Professional conservation treatment to restore an iconic outdoor sculpture affected by the Northern California wildfires.

FAIN: PG-263521-19

di Rosa Preserve (Napa, CA 94559-9761)
Robin Bernhard (Project Director: April 2018 to August 2019)

Conservation treatment of Wind House (2003) by Ned Kahn, an outdoor kinetic sculpture at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, whose collection has approximately 1,700 works by Bay Area artists of note including Enrique Chagoya, Bruce Conner, Judy Dater, and Mark di Suvero. Wind House is one of five sculptures in the collection by Kahn, whose multi-disciplinary work bridges art, the environment, and public spaces. It is also the terminus of Art and Nature Hikes through the museum’s sculpture park and is visible from the neighboring highway. In 2017, wildfires caused significant damage to 40 percent of the collection, rendering necessary prompt conservation treatment of outdoor sculpture in particular.

The goal of this project is to conduct professional conservation treatment on an outdoor sculpture damaged by fire. Wind House (2003) is a wind-animated kinetic sculpture by local environmental artist and sculptor Ned Kahn. Kahn’s work combines art, science, and public space. He has designed notable exhibits for San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum and has gone on to complete numerous public art commissions around the world. di Rosa has five sculptures by Kahn in its collection that are used to demonstrate how art can convey scientific ideas and concepts to a broad audience. Kahn’s work is incredibly topical and prescient in our current economic and political moment in the United States, bringing issues around climate change and the environment to the fore. Wind House was specially designed for the di Rosa campus and is located on Milliken Peak, the highest summit in this area of Napa Valley. The conservation work will begin January 2019 and culminate the end of February 2019.

Associated Products

di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art Recieves National Endowment for Humanities Grant (Blog Post)
Title: di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art Recieves National Endowment for Humanities Grant
Author: Robin Bernhard
Abstract: The grant will allow di Rosa to restore Wind House (2003), a site-specific outdoor kinetic sculpture by Sebastopol-based artist Ned Kahn. Kahn is an internationally renowned environmental artist and sculptor — known for his work harnessing natural elements such as fire and light, fog, sand, water and wind — augmenting visibility and creating new ways to experience the world around us. Ironically, the wind-animated sculpture, which creates a gossamer suggestion of a building completely permeated by the atmosphere, was damaged by the 2017 Northern California wildfires.
Date: 06.03.2019
Primary URL Description: di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art
Blog Title: Conservation
Website: http://www.dirosaart.org/conservation/

di Rosa Receives NEH Grant to Restore Sculpture Damaged by Wildfires (Blog Post)
Title: di Rosa Receives NEH Grant to Restore Sculpture Damaged by Wildfires
Author: Karen Nikos-Rose
Abstract: A wind-animated sculpture damaged by the 2017 wildfires in the Napa area will be restored with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The sculpture by environmental artist Ned Kahn is located on a nature hike at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, which received the $10,000 Preservation Assistance Grant recently. This is the first NEH grant that di Rosa has been awarded.
Date: 05.31.2019
Primary URL: https://www.ucdavis.edu/arts/blog
Blog Title: Arts Blog
Website: UC Davis

Preservation Arts - Treatment Report (Report)
Title: Preservation Arts - Treatment Report
Author: Rowan Geiger
Abstract: Detailed documentation of conservation of Ned Kahn's Wind House project.
Date: 6.11.2019

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