Pilot Grove Church Restoration Event Nov. 20th

NTAAC Board Member Ron Siebler has a long history of architectural preservation. On Wednesday Nov. 20th the Dallas Heritage Village will be showcasing some of his latest work with the event Preserving The Past For The Future.

The program starts with the short film Pilot Grove Church - An Education/Restoration Project by Mark Birnbaum that documents Ron and his crew dressed in period appropriate carpenters garb, using period tools to do restoration work on the Pilot Grove Church. 

The film will be followed by a panel discussion on the importance of historic preservation with Ron Siebler, Mark Birnbaum,  Dallas Morning News Architecture Critic Mark Lamster, Preservation Dallas Executive Director David Preziosi, and with Dallas Heritage Village Curator Evelyn Montgomery as the moderator.

The Pilot Grove Church, which is locate at the Dallas Heritage Village will also be open, so you can walk through and see first hand how the restoration work turned out. 

For those of us who love history and old buildings this is going to be a great opportunity to learn about the process of restoring a bit of yesteryear.

Wednesday Nov. 20th at 6:00pm

Dallas Heritage Village

1515 S. Harwood St

Dallas TX 75215

This event is FREE but Lisa Simpson would love it if you would RSVP at lsimpson@dallasheritagevillage.org or call 214-413-3662

First NTAAC Angel Day Big Success

The first NTAAC Angels Day was held at the Dallas Heritage Village. Evelyn Montgomery the Director of Exhibits and her assistant and Susan Finky chose a couple of really great projects for us to work on. We broke up into three groups.

The first group photographed, measured and checked museum tags on 28 quilts.

And there were some really wonderful quilts to be seen.

This may look like a map of a civil war battle field but it's actually the back of a very old crazy quilt.

The second group padded and boxed all the quilts for storage.

And the third group focused on cleaning some recently acquisitioned trunks.

 This royal portrait is one of the color lithograph decals that decorated one of the trunks.

Over all these were ideal projects for the NTAAC Angel Day. They were must do projects, and ones that would have taken several days forEvelyn's staff to complet. But with eight NTAAC Angels , we knocked it out and still had time to enjoy a picnic. So a big THANK YOU to all the wonderful people who donated their Saturday morning:
Evelyn Montgomery - Dallas Heritage Village
Susan Finky - Dallas Heritage Village
Tish Brewer - Center For Art Conservation
Lauren Callahan - Conservation Intern
Christina Januszewshi - Art conservation student
David Page - Center For Art Conservation
Evelyn Pate - Brown Mountain Art and Antique Restoration
Laura Pate - Brown Mountain Art and Antique Restoration
Melanie Sanford - Textile Preservation Services of Texas
Maria Sheets - Maria Sheets Studio
Brad Ford Smith - Studio Six Art Conservation

We're looking for an NTAAC Angels Day project for next year!!!

Art Conservation Angel Day May 11th

The original Angel Day was started at the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) annual conference, which brings together a lot of art conservators into one place. Angel Day asks for volunteers to help a small local museum or historic collection on a small project. By donating a little of time and skills, simple projects like sorting files, applying catalogue numbers to objects or dusting old victorian parlors (projects that are the bane of most institutions) can be accomplished in a single day. The AIC Angel Day program has been so successful that NTAAC is adopting the idea.

So, we are happy to announce the first annual NTAAC Angle Day. On Saturday, May 11th we will be meeting up with Evelyn Montgomery at the Dallas Heritage Village at 9:30am.

The focus of our project will be rehousing and photographing the boxed textile collection. Of course if a big bunch of people show up I am sure Evelyn can find other things on her to do list for us to work.

Saturday May 11^th, 2013
9:30 am till we get tired
Dallas Heritage Village
1515 S. Harwood st
Dallas TX 75215

Please RSVP to NTAAC@yahoo.com this will give us and Evelyn and idea of how many volunteers to expect for the day.

This event is open to all members and friends of NTAAC. Please bring a bagged lunch and water. Wear long pants and sensible closed-toe shoes. You are also welcome to bring your kits and safety equipment. You never know what Evelyn may come up with for the group to do.

NTAAC looks forward to continuing Angel Day as an annual event, with that in mind, if you know of collections that could benefit from a day of conservator/curator help please let us know. 

NTAAC Members Doing Good with Hammers and Saws

The members of NTAAC comprise a wide range of skills, interests and activities. Last week Ron Siebler and his team of carpenters started the exterior preservation work on the Pilot Grove Church located on the grounds of the Dallas Heritage Village.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, while working on the south side of the bell tower they donned period clothing and...

...used period tools as well. There was also an area set up in front of the church that allowed the public an opportunity to work with some of the hand tools. Ron says drilling holes with the old bit and brace drill was the most popular tool of the day.

Thanks Ron for sharing, and to Drew Timmons for capturing it on film.

NTAAC loves to know what its member are up to, so if you have an event, project, interview, article... that is artifact centric, let us know about it.

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.