Art Handling

Post by: Lauren Ippolito

               Assistant Collections and Exhibitions Manager

Art handling is an integral part of the collections inventory project. Every object in the museum’s permanent collection must be temporarily removed from storage or display to be inspected, measured, and photographed. In order to care for and protect the museum’s permanent collection, the inventory team must use proper art handling techniques and appropriate supplies and equipment.

When an object is moved, the risk of damage to that object increases, which is why we handle objects only when necessary. As part of proper art handling technique, we must examine the object to determine if there are areas that may be unstable, know the destination for the object, and make necessary preparations for its arrival before any movement begins. There must be a clear path for moving the object, and the object must be moved slowly and carefully with enough people to safely handle the object. The equipment and supplies used to move and handle objects varies according to the type of object. However, there is one supply that we use for handling every object- nitrile gloves. As the photo below shows, we keep plenty of clean gloves in stock.

 

 

As we conduct the collections inventory project, we must transition our work space so that we can inventory objects as close to their storage location as possible in order to minimize the movement of the museum’s permanent collection. The first work space that we created was close to a storage area of smaller objects including ceramics, silver, art glass, paperweights, and wood carvings. To inventory these objects, we moved them using a utility cart padded with polyethylene foam. We moved small batches of the objects on the cart with padding as a buffer in between objects. One person pushed the cart while the other person kept objects stabilized during the move.

 

 

The second work space allowed the inventory team to have closer access to the painting storage racks. We relocated objects from a portion of a painting storage rack to create a space to hang each framed object to be inventoried and photographed. Due to the close proximity to the storage location and the limited space of the storage area, we carried each framed object to the work space. While most framed objects required two people to carry, there are many small framed works that are manageable for one person to carry one object at a time. The photo below illustrates the proper way to lift and carry a framed object- always with both hands, one on the side and one on the bottom.  

 



 

When a painting is moved a further distance, we utilize the A-frame cart (see photo below).

 

As the collections inventory project progresses, we will create new work spaces and utilize other art handling techniques for sculpture, textiles, and furniture. 



 



"New England Afternoon"

In 1931, Mr. and Mrs. William and Anna Singer, Jr. gave a gift to the city of Hagerstown by providing the funds to build the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts and donating works of art from their own private collection to begin the museum’s permanent collection. This gift of several hundred works of art began the museum’s collection that has grown to over 7,000 works of art, which are now being documented through the collections inventory project.

 

One of the first gifts from the Singers was the oil painting New England Afternoon, circa 1909, by Willard Metcalf (American, 1858 – 1925). William Singer was not only an art collector, he was also an artist who worked in the American Impressionist style. Singer knew Metcalf and occasionally visited him in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where the two artists painted together. When the Singers moved to Norway, Metcalf and his wife visited them and gave them several paintings, including this beautiful scene of New England.

 

Dr. Elizabeth Johns, professor emerita, University of Pennsylvania, wrote of the painting in the publication 100 Stories: Highlights from the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts:

“New England Afternoon radiates the bright yellows and greens of summer. A dark, sinuous creek leads the viewer’s eye into the landscape through a foreground dotted with livestock. Blue-tinged mountains in the far distance, a church steeple in the background, and a sky filled with scudding clouds – typical characteristics of New England – give the scene its sweeping scale. Metcalf’s high point of view and the nearly square canvas (popular at the time) creates a deep space, which the delicate, short brushstrokes fill with a pleasant softness.”

*Copies of 100 Stories: Highlights from the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts may be purchased from the museum’s shop or online at http://www.wcmfa.org/100stories.htm.

 

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett Visits the Museum

On August 16, 2012 Roscoe Bartlett, the US Representative for Maryland’s 6^th District, visited the museum during the American Alliance of Museum’s (AAM) “Invite Congress to Visit Your Museum Week” (August 11 – August 18, 2012). Museum Director, Rebecca Massie Lane, extended the invitation to Rep. Bartlett and was excited to have him accept.

Rebecca Massie Lane and Rep. Roscoe Bartlett view the "Still Life: The Painted Image" Exhibition

 

 

Rep. Bartlett toured the museum’s galleries with museum staff and members of the Board of Trustees, Al Martin and John Schnebly. He was especially taken with the museum’s major exhibition in commemoration of the 150^th Anniversary of the American Civil War, Valley of the Shadow, on view through July 28, 2013 and the variety of artistic experiences offered by the museum.

