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The Center recently treated Belle Baranceanu's full-scale cartoon drawings that were used to create The Seven Arts mural at La Jolla High School in 1939-40. The mural was destroyed when the high school was demolished in 1975, and these drawings are all that remain from the New Deal commissioned project.
Check out the coverage in the La Jolla Light to learn more about the exhibition and conservation approach, or visit the La Jolla Historical Society. The Balboa Art Conservation Center finished an extensive conservation treatment of Belle Baranceanu's "Mission Hills," a 1930s landscape/cityscape of San Diego by beloved San Diego artist Belle Baranceanu. In the before picture, you can see major paint loss and lifting and loose paint caused by acute water exposure on the right side of the painting. For those interested in the care and preservation of digitally printed materials check out the Image Permanence Institute. BACC was happy to help facilitate a 2-day workshop presented by Senior Research Scientist, Daniel Burge during which participants learned how to identify and preserve the most common digital types.
Mellon Fellow in the Conservation of Paintings, Bianca Garcia attended the International Symposium for Paintings on Copper (and Other Metal Supports) in Valencia, Spain. The symposium was the first international forum to discuss the construction, technical examination of, and conservation of paintings on metal supports.
 The Harem Taking a Walk by 19th Century German painter Wilhelm Gentz. The top image shows the work before restoration and the bottom image shows the work after restoration. Painted around 1865 and purchased as part of the original Crocker Art Museum collection, The Harem Taking a Walk by 19th Century German painter Wilhelm Gentz needed a lot of love and attention when the BACC was asked to breathe renewed life in to it. A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts funded the careful restoration work required to address the 140 years of gallery time and the painting's long stint in storage.
During the process, technical imaging and analysis revealed the artist had done something unusual to the painting, having scraped and repainted portions of the background, notably in the top left corner. It’s unknown why Gentz returned to the work in such an impromptu manner, but the result brings detail that may have been missing before. Especially beautiful, colorful reflections in the foreground water were revealed by the conservation, as well. The Crocker Art Museum developed a curriculum enrichment guide around this restoration to help introduce students to the process of art conservation. It can be viewed here. (Text adapted from the Crocker Museum of Art Facebook page) BACC was featured in San Diego Home & Garden's "Saving Time: A Guide to Conservators" piece.
"When works you've collected show signs of deterioration, you may need a conservator's help ..." Read the original article, here. How Barrio Logan, the City of San Diego, and BACC Saved the Beloved Art of Aztec BrewINg Company11/1/2014
 "The artworks are beloved by that community and the artwork was saved by that community" Dana Springs, executive director of the City of San Diego's Commission for Arts and Culture (in 2014) said, referencing the paintings, murals, and other work from Aztec Brewing's rathskeller now housed at the Logan Heights Library.
In the late 80s, a group of concerned artists and citizens convinced the city to take ownership of these historic pieces after discovering that the building that once housed Aztec Brewery, a former gathering place in San Diego's Barrio Logan neighborhood, was to be demolished. Decades later, the city received a grant to help with their restoration, and after months of work by BACC's team, they can now be viewed at the Logan Heights Library. Browse the collection of articles below to learn more about the amazing history of Aztec Brewery and BACC's role in treating this collection:
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