VMFA conservation professionals (from left) Sheila Payaqui, Jennifer Bridges and Ainslie Harrison use an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to analyze Ethiopian crosses. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Two floors up from the north entrance of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, there’s a stretch of windows, some floor-to-ceiling, lining the 2010 addition. An intrepid explorer of the museum might wonder why they’ve never walked through an exhibition in there, or seen a wedding party dancing the night away.
Truth is, you won’t. But that space is integral to how visitors experience the 35,000 pieces of the VMFA’s collection, and many more beyond.
The 10,000 square feet of space form the David and Susan Goode Conservation Studios, the largest in the Southeast, housing 10 conservators and technicians trained in the preservation and assessment of sculpture, decorative arts, paintings and paper. But a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will launch a dramatic growth of the program, filling out the studios with more art professionals and equipment — and putting the museum on the global conservation map.
“Conservation usually gets treated as an unwanted stepchild,” says director Alex Nyerges. “I give credit to trustees and previous administrations who put the architectural plan together to devote … very valuable floor space in the new building to conservation.”
The Mellon Foundation, based in New York, was won over by the space and by the museum’s burgeoning African art collection, which will benefit greatly from the new conservators and equipment. The three-year grant, awarded last December and announced this summer, lends itself to the museum’s 2020 strategic plan, which calls for, eventually, 29 employees in the conservation studio. “Essentially, what we’re trying to do is unlock the mysteries that are embedded in an object,” says Stephen Bonadies, senior deputy director for conservation and collections.
In the light-filled decorative arts studio, Sheila Payaqui, senior conservator and head of sculpture and decorative arts conservation, points out a Congolese mask. “We’re learning what are the materials [an object is made of], a technical analysis of how it’s fabricated, and then how [to] share this with everyone. How … you display this and be true to this community and the spirit of the objects.”
Bonadies and Payaqui swoon a little over new equipment, including a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer — “It allows us to look at coding and pigments and do organic analysis,” — and a digital radiography system that can “photograph internal properties and get interpretations just looking at the software.” With these tools, the VMFA can contribute to national databases that map sourcing trends and lend to historical scholarship.
The museum has put a focus on its 1,200-object-strong African art collection — “one of the best collections in the country,” says Nyerges.
“As part of the Mellon grant, we’re going to be doing a specific study on the African power figures, analyzing the various component parts,” Bonadies adds. “Oftentimes, there’ll be hidden chambers within the objects, amulets and different types of materials attached. This helps us tell a much more complete story and provide context in terms of how these were actually used.”
The grant also means more in-house conservation work and expertise, which cuts down on the time precious works of art spend in transit to other centers.
Once complete, Nyerges says, “we will likely have one of the five or six largest art conservation centers in an art museum in the United States.”
Bonadies estimates that five or six employees will be coming on in the next few years — assistant conservators, conservation photographers, technicians — but hiring will be slow as the museum works to ensure the sustainability of the positions.
The Mellon Foundation is keen on encouraging diversity in the conservation field, and the VMFA is on board. “There’s a discrepancy between who are the stakeholders in cultural property and who’s preserving it,” says Payaqui. The grant will allow for paid internships and fellowships that expose a range of students and recent graduates to the discipline and encourage further schooling.
So what does the grant mean for museumgoers who will never set foot in the studio? Well, it means more rotation of better-preserved art and global connections with other institutions that may yield more traveling exhibitions.
But mostly it means we know more about our art. In the African art gallery, Bonadies gestures to a Ci Wara headdress on display. “Part of this shows a Western bias looking at African art this way, with all the regalia and accouterments removed. … The museum is embracing trying to show the whole object and the context in which it was used.” The grant, he says, affords the VMFA “opportunities to discover new narratives that could be incorporated and inform a new display.”
