January 23, 2013 NTAAC lunch/meeting

Mark your calendars. The next NTAAC lunch/meeting will be January 23rd, 2013 at Kalachandji's here in Dallas. This will be our first NTAAC event since our November/December break. The board has been working hard to plan great events for the 2013 year. On the books are lectures, workshops and even the first NTAAC Angel's Day. Have a great holiday season and see you in January 2013.

Melanie
NTAAC Board

Kalachandji's

5430 Gurley Ave, Dallas, TX 75223

http://kalachandjis.com/

January 23rd, 2013
11:30 am (they close for lunch at 2pm)

NTAAC goes blacksmithing

Thanks a million to the talented Ron Siebler for such a super demo of blacksmithing yesterday, and for being kind enough to give us some hands-on experience as well. Ron gave us a great introduction to blacksmithing, and taught everyone how to make a decorative S hook. We threw lots of questions his way and he answered all of them, and he's a very encouraging teacher. What a unique way to spend an afternoon! Seeing a craft in action helps us to better understand the materials we work with so closely in the art world, not to mention the inspiration it gives us to go out and make something as soon as possible...it's an appreciated spark, a catalyst for carving out time for a creative outlet! As a conservator who doesn't do that enough, I'm especially grateful for being introduced to an amazing historic craft yesterday. Now, y'all go get your hands dirty!

Cheers, Tish

a partial view of Ron's wood and metal shop

the anvil

the gas forge

working on the curve of an S hook

brushing brass to the twist for extra decoration on this finished S hook

Join NTAAC October 17th, 12:30 at Alfonso's

I wanted to let you know that NTAAC’s last monthly meeting of the year is fast approaching. This month we will be “playing with fire” by visiting Ron Siebler’s workshop here in Dallas on Wednesday, October 17th. Ron is all excited to share with us the history of blacksmithing as well as demonstrate on his forge. Ron wants to let you all know that he has been busy cleaning up his workshop so that there’s enough room for everyone to take a turn on the forge. If you have ever wondered what it is like to stand in front of fire and work with metal this will be a great opportunity to hear and work with someone who has studied this craft.

If you would like to “play with fire” come and join us for lunch at 12:30 at Alfonso's Italian Restaurant at 718 North Buckner Boulevard, Dallas. After lunch we will head over to Ron’s workshop. If you are interested in joining us please send an RSVP to ntaac@yahoo.com so we know how many seats to reserve at Alfonso’s. This is sure to be a unique opportunity. Hope you can join us.


NTAAC’s October Meeting
Wednesday October 17th
12:30pm
Alfonso's Italian Restaurant at 718 North Buckner Boulevard, Dallas.
RSVP to ntaac@yahoo.com

Presentation By Mark Leonard, The Chief Conservator At The DMA

You need to mark you calendars for this event! On Monday, September 24th at 12:00 noon, Mr. Mark Leonard, the new Chief Conservator at the Dallas Museum of Art will give an informal presentation at the DMA. He will discuss both  his previous work as an art conservator as well as touch on plans for the new painting conservation lab at the DMA.

With over three decades of professional experience in conservation, Mark has worked with several major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Frick Collection, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, but he is probably best known for his recent tenure as Head of Conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Once again, NTAAC is very happy to team up with the DMA for this very exciting event.

The event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP with Gabriela Truly by Friday 9/21/12 at 10am.  Gtruly@DallasMuseumofArt.org

After Mark's presentation, please join the members of NTAAC at El Fenix on McKinney Avenue for lunch and more conversation about art, artifacts, and glue.


The North Texas Association for Art Conservation (NTAAC) is a collegial group interested in the preservation, conservation, and restoration of historic and artistic works. NTAAC aims to promote professional dialogue in North Texas, support educational efforts within the conservation community and reach out to invested communities.

Special August Happy Hour Mixer

NTAAC is joining forces this month with NTISA for a hip mixer at the Meddlesome Moth on August 28th at 6:00.

I know, that's a lot of capital letters to squeeze into one sentence. So lets break it down.

NTAAC- That's us, the North Texas Association for Art Conservation.

NTISA - Is the North Texas chapter of the International Society of appraisers.

Meddlesome Moth - A hip and cool beer garden in the Design District.

All combined, Makes for a great opportunity to meet, mingle and reconnect with colleagues who are passionate about working with art, historic objects, and artifacts.

See you there,
Brad

Tour of Unified Fine Arts Services

Great tour today at Unified Fine Arts Services. David and Victor have put a lot of time, research and experience into the construction of their new facilities.

In the photo above David is explaining how the Unified temperature controlled trucks unload into this temporary holding area. The outside doors are then closed, shutting off uncontrollable elements such as the Texas heat. Then the interior doors on the right are opened and the crates are moved into the building.

Speaking of crates, here are three custom built Unified crates. Each is made from birch plywood, sealed with a clear coat. The lids have gaskets and are attached using bolt plates instead of wood screws. Really wonderful work.

Next month NTAAC will be having a casual get together with the North Texas chapter of the International Society of Appraisers. 

Heavy Lifting for the July NTAAC Meeting

On Wednesday, July 18th we will be meeting at Unified Fine Arts Services. David and Victor will lead use a tour of the new facilities and talking about moving some of the biggest works of art in the DFW area.

Unified provides art handling services that include installation, transportation, storage and crating. Their clients include the Dallas Museum of Art, the Crow Collection of Asian Art, Goss-Michael Foundation, and the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame (one of my favorite museums) just to name a few.

Click Here to see photos of the Unified team de-installing the LARGE paint by Tamayo at the DMA.

We'll be having lunch after the tour. The perfect time to talk about art, conservation, history, storage, humidity control, pest management, museums, history, glue...


Wednesday, July 18th 11:30am sharp
Unified Fine Arts Services
14105 Inwood rd.
Dallas, TX 75244
For directions contact Kim Higginbotham 214-678-9101
(Please note that the Unified website still lists their OLD address)


NTAAC events are free and open to the public. We host these events to help the community of North Texas keep in touch with issues pertaining to art conservation and art handling.

August 28th event will be a casual mixer between NTAAC and NTISA

A Few Cold Ones At The NTAAC Happy Hour

Mark your calendars, Wednesday, June 20th at 6:00ish, for the second annual NTAAC Happy Hour at the Bryan Street Tavern.

We'll be trading stories about heroic feats of art conservation, dazzling tails of art handling, and stimulating recounts of document organization... All while enjoying a few cold ones on the back patio at the Bryan Street Tavern.

This Happy Hour is for all you art centric people who work hard all day and need a chance to relax with people that understand things like glue, digital photography and simply picking things up can be a real challenge.

Bryan Street Tavern
4315 Bryan Street
Dallas TX 75204


As with all NTAAC events, you and your colleagues are encouraged to join in the conversation.

Stay tuned for these other NTAAC events
July 18th- a site visit to Unified Fine Arts Services
August 28th - Casual mixer with the North Texas Appraisers at Meddlesome Moth.

Local and National Disaster with Lunch

Museum Disasters: Who Are You Going To Call?!

Join NTAAC at the DMA for Ms. Gina Minks' lecture on local and national disaster assistance organizations 

Ms Minks is the Imaging and Preservation Service Manager at Amigos Library Services Inc., one of the largest library service networks in the nation. Her experience in distater recovery includes being deployed to Galveston, Texas after Hurricane Ike.

Still hungry for disastrous and broken conversation? 

Join NTAAC for the after lecture NTAAC lunch at the historic downtown El Fenix. 1601 McKinney Ave, just two blocks from the DMA.

Monday, May 21st at 12:00 noon

C3 Theater

Dallas Museum of Art

1717 North Harwood St.

Dallas TX, 75201

This lecture is free and open to the public. Please RSVP if you wish to receive free parking at the DMA. gtruly@DallasMuseumofArt.org

To find out more about the North Texas Association for Art Conservation visit the NTAAC website at http://ntaac.blogspot.com/

NTAAC and the DMA May Lecture

Museum Disasters: Who Are You Going To Call?!

Well, you could call Gina Minks... Better yet, you can join us at the DMA for her lecture on that very subject. This 30 minute lecture will focus on local as well as national assistance offered to museums and their staff, weather that disaster is the results of leaky pipers, fire, or even tornados.

Ms Minks is the Imaging and Preservation Service Manager at Amigos Library Services Inc., one of the largest library service networks in the nation. Her experience in distater recovery includes being deployed to Galveston, Texas after Hurricane Ike.

