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The Grand Reopening of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts

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The Grand Reopening of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts

The Conservation Center often assists museums, institutions, foundations, and non-profit organizations with conserving and caring for their collections. In addition to comprehensive conservation services, The Center's team assists with long-term preservation planning, digitization of archives and historical documents, creation of custom displays, packing and transportation, and long-term storage of collections. Over the past two years, The Center has worked with the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) on several conservation projects while their building underwent an expansion and renovation campaign, partnering with renowned architecture firm Studio Gang to design their new facility. 

Hidden History: Inside The Maxwell Street Time Capsule

Hidden History: Inside The Maxwell Street Time Capsule

Recently, The Conservation Center had the honor to work with the Maxwell Street Foundation on an amazing find - a newly discovered time capsule. The capsule was discovered while a church was being demolished; the church where the capsule was discovered was linked to a Dutch congregation near Maxwell Street. Our conservation team opened the capsule and examined the contents inside. One document, in particular, was incredibly delicate. The document was extremely brittle and underwent treatment and storage to keep it safe. Watch as Bozena Szymanski, Senior Conservator of Works on Paper carefully treats this delicate document from the past.

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Time Capsules in Print: Safeguarding Decades of The Magazine Antiques Collection

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Time Capsules in Print: Safeguarding Decades of The Magazine Antiques Collection

Properly storing magazines is of essential importance to ensure their long-term preservation and safeguard their historical, cultural, and sentimental value. Whether antique, vintage, or contemporary, magazines hold a wealth of information and serve as valuable artifacts of their respective time periods. 

Piecing Together the Past: Announcing the Assassination of President Lincoln

Piecing Together the Past: Announcing the Assassination of President Lincoln

Newspapers serve as a historical record, documenting the events, stories, and perspectives of a particular time and place. They capture a society's social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics, providing valuable insights for researchers, historians, and future generations. Newspaper archives are a rich primary documentation source, offering a firsthand account of historical moments and societal changes. But ironically, newspapers are not made to last.

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Phillis Wheatley-Peters (1753-1784) African Poet in America, by Kerry James Marshall

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Phillis Wheatley-Peters (1753-1784) African Poet in America, by Kerry James Marshall

For many years, the team at The Conservation Center has enjoyed working on many compelling projects for the American artist Kerry James Marshall. Our team appreciates his personal visits and collaborations because they lead to complex discussions about artistic processes, tools, concentration, ethics, and more. For EXPO CHICAGO 2023, I asked Kerry if there was anything he would like us to treat and frame that we might share in our educational booth this year, and Kerry said he would drop something by.

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Particularities of Parchment

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Particularities of Parchment

As a conservation laboratory with 40 years of history and ten conservation departments, we see a wide variety of items for treatment. All come with their nuances and peculiarities, and parchment is no exception. Parchment - writing sheets made from prepared animal skins - presents particular challenges for conservators and framers. While everything may seem ordinary, what often happens inside a parchment piece's frame tells another story.

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Photography Finds and their Chicago Connections

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Photography Finds and their Chicago Connections

Lorin remembers the day he found the photograph in the early 1990s. After lunch with his parents - "at the new version of the Belden Deli" - they made their way to a garage sale in the gymnasium at Francis Parker School in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Lorin recalls, "We walked into the gymnasium, and I saw this photo of a ballet dancer in a ratty wooden frame. It had a $5 tag on it."

A Treasurer Trove of History

A Treasurer Trove of History

Whether you are a history lover, a genealogy buff, or a family storyteller, family documents can be a treasure trove of information. Family documents are sources of valuable knowledge that help paint a picture of your ancestors and the world in which they lived. By storing family documents properly and preserving them for future generations, we can keep these stories alive for generations to come.

Rolled Together: Separating Paper & Parchment Documents

Rolled Together: Separating Paper & Parchment Documents

At first glance, it is difficult to know exactly what is happening with this tightly rolled item. When they arrived at The Center, these two documents - one paper, one parchment - had experienced extremely high heat conditions from a fire that consumed a building. They were rolled together in a fireproof box and had contracted and shrunk together because of the extreme heat. The two documents were incredibly brittle and could not be safely unrolled during the initial examination.

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A Fractured Photograph Is Pieced Together Again

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A Fractured Photograph Is Pieced Together Again

Antique photography presents a challenging set of condition issues for any conservator. They are inherently delicate and often have significant inherent vices. Inherent vice - also known as an inherent fault - is the object's likelihood of deterioration because of the qualities of the materials initially used, not because of anything that happened to the artwork during its lifetime.

