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FUNDS WILL SUPPORT CHANGES NEEDED AS A RESULT OF THE COVID-19 HEALTH CRISIS  The Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC) has received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or CARES Act grant in the amount of $52,417. BACC, the region’s only art conservation center, is one of just 317 organizations to receive funding out of 2,333 eligible applications throughout the country. As well, it is the only organization in San Diego to be awarded this CARES Act grant. The funds awarded will support the development of innovative tools, practices, and procedures at BACC, namely cross-training art conservators and implementing a virtual pre-examination program for art objects so that staff can pivot to provide programming and services during the COVID-19 health pandemic. Associate Conservator of Paper Sara Bisi cross-trains Assistant Conservator of Paintings Morgan Wylder on a float hinge technique and how to attach the hinge to the art and backboard of a piece.  If you've had art treated at the Balboa Art Conservation Center you've probably met Emma Poggioli. As BACC's registrar and administrative assistant Poggioli is usually the first and last person our clients see.
Poggioli earned her graduate degree in public history at the University at Albany and a bachelor’s degree in history at the State University of New York at Oswego. Before she left for the west coast, she worked at the Albany County Hall of Records, the Safe Haven Museum, and the Storm King Art Center, all in New York. After landing in San Diego she worked as a visitor engagement associate at the San Diego History Center before joining the Balboa Art Conservation Center (BACC). Here Emma shares her thoughts on what it’s like to work at BACC and be in a role that directly supports art conservation.  Erick Gude has been on the staff of the Balboa Art Conservation Center since 2001. As a conservation technician and photographer, his primary duties include photography, reframing, art handling, and conservation of frames. Before landing at the Center, he had worked for the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Terra Museum of Art in Chicago, the Musée d’Art Americain in Giverny, France, and the San Diego Museum of Art.
Here he shares some insights on what it’s like to work at BACC, and working in the field of art conservation, in general. Before she completed an Andrew Mellon Fellowship at BACC, Morgan Wylder worked as the NEH Fellow in Paintings Conservation at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, having already earned her graduate degree in Conservation of Easel Paintings from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. During graduate school, Morgan interned at the Regional Laboratory for the Science of Cultural Heritage Conservation, Portland State University, and the paintings conservation department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Her current areas of interest include the conservation of Modern and Contemporary paintings and mixed media artworks, materials and techniques of 20th century California painters, and helping artists to better understand materials to support their artistic practice. Now an Assistant Conservator of Paintings at BACC, she shares some thoughts on what it’s like to be an art conservator.
BACC was thrilled to serve as a key partner in The Edward S. Curtis Orotone Conservation Project at the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) in San Diego. MOPA holds 175 Curtis images in its permanent collection and 13 of those are unique orotone prints that were contained in original mounting material from the early 1900s. Although the orotone photographic prints themselves are in fair-to-good condition, issues with frame damage, dirt, and fear of further harm prevented MOPA from loaning and exhibiting them. After securing a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project, MOPA looked to BACC to restore this collection to its near-original condition. |
