Tuesday, February 12, 2013 What does an artist do when his/her artwork is damaged? Throw it away because it has been changed and is no longer the same piece? Re-work it and make it a “new” painting? Repair the damage and try to keep the essence of the original? Or leave it as damaged andContinue reading “An Artist’s Quandary”
Author Archives: Nancy E. Kraft
Assessment and Cleaning
Monday, February 11, 2013 Today I spent most of the day inspecting close to 150 art works on paper for mold. It’s very time consuming. The front and back of each piece of art needed to be entirely visually inspected — each inch. I only found a handful that I thought a paper conservator shouldContinue reading “Assessment and Cleaning”
Assisting Artists After Hurricane Sandy
Friday, February 8, 2013 When we inspect an artist’s work, we also ask for the story of the piece to learn more about its history and composition. The pieces that this artist brought in were her final project before graduation where she used as pure a blue, red, and yellow that she could get. SheContinue reading “Assisting Artists After Hurricane Sandy”
Salvaging Artists’ Works After Hurricane Sandy
Thursday, February 7, 2013 A couple years ago, I received training so I could become part of a national cultural disaster response team called AIC-CERT (American Institute for Conservation Collections Emergency Response Team). After Hurricane Sandy, AIC (American Institute for Conservation) and the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation established a Cultural Recovery CenterContinue reading “Salvaging Artists’ Works After Hurricane Sandy”
TGIF Sorta’
Friday, May 25, 2012 The time at OceanTeacher Academy flew by and it is already Friday! We had a great group of students who stayed engaged and worked hard. In the afternoon, Caitlin demonstrated several things including how to make a four flap enclosure and a simple archival paper wrap as options for providing protectionContinue reading “TGIF Sorta’”
Protecting Fragile Material
Thursday, May 24, 2012 We spent the morning at OceanTeacher Academy practicing stitching single-signature pamphlets into binders and making pockets. Pamphlet binders and pockets are both good ways to protect vulnerable material. We used both commercial and homemade binder covers for our pamphlets. A pocket can be used to keep a CD, pamphlet, map orContinue reading “Protecting Fragile Material”
Visiting the National Archives in Bruges
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 Today we visited the National Archives in Bruges at their old facility and the new facility that they will move into this August. Archivist Luc Janssens talked about how he organized the archives collection by size in order to maximize the shelving space. There are four different height and width sizesContinue reading “Visiting the National Archives in Bruges”
Dual tracks: Book Repair and Preservation Planning
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 During our week at OceanTeacher Academy, we are learning the basics of book repair for circulating collectons and preservation planning. Today we learned about mending page tears and tipping in loose pages. We stressed that these mends are for circulating collections only and not for special collections or rare books. TheContinue reading “Dual tracks: Book Repair and Preservation Planning”
OceanTeacher Academy Preservation Course
Monday, May 21, 2012 Our first day at OceanTeacher Academy (http://classroom.oceanteacher.org/) Preservation of Books and Other Media was very productive in spite of students and teachers suffering from jet lag and the challenge of understanding each other. The students are from Ghana, Vietnam, Seychelles, Cuba, Namibia, Latvia, Ukraine, Latvia, Jamaica, Kenya, Mauritius, and Pakistan. WeContinue reading “OceanTeacher Academy Preservation Course”
Andrea’s Awesome Flood Recovery Video
Thursday, May 3, 2012 Recovering from a flood can take years and can be overwhelming if you don’t have help. Luckily the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library and the University of Iowa Libraries have lots of excellent help. The UI Libraries Conservation Lab continues to act as a flood recovery lab for theContinue reading “Andrea’s Awesome Flood Recovery Video”