Past Meetings

October 7, 2010: “RTI @ MCI: Escaping Flatland Using Computational Imaging” by: Mel Wachowiak, Senior Conservator, and Keats Webb, Imaging Specialist at the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute (MCI) Museum Support Center

Location: Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute

November 9, 2010: “Rescue, Recover, and Restore: Smithsonian’s Haiti Cultural Recovery Project,” a panel discussion

Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum

With: Richard Kurin, Smithsonian Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture; Olsen Jean Julien, Project Manager and Haiti’s former Culture Minister; Corine Wagener, President of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield; Stephanie Hornbeck, Chief Conservator and Principal, Caryatid Conservation Services, Inc.; Hugh Shockey, Conservator, American Art and National Portrait Gallery’s Lunder Conservation Center; and Michael Bellamy, Smithsonian Director, Office of Engineering, Design, and Construction; with participation from Rachel Goslins, Executive Director, President’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities; Dr. Diana N’Diaye, Curator and Cultural Heritage Specialist; Steven Mellor, Acting Associate Director for Collections and Facilities, National Museum of African Art (NMAfA); Gail Joice, Museum Collections Manager, National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI); and Eryl Wentworth, Executive Director, American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC).

December 1, 2010: Holiday Party and “Reconstructing the Masters: Historically Accurate Reconstructions of Paintings from Museum Collections” by Brian Baade, Painting Conservator and Kristin deGhetaldi, Painting Conservation Fellow, National Gallery of Art

Location: National Trust for Historic Preservation

January 6, 2011: 3-Ring Circus (three concurrent sessions)

Location: S. Dillon Ripley Center, Smithsonian Institution

Ring 1:

• Gwynne Ryan, Sculpture Conservator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, “INCCA-NA: The International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art, North America Group”
• Carey Howlett, Founder of F. Carey Howlett and Associates Inc. Conservation of Historic Furniture and Interiors, “Building Backwards: Forward-thinking Approaches to Conserving and Installing an Aesthetic Movement Room at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts”
• Lindy Gulick, Assistant Conservator/Project Manager, Conservation Solutions, “The Conservation Treatment of the Thomas Jefferson Monument located on the University of Virginia Grounds”

Ring 2:

• Beth Richwine, Senior Objects Conservator, National Museum of American History, “The Tale of Two Boxing Gloves: You want This? When?”
• Ana Alba, William R. Leisher Fellow in Painting Conservation, National Gallery of Art, “Institute of Museum and Library Services funding for Collections”
• Kate Moomaw, Objects Conservation Fellow, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, “Treatment of Paul Thek’s Fishman (1968-9): A Compensation Technique for Degraded Latex Rubber”

Ring 3:

• Lisa Young, Objects Conservator, National Air and Space Museum, “Planning to Move the National Spacesuit Collection to the Udvar-Hazy Center”
• Laura Mina, Stephanie Spence, and Cathleen Zaret, Interns in Textile Conservation at the Museum Conservation Institute, “From Scrunched to Scrumptious: Treatment of an Evening Gown from the National Museum of African American History and Culture”
• Sunae Park Evens, Senior Costume Conservator at the National Museum of American History and Michelle Harbeson, Graduate Student in Textile Conservation at the University of Rhode Island, “Oscar the Grouch’s Been Reformed with Archival Materials”

With thanks to exhibitors/sponsors University Products, Optium Tru-Vue, Hollinger Metal Edge, Dorfman Museum Figures, Larson Juhl, O’Brien Systems, Borroughs Corp, and Keepsafe Microclimate Systems.

February 3, 2011: “It’s Complicated: Teaching Cultural Heritage in Iraq,” by Lois Price, Director of Conservation for the Winterthur Museum and advisor for the Iraq Cultural Heritage Project, and Jessica Johnson, Program Director for the Collections Conservation and Management Program at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage from May 2009 to January 2011

Location: The Society of the Cincinnati’s Anderson House

March 3, 2011: Intern Talks

Location: National Postal Museum

• Eve Mayberger, Intern, National Museum of the American Indian, “Treatment of an Oversize Rare Book: Research and Decisions on Rebinding”
• Christine Klepper and Michelle Harbeson, Interns, National Museum of American History, “The Wheat Gown: An Artifact Study”
• Kristin deGhetaldi, Fellow in Painting Conservation, National Gallery of Art, “Print or Painting? The Treatment of a penschilderijn by Willem van de Velde the Elder”

April 7, 2011: Sanchita Balachandran, Curator/Conservator, The Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum, “Preserving the Gods: Early Twentieth Century Debates in the Conservation of South Indian Bronze Icons in the Government Museum, Madras”

Location: The Phillips Collection’s Carriage House Studio

May 5, 2011: Annual Business Meeting and raffle

• Annual Meeting Report: 2010-2011

Location: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers