Preservation Assessment of the Phoenix Municipal Art Collection

FAIN: PG-233763-16

Office of Arts and Culture (Phoenix, AZ 85003-1611)
Edward Lebow (Project Director: May 2015 to June 2016)
Christina Park (Project Director: June 2016 to June 2019)

The preservation assessment of a collection of approximately 1,000 art objects, the majority of which are paper-based, such as photographs, prints, and drawings. The collection also includes paintings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, baskets, and mixed media. These items are presently displayed in municipal buildings as well as in a volunteer-staffed gallery space in City Hall. In addition to assessing the city’s art collections, the NEH-funded consultant would also provide a workshop to train city staff, volunteers, and students who manage the collection, and advise on the purchase of data loggers for environmental monitoring.

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture (POAC) will use a National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant to hire Janet Ruggles, Director/Chief Conservator of Paper at the Balboa Art Conservation Center in San Diego, to conduct a general preservation assessment, the first ever, of the City of Phoenix Municipal Art Collection's exhibition and preservation policies, practices and storage/display conditions. She will evaluate issues and conditions affecting the collection's 1,000 artworks; recommend strategies and improvements to help preserve them; and provide a workshop/training session for the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture Collections Manager, gallery volunteers, and student interns to implement best practices for controlling, handling, displaying and storing the collection's works of art. As part of the project, the POAC also will purchase three Preservation Environmental Monitors (PEM2).