A Brief History of the Midwest Regional Conservation Guild

& A Few Other Thoughts

Richard McCoy, Indianapolis Museum of Art30th Anniversary Meeting of the MRCG

Louisville, Kentucky

Inception Dates of Other Organizations

• International Institute for Conservation 1950• Washington Conservation Guild 1967• American Institute for Conservation 1972• Bay Area Conservation Guild 1974• Western Association for Art Conservation 1975• Chicago Area Conservation Guild 1978 (?)• Midwest Regional Conservation Guild 1980• Southeast Regional Conservation Guild ?

The Pre-Meeting August 9, 1980 at the CMA

On August 9, 1980, eleven conservators from the Midwest region met at the Cleveland Museum of Art to discuss the by-laws necessary for legal incorporation of the MRCG. [...] The following comments were made on the purpose and character of the Guild:

1. The Guild should provide a framework for knowing other conservators and laboratories in our region.

2. The Guild should provide informal exchange of ideas with our colleagues. 3. The Guild should serve as a "problem solving forum." Discussion of actual case

problems at the host institution as part of our meetings was suggested

4. The Guild could accurately represent our needs to national level agencies such as the NCAC

5. Meetings could be held twice a year, rotating geographic location."

30 Years ago: The First MRCG Meeting

October 25th, 1980 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Who was there?

15 Paintings10 Objects (2 do paintings also)5 Paper3 Books and Archival2 Textiles (1 does objects also)1 Photography1 Scientist1 Technician38

1981: MRCG Logo Created by Meyer Miller*

*Logo in need of digital conservation

This Isn’t Scientific …Look around in the room, you’re all still here:

David Miller, Barbara Heller, Harold Mailand, Nancy Heugh*, Shelley Paine, Chris Young, Tom Edmondson, Dean Yoder, Kenneth Be, Cecile Mear, David Marquis, Marty Radecki, Marcia Steele, Laurie Booth, Cynthia Stow, Suzanne Hargrove, Dee Minault, Kate Garland, Elizabeth Bathelor, Paul Haner, Frank Zuccari, Ruth Norton, Louis Pomerantz, Wendy Partridge, Margaret Contempasis, Joan Gorman, Paul Benson, Randy Ash, Richard Baker, Stephen Bonadies, Bruce Christman, James Cutrone, Marissa Racht-Ryan, Peter Mecklenburg, Barry Bauman, Cynthia Berry, Christina Milton O’Connell, Gersil Kay, Claire Hoevel, Helen Mar Parkin, Elana King, McKay Lodge, Stephen Bonadies, Andrea Chevalier, Jennifer Hein, Romana Duncan-Huse, Jean Easter, Judy Sylvester, Jody Utter, and on and on...

Still not scientific …

Whatever happened to Soni Veliz

&Quentin Rankin?

1982: Caroline KeckMRCG’s

First Guest Speaker

Talk: “A Plea for the Poor Painting - caught in the Battle of Extremes.”

She encouraged conservators understand the needs of paintings, and where they would be housed, and to be bold in their treatments.

She said here lecture “concerns us privately and is not for public consumption.”

In 1988 The MRCG instituted a Louis Pomerantz Memorial Lecture “designed to facilitate special programs with the context of special programs within the context of scheduled meetings.”An honorarium has been established in order to engage selected lecturers outside of the Guild Membership.

Congratulations, Dr. Alison Stewart, for giving the 2010 MRCG Louis Pomerantz Memorial Lecture!

1986 MRCG Archives Established at CAM

1993 First Membership Directory Appears

(also parallels the rise of the home computer)

50 could be the next 30

49 Meetings (by my count)12 Different States

Annual Meeting attendance 45-100

So, who wins?

• Nelson-Atkins Museum = 3 meetings

• Detroit Institute of Arts = 4 meetings

• Cincinnati Museum of Art = 4 meetings

• Cleveland Art Museum = 5 meetings

• Indianapolis Museum of Art = 5 meetings

What now?

The Guild should provide a framework for knowing other conservators and

laboratories in our regionBut what is our “region?”

The Guild was formed to “promote fellowship and exchange of ideas on a

professional level.”

Exchange of ideas used cost $$, now it’s happening everywhere!

For example …

Connecting to Collections Free Lectures: www.heritagepreservation.org/C2C/

Questions for MRCG (A New Crossroads?)

One of the primary purposes of any association is to share information, now everyone has the power to present on just about any topic anywhere, anytime. Is everyone going to become their own association?

How can we work collaboratively to build a more open and comprehensive architecture for sharing knowledge? What tools are best: e-mail, web pages, open source software, Wikipedia?

As Caroline Keck demonstrate meetings like this allow us to have private conversations. Or are they less private?

One of the early and stated goals of the Guild was also to create a platform for problem solving and hands on learning. How do we maximize our brains?

Special thanks to IMA pre-program intern Jessica Ford for her

research assistance in this talk.