So grab your note pad and join us:
May 21st at 12:00 noon
C3 Theater
Dallas Museum of Art
1717 North Harwood St.
Dallas TX, 75201

This lecture is free and open to the public, but if you RSVP by May 17th you will receive free parking at the DMA. gtruly@DallasMuseumofArt.org

Still hungry for disastrous conversation? 
Join us for the after lecture NTAAC lunch at the historic downtown El Fenix. 1601 McKinney Ave, just two blocks from the DMA.

Millard Sheets Mosaics, NTAAC Studio Tour

The April NTAAC Lunch and studio tour was a very successful, with good food and a wonderful tour of a conservation project at the Michael Van Enter Studio.

Michael and his staff are working on about 90 mosaic panels, some of them are from Millard Sheets. 

The organic shaped mosaics required custom scaffolding and cradles.

These works of art came very close to being demolished due to their large size and tremendous weight. That would have been a real disaster. 

And speaking of disasters,  the May NTAAC Event will be a lecture at the Dallas Museum of Art by Gina L. B. Minks entitled Museum Disasters: Who Are You Going To Call? More on that in the next NTAAC Update.

NTAAC Lunch and Studio Tour April 25th

As a bit of a teaser for the NTAAC April 25th lunch, Michael Van Enter sent over a few photos of the Millard Sheets mosaics he has been restoring.

We'll be stopping by his studio for a tour right after we have lunch at Ali Baba's Mediterranean Grill 1901 Abrams rd, Dallas TX. The buffet starts at 12:00 noon this Wednesday, April 25th. Then we'll roll over to see these wonderful mosaics. 

NTAAC April Buffet and Studio Tour

Join us for a tasty lunch and a studio tour April 25th, 12:00noon at Ali Baba's Mediterranean Grill 1901 Abrams rd We'll enjoy a tasty buffet of conservation conversation.

THEN, it's off to the Michael Van Enter Studio for a look at the restoration Michael is doing on the Millard Sheets mosaics that where rescued from the demolished Dallas Mercantile Bank.


Great article about it in Art And Antiques magazine and Local enthusiast Angel Hunt has some great photos on her Flickr site.

NTAAC Conservation Roundtable TAM 2012

The Conservation Roundtable that NTAAC organized for the 2012 TAM conference played to a full house. With the session broken up into 10 minute time slots all the attendees were able to converse with each of the 5 art conservators. And when that final bell rang, few people were ready to leave.

Perhaps NTAAC will organize another session for the 2013 TAM conference in Waco.

NTAAC hosting Conservation Roundtable

The Texas Association of Museum (TAM) conference starts on Tuesday. This year the 5 day conference is being held down by the River Walk in San Antonio.

NTAAC will be hosting a session on Wednesday called Conservation Roundtable. We'll have 5 art conservators sitting at 5 roundtables. Each conservator will be addressing questions that pertains to their field of expertise:

Paper- Tish Brewer - the Center for Art Conservation, Dallas TX
Paintings- Anne Zanikos - Anne Zanikos Art Conservation, San Antonio TX
Textiles- Melanie Sanford - Textile Preservation Services of Texas, Dallas TX
Photographs- Corinne Dune - DBA Photogragh and Paper Conservation Services, San Marcos TX
Furniture- Brad Ford Smith - Studio Six Art Conservation, Dallas TX

With this line up we should be able to answer most of your questions.

Building A Better Emergency Hub

It was great to see such a big turn out for the February NTAAC lunch meeting at the DMA. And a Big Thank You to the DMA and Gabby Truly for hosting this lunch meeting of NTAAC, START and NTART.

The topics of emergency preparedness and the dissemination of information lead to some really good roundtable conversations. These topics were connected to the question of wither the Heritage Preservation Alliance for Response program (START) and/or the North Texas Alliance for Response Taskforce (NTART) should be brought back on line as a hub for up to date information and links to disaster preparedness and recovery? 

Turns out, everyone at the lunch has emergency information they would love to share. We just need to organize it and then find a place to house it all. 

Great News! Gina Minks at Amigos Library Services has donated internet space for NTAAC to start a web site dedicated to Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery in North Texas. (EPDRNT!?)

So All of you that have piles of information, contact numbers, links, photos.... start sending that stuff to Melanie at info@conservingthreads.com

Also, there was interest in bring certified workshops to the Dallas area. We can do that with your help.