John Schnebley, Rebecca Massie Lane, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, and Al Martin

 

"Our people seem to feel as if they can somehow reconnect with the past. There's solidity there. There's something that they can reconnect with the past, the future will somehow be better." – Rep. Roscoe Bartlett

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett touring the "Valley of the Shadow" exhibition



Rep. Roscoe Bartlett with the museum's John Gutzon Borglum, "Bust of Lincoln"

Part of Rep. Bartlett’s visit was a tour of the collections storage areas and an overview of the important work being done in the collections inventory project. Lauren Ippolito, Jennifer Chapman Smith, and Kay Palmateer explained to Rep. Bartlett the process of inventorying each object and how it has, and will continue to, impact the accessibility of collection’s objects to the public and further grow the museum’s reputation not only in Maryland and the 6^th district but throughout the country.

 

Rep. Rosecoe Bartlett tours the museum's collections storage

 

 

For news video of Rep. Bartlett’s visit go to:

http://your4state.com/fulltext?nxd_id=268082

 

More photos from Rep. Bartlett’s visit available at:

http://bartlett.house.gov/photos/#id=307604&num=2

 

For more information on the AAM’s “Invite Congress to Visit Your Museum Week” go to:

 

http://www.speakupformuseums.org/invitecongresstovisitaugust.htm

 

 

 



Past Perfect Conversion

Post by:   Judith Wheeler

                 Collections Inventory Volunteer / Database Specialist

This year, the WCMFA is going operational with PastPerfect museum software.  After years of using a small, site-specific application developed in MS Access, later updated to an Access front-end and SQL backend, the museum had become limited in its ability to collect different types of information and to exploit that information effectively.  The museum faced the decision of whether to embark on a substantial development effort to expand the existing application with respect to data architecture and business rules or convert to a commercial museum application (i.e. PastPerfect) that would incorporate standard museum nomenclature, workflow and business practices.   A solid business case was made for change and funds for the software, documentation and technical support were acquired.

The idea of converting from one system that limiting as it had become, was a known quantity, vice converting data critical to the museum’s daily operations was daunting.  After spending some time familiarizing ourselves with the new environment utilizing PastPerfect’s downloadable evaluation software, we were ready to proceed with laying out a step-by-step approach for our conversion process.   Because WCMFA had received IMLS grant funding for inventorying our collection, we focused on the collections-oriented data first with the contacts/development data to follow.

From the outset, the project was set as a museum priority for staff.  Our team would consist of museum staff who are part of the collections management process and a volunteer board member with a background in IT and specifically database development and conversion.  Because of the “in-house” expertise, we were able to minimize consulting or outsourced hours.  Not only was this a financial factor, but additionally, it provided a means for staff to increase their depth of understanding regarding their data and technical environment and be more empowered in the future.

Our work at hand was broken down into manageable pieces, taking a step-by-step approach that would allow us to validate the data as we went along, see demonstrable progress, minimize museum staff time (since everyone still had all their museum responsibilities), and build confidence in the process and eventual outcome.  In a nutshell, here’s what we did:

1) Developed a data mapping from the “source” environment to the “target” environment.  This validated that everything in our “source” dataset would have a home in the “target”.  This also identifed “type mismatches” that would require some technical conversion work to be done.

2) Took a “cut” of the data for analysis.  In this step we exported data from the SQL backend and imported it into a separate Access database for manipulation to identify issues with the data itself that might require research or cleanup to make eventual conversion easier.  This step required the most involvement from the collections management staff since it is in this step that a technical “eye” saw patterns or anomalies that required collections staff analysis and resolution.

3) Resolved conversion data issues.  This was fundamentally a technical task that, for the most part, involved a) fixing date fields so they would be in the required format and b) concatenating text fields where the “target” used one field and our “source” had multiple fields.

4) Tested data import into PastPerfect.  Because we had been able to resolve the data issues in-house, we took another cut of the data (day-to-day work had been proceeding), reconciled that data and decided to see what “our data” looked like in PastPerfect.  What happiness when the right number of records were imported!  Even greater happiness when everything looked correct! 

5) Shipped our data off to PastPerfect for a few final touches.  Their technical staff performed a few steps on data import not available to us through the application and shipped our complete, validated dataset back to us.

So here we are in the Fall of 2012 with our collections management staff for several months now using PastPerfect for their inventory task and we’re moving on to our Contacts/Development module. We’ve already imported a cut of our Contacts into PastPerfect and are identifying the anomalies in the data.  (It’s amazing how many different kinds of things people can put in a title field!).  We can’t wait for the increased capabilities PastPerfect will give us in managing our contacts, donations, listings and mailings.   Stay tuned!