Conservation Treatment

By: Eva Fognell, Curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art

As the curator of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art here at Fenimore Art Museum, I’m often asked what it is that I do. I hope that my series of blogs will give you a window into my responsibilities, as well as what happens to the objects I care for.

Because our traveling exhibition, The Thaw Collection: Masterpieces of American Indian Art from Fenimore Art Museum takes up a lot of my time right now, I will show you the process of preparing objects for travel in my next few posts. A few of the objects are being treated by conservator Gwen Spicer, and her assistant, Shaun. For several weeks, we have been changing out objects in the Thaw gallery - taking out ones that are slated for the tour and replacing them with others. Today we took out a Seminole bandolier bag and moved a mask into its place in the gallery. The bag is a bit dirty and, as you can see in the photo, it has some weak spots that need to be stabilized so that we can handle the bag and not risk its integrity when we pack and unpack it. Shaun is seen here cleaning the beads. Next time we’ll catch up with Gwen and Shaun to see what more they will do to the bag.