Those of you interested in helping to get this project on line please contact Melanie.

Melanie Sanford

Co-Founder NTAAC

info@conservingthreads.com

NTAAC February Lunch At The DMA

This month's NTAAC lunch will be a special convergence of 3 North Texas response groups at the Dallas Museum of Art.

The North Texas Association for Art Conservation (NTAAC) will be meeting with members from the State of Texas Alliance for Response Taskforce (START) and the North Texas Alliance for Response Taskforce (NTART) for an open forum discussion about emergency response in North Texas.

Our host Gabriela Truly Director of Collections Management, has arranged for free parking at the museum, but you must RSVP to be put on the free parking list. Access to the Atrium Cafe' is always free.

As with all NTAAC events, you and your colleagues are encouraged to join in the conversation.

Thursday, February 23 at 12:00noon 

Atrium Cafe at the DMA

Dallas Museum Of Art

1717 North Harwood

Dallas TX 75201

Please RSVP to Gabriela Truly at:  GTruly@DallasMuseumofArt.org  

Remember to sign up for the NTAAC News Blog.

NTAAC Member, Ron Siebler Pounds At The Anvil

Ron Siebler will be joining acclaimed blacksmith Ward Brinegar in presenting “At the Anvil” this Saturday, February 18th at the Dallas Heritage Village.  This two part presentation starts with demonstrations of basic forging techniques and tools, as well as complex production skills used to make elaborate scrollwork and other architectural details. 

The afternoon session will be devoted to a Blacksmith workshop that will provide participants with a hands-on experience at the forge.

For times, tickets and to reserve your anvil check out this event link.

This demonstration and workshop is sponsored by those great historic centric people at Preservation Dallas and Dallas Heritage Village.  

*TO HELL AND BACK!!!

The North Texas Association for Art Conservation is very happy to be teaming up once again with the Nasher Sculpture Center. This time to host a sizzling lecture by Maria Sheets entitled To Hell and Back: Fire Recovery Project at the Museum of Biblical Art.

In 2006 Ms. Sheets was there when the Dallas Fire Department was pouring tons of water on the burning Museum of Biblical Art. And she was there when the museum re-opened their doors in 2010. Between those two dates, she was the art conservator on staff, responsible for the over whelming task of evaluating and treating the museum's badly damaged collection.

At this lecture, Ms. Sheets will be discussing her insights on disaster recovery and touching on topics such as: Prioritizing, Temporary Storage, Public Relations, Conservation in a temporary conservation lab, Museum construction, and  of course developing a new Emergency Disaster Plan.

This event is free and open to the public, so spread the word, bring a friend. Please RSVP to the lecture by emailing events@nashersculpturecenter.org. 

For more info contact NTAAC at NTAAC@yahoo.com or go to www.NTAAC.blogspot.com

Monday, January 30th at 12:00 Noon

Nasher Sculpture Center 

2011 Flora Street

Dallas TX 75228

PS- NTAAC will be meeting for an after lecture lunch at historic downtown El Fenix just down the street. You are welcome to join us.

To Hell and Back: The NTAAC January Meeting

The North Texas Association for Art Conservation is very happy to be starting 2012 with a fiery lecture hosted at the Nasher Sculpture Center.

On Monday, January 30 at 12:00 Noon, Maria Sheets will be presenting To Hell and Back: Fire Recovery Project at the Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas. 


In June 2005, the Museum of Biblical Art experienced a devastating six alarm fire. Six years later, the newly reconstructed facility has re-opened with many of the once soot covered/water damaged objects professionally treated and now on exhibit.

Ms. Sheets documented this precess from the beginning. She will be discussing her insights and touching on topics such as:

-- Prioritizing

-- Temporary storage and transportation

-- Public relations

-- Issues with a temporary lab

-- Treatment

-- Building construction

-- Creating an on-view conservation lab/classroom

-- Developing a new Emergency Disaster Plan

This is an important lecture not only for people involved with museum and corporate collections, but also anyone who is passionate about collecting and preserving history.

Monday, January 30 at 12:00 noon

Nasher Sculpture Center

2011 Flora Street

Dallas TX 75201

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP at events@nashersculpturecenter.org


NTAAC will meet for an after lecture lunch at the historic El Fenix just down the street. So make your calendars, and spread the word.