Sunday, September 14, 2008

Helen Alten is teaching at the Campbell Center, Mt. Carroll, Illinois, http://www.campbellcenter.org this week and graciously agreed to stop in for a visit to assist with some of the African American Museum of Iowa objects. To our surprise she offered to train Beth Stone and Caitlin Moore on how to clean baskets, gourds, and clay in the evenings at the Campbell Center. We promptly took her up on the offer. These items do have some of the same characteristics of paper. Learning to work with these materials will greatly enhance Beth’s and Caitlin’s skills. Having them clean these objects rather than Helen will also reduce costs to the AAMI.

Helen selected a few items for us to send her way and offered lots of great advice during our afternoon together. Susan Kuecker as the AAMI curator stayed throughout Helen’s visit so we could have instant decisions as to what to spend time on and who should work on what.