The Legacy Behind a War Telegram

The Legacy Behind a War Telegram

When Mrs. Dahlis Marshall wrote to the United Press in December 1942, she was a recent war widow, seeking answers for the sake of her sons. Her husband George F Marshall, Lieutenant Colonel United States Army, had lost his life in November 1942 during the battle of Oran Harbor, Algeria. Mrs. Marshall received notification of his death through the next of kin notification that so many families received during World War II. But as the mother of two young sons, she knew she needed more details; one day, the children would ask questions, and she wanted to be able to give them answers. Leo Disher, United Press war correspondent, answered the plea. He sent a humble document made from humble materials - a Western Union telegram.

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Coverings, Calendars and Ketubahs

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Coverings, Calendars and Ketubahs

As Jewish heritage spans many countries, cultures, and customs, the ceremonial and ritual objects pictured here are only a few of many permutations and preferences.  Nevertheless, they share the same background and prominence in their congregations and households. The conservation of these pieces often had the added task of ensuring that these objects could still be used or ritually displayed, which will also be discussed.

Do You Need a Receipt?

Do You Need a Receipt?

We certainly hope whoever originally owned this receipt didn't need to make a return. This piece was found buried within the wall of a recent client’s house during a remodel, maybe stuffed into the walls by accident, or some sort of practical joke from the past. As our Paper Department worked on this 19th-century puzzle, a dramatic transformation began to take place.

Dancing with a Degas

Dancing with a Degas

The Conservation Center is excited to have the honor of working on the collection of the Fisher Governor Foundation in Marshalltown, Iowa. Their collection is immense and impressive – the Impressionist Gallery was donated by the late Bill Fisher and features paintings from artists like Mary Cassatt and Camile Pissarro. We are excited to work on this unique cultural and artistic asset, and recently completed treatment of a graceful Degas pastel, “Dancers on Stage.”

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"Mess is Less": Roger Brown's Unique Multimedia Piece

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"Mess is Less": Roger Brown's Unique Multimedia Piece

Though Roger Brown was born in Alabama and split his time between homes in Chicago, Michigan, and California, the Windy City always held a special place in his heart. Brown moved to Chicago in 1962 to attend the American Academy of Art, where he completed a commercial design program. Brown then enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received his BFA in 1968 and MFA in 1970. During this time, Brown and his colleagues (many of whom would become part of the group known as the Chicago Imagists) began to nurture an appreciation for self-taught artists, seeing them not as “outsider” artists, but as worthy of respect and inclusion into the mainstream art world. This, coupled with his travels throughout the United States, Africa, Europe, and Russia, had a profound influence on Brown’s art. Though his works are often bright and simple in composition, the artist’s practice frequently presents a darkly satirical view of contemporary life and American culture.

Charles White: A Retrospective

Charles White: A Retrospective

Charles White, born and educated in Chicago, was one of the preeminent artists to emerge during the city’s Black Renaissance of the 1930’s and 1940’s. This year, White’s hometown is recognizing his contribution to the portrayal of African American culture and history with a retrospective of the artist’s paintings, drawings, and prints at the Art Institute of Chicago. After being on display in Chicago from now until September, the exhibition will travel on to New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Los Angeles’ County Museum of Art. Given the current recognition White is receiving locally, we were honored to also find ourselves interacting with the artist’s powerful work at the same time it was on display at the Art Institute.

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The Financial Lives of U.S. Presidents (and How We Conserved Them): The First National Bank of LaGrange (FNBLG)’s Presidential Checks Collection

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The Financial Lives of U.S. Presidents (and How We Conserved Them): The First National Bank of LaGrange (FNBLG)’s Presidential Checks Collection

The First National Bank of LaGrange (FNBLG) recently brought its Presidential Check Collection--one of the most comprehensive in the country--to The Center for conservation. This assemblage of checks written by 39 of the 43 U.S. presidents captures a unique piece of American history and gives a glimpse back into the chief executives' professional and private financial lives.

Great (Artist) Aunt Margaret

Great (Artist) Aunt Margaret

Many of us have things passed down from our family, maybe stuffed in boxes in the attic or basement, that are treasures to us. These treasures, though maybe not valuable in the eyes of the public (or art market), are priceless to us. “Everybody thinks their Great Aunt Margaret was a great artist,” said one of our clients. Yet sometimes, as that same client found out, it turns out to be true.

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Hinge-Worthy: Updating the Hinges on a Mark Bradford Piece

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Hinge-Worthy: Updating the Hinges on a Mark Bradford Piece

Sometimes pieces arrive at The Center in good condition, but have inappropriate framing treatments. We are frequently asked to reframe art, or to provide solutions to address faulty framing. For instance, one piece came to us in great condition, it had simply slipped from its mount inside its frame. The piece was a mixed media work by Mark Bradford, an installation and conceptual artist from Los Angeles who had first experimented artistically in his mother’s hair salon, and now has pieces in museums around the world.

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