveland Flea's Sunday Market coming up on July 20th.
Offsite Summer Projects

Objects Conservator, Mark Erdmann, and Objects Conservation Assistant, Anne Hinebaugh (seen in the image above) are cleaning and repairing the 150 year-old Civil War monument located in the village square in Milan, Ohio. Decades of freezing and thawing have taken a toll on the stone monument, but the Milan Township Trustees, who own the monument, are seeing that this important piece of Milan's history receives the care and consolidation it needs. 






Conservation work has begun on the painted ceiling at the Allen Memorial Art Museum's King Sculpture Court. ICA's paintings conservators are working on two-story scaffolding to remove the dense layer of grime that accumulated over the past 100 years. The conservators are also inpainting areas lost to water damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Textile and Paintings Conservators will be working this month to clean and stabilize a monumental fiber art sculpture in the Frank J. Lausche State Office Building, located in downtown Cleveland. 

Installed by the artist Lenore Tawney in 1981, Cloud VI consists of 16ft lengths of painted and dyed linen thread hanging in bundles from a 26' x 6' painted cotton canvas "cloud", which is suspended from the 28 ft. high lobby ceiling by clear monofilaments. The project is being funded by a grant from the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation.


 

Oldenburg Visits Free Stamp Project
Photo by John T. Seyfried, copyright ICA - Art Conservation, 2014.
On Monday, May 19th, the ICA welcomed Claes Oldenburg as he visited his monumental sculpture 
Free Stamp at Willard Park in downtown Cleveland. ICA's Executive Director, Albert Albano, and Objects Conservator, Mark Erdmann, led Mr. Oldenburg on a tour of the site. The ICA staff explained some of the challenges they encountered in working on the Free Stamp, and solutions devised by the team to return this iconic artwork to its original color and condition. At the onset of the project ICA consulted with Oldenburg, who contributed to aesthetic decisions made regarding specifics of the treatment, ensuring that the results would remain faithful to his original vision.

  

Photo by John T. Seyfried, copyright ICA - Art Conservation, 2014.
The conservation project, initiated by The Sculpture Center, is a unique collaboration of the City of Cleveland and the technical experts at ICA and Thomarios, an Akron-based firm with expertise in restoration and metal coatings, is providing technical support for the treatment and restoration. All interior and exterior surfaces are being repainted using high-performance coatings from Sherwin Williams matched to the original colors. 

 

Mold Prevention & Remediation Workshop
Put Mold on Hold in Exhibits & Storage
 
When: 
Monday, September 8, 2014 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Where: 
Pro Football Hall of Fame, 
2121 George Halas 
Drive NW, Canton, OH 44708
Cost: 
FREE!

Many museums have received damp and dusty cardboard boxes full of treasures that come with a nasty coating of powdery mold. What should you do with them? What risk do they pose to you and your collections? How should you isolate the objects? Who should handle them? Many of us are long on questions, and short on answers when it comes to mold remediation.

Come to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a morning full of information all about the dangers of mold in your collection areas. We will cover identification, isolation, remediation, and prevention measures. Plus, the group will have the opportunity to tour the Pro Football Hall of Fame's new collection storage and donation isolation room. 

ICA Presenters: Jennifer Souers Chevraux, Education Outreach Officer, and Ann Cole Hinebaugh, Objects Conservation Assistant

 

Pro Football Hall of Fame Presenter: Christy Davis, Registrar

 

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 and support of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Education & Outreach: art@work
From the very beginning 62 years ago, ICA has been committed to providing quality educational experiences for students interested in careers in the arts. Today, through our art@work program, ICA combines interdisciplinary student experiences that bring STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Science) education to life. 

This May, ICA hosted Riley Thomas, a senior at Avon Lake High School, during her month-long senior project. During her time at the ICA, Riley had the opportunity to work in all four conservation labs, the education department, and spend time off-site at partner organizations including the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Transformer Station, and Grays Auctioneers. Riley gained valuable experience she will take with her in the fall when she heads to the University of Delaware to pursue a major in art conservation.
Photo by John T. Seyfried, copyright ICA - Art Conservation, 2014.

 Each year ICA selects one area high school senior for the onsite student experience program. Applications are available by contacting the Education Outreach Officer, Jennifer Souers Chevraux, and are accepted from September through January. In addition, ICA offers undergraduate internships to students throughout the year, through a highly competitive selection process.  
Photo by John T. Seyfried, copyright ICA - Art Conservation, 2014.








Classes interested in the intersection of art and science will find a trip to the ICA to be an experience unlike other museum tours. Teachers are encouraged to contact Jennifer via email, [email protected] to arrange a free tour of the ICA's conservation facility for their middle school and high school students.  
Annual Subsidized Survey
Mennonite Collection at Bluffton U.

As part of our ongoing public service each year ICA selects one collecting institution to receive a free collection survey. The goal of the program is to help the recipient institution identify its preservation needs and plan future conservation and stewardship initiatives. The information gained through the assessment helps the institution prioritize objectives and potentially raise funds to address those preservation needs.

 

ICA will offer one collection survey focusing on a select group of artifacts within an institution. 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 selected institution will be asked to contribute only the travel costs associated with on-site visits.

 

Any non-profit cultural institution demonstrating a commitment to collections care is eligible to apply for this survey. Survey applications and additional instructions for submission are available on the Education section of ICA's website.

 

Registration Deadline: Tuesday, September 30, 2014
In Other News
Treating the WBOE mural ICA was recently featured on WCPN ideastream and Cleveland.com 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. 

For additional information, or to schedule a visit to the ICA, please contact Jennifer Souers Chevraux, Education Outreach Officer.

 

[email protected]

ICA - Art Conservation

 2915 Detroit Avenue
 Cleveland, Ohio 44113-2709
 p: 216-658-8700

 f:  216-658-8709