Art Conservation
The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has a conservation staff that conserves, maintains, preserves, and researches the Museum’s collection while adhering to national and international codes of ethics and care. Conservators and conservation scientists are professionals with advanced training in art history, science, studio art, and related fields with exceptional expertise in their area of specialization. Our dedicated team ensures we meet our mission to enrich lives through exceptional experiences with art and nature and aids our commitment to stewardship, excellence, and more.
The Department is staffed by conservators with specializations in paintings, works on paper, textiles & fashion, and objects & variable art, as well as a conservation specialist, conservation technician, an administrative coordinator, and a chief conservator.
The IMA Conservation Department is housed in a 7,700-square-foot laboratory in the Museum’s main building. The lab was founded in 1970, since the Museum has been in its current location at 38th and Michigan.
The IMA Conservation Science Department is housed in a 3,000 square foot state-of-the-art analytical and research laboratory for the study of artists’ materials that was founded in 2010.
Resources
Useful tips on how to care for your collections can be found via University of Delaware, the National Park Service, and the Canadian Conservation Institute.
Conservation Leadership
Gregory Dale Smith, PhD, Otto N. Frenzel III Senior Conservation Scientist
Dr. Smith previously served as the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Conservation Science at SUNY Buffalo State College, one of only three graduate programs for comprehensive art conservation training in the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in physical/analytical chemistry from Duke University and has completed postdoctoral research at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, and University College London.
Smith’s research interests include studying condition issues affecting modern polymers used in art, pigment degradation processes, preservation environments, and the development and testing of innovative conservation treatments. He also has performed archaeological fieldwork in Galilee, Israel, serving as field chemist and supervisor on two excavations.
Smith has authored numerous articles for journals in the fields of chemistry and conservation, and is an avid speaker on the interface between the Arts and the Sciences. For these efforts he was recognized in 2018 with the national award for Conservation Advocacy from the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). He is a Professional Associate of the (AIC), associate editor for the Institute's professional journal, and an executive board member of the local section of the American Chemical Society.
Frederick Wallace, Chief Conservator
Fred Wallace has a nearly 30 year-long career in art conservation. Before coming to Indianapolis, Wallace held the position of Chief Conservator at both the Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio (2001-2004) and The Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia (2010-2016).
More recently, in 2017, Wallace established Infinity Art Conservation Enterprises (IACE), a full-time conservation private practice based in Hampton, Virginia. As Director of IACE, he provided high caliber conservation services to various institutions, corporate entities and private individuals throughout the southeast region of the state. Wallace holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, and a Master's degree from the Art Conservation Program of the State University of New York College at Buffalo.
At the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Wallace oversees the administration of the Conservation Department and supports its staff in its mission to conserve, preserve and research the museum’s collection and establish standards within the museum that meet or exceed national and international codes of ethics and care. In his role, Wallace advises on all conservation projects spanning all mediums of the collection.
The Team
Lindsey Canull, Coordinator for Conservation and Conservation Science
Victor Chen, Conservation Science Volunteer
Dr. Joan M. Esson, Project MUSE Scholar and Professor & Department Chair Department of Chemistry, Otterbein University
Amanda Holden, Senior Conservator of Textiles
Laura Mosteller, Conservation Specialist
Mary Najmon, Conservation Technician
Douglas Sanders, Conservator of Works on Paper
Allison Slenker, Assistant Conservator of Objects
Roxane Sperber, Clowes Conservator of Paintings
Specialty Labs
As grant and donor funding allows, the Conservation and Conservation Science departments periodically take on interns, fellows, and postgraduates for various opportunities. Any available opportunities can be found on the Newfields Jobs Page.
Paper Conservation Lab
The Paper Conservation lab is responsible for the care, treatment, display, and analysis of more than 20,000 works on paper, primarily from the Prints, Drawings, and Photograph Department, the Asian Art Department (with prints and paintings executed on both paper and silk), and the Contemporary Department. Although many of these artworks are traditional, two-dimensional pieces, the Museum’s contemporary works on paper also include experimental works featuring unorthodox media and configurations. It is the conservator’s role to assess the material and condition of each work and to map a safe course of storage and display protocols to best preserve the unique characteristics of each artwork.
Painting Conservation Lab
The Paintings Department cares for works of art that span most areas of the IMA’s collection. Conservators of the Painting Conservation Lab focus on the examination, preventive care, and hands-on treatment of the paintings and frames.
Technical examination is carried out when the conservator wants to understand further details about the materials and construction of a painting, either for art historical research or for information to aid with the conservation treatment.
Objects Conservation Lab
The Objects Conservation Lab provides preservation, technical study, and research of all three-dimensional works across all the curatorial collections at the IMA. Staff are actively involved in a wide variety of projects across the Museum's campus—from the storage and exhibition of artworks within the main building to the outdoor sculptures surrounding it. In addition, the team manages the conservation strategies for projects and collections associated with The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, the Lilly House and The Garden, and Miller House in Columbus, IN. Additionally, the objects lab cares for artworks that defy traditional media and possess a changing observable state. Such artwork can involve variable presentation formats, include time-based media and electronic components, or be conceptual or site-specific artworks.
Textile Conservation Lab
The Textile Conservation Lab is responsible for caring for the Museum’s Textiles and Fashion Arts collection, as well as fiber and fabric based works across all other areas of the collection. Objects range from archaeological textile fragments to modern upholstered furniture, and include needlework, woven and printed fabrics, quilts, rugs, tapestries, fashion from around the world, synthetic fibers, and contemporary fiber art. The lab frequently collaborates with colleagues in other conservation specialties, particularly the objects conservation lab, owing to the broad range of materials encountered among these works.
Conservation Science Lab
We’re one of a handful of museums in the country with a fully equipped science lab on site with high-end instrumentation devoted to the study of artists’ materials.
The Conservation Science lab operates instrumentation in most of the major areas of the analytical sciences including spectroscopy (molecular and elemental), microscopy (light and electron), and separation science (gas phase and liquid phase) as well as a handful of more esoteric techniques. Staff in the lab come from diverse fields such as archaeometry, forensic science, analytical chemistry, photophysics, and biochemistry.
Conservation scientists contribute to the body of knowledge surrounding the artwork including its authorship, age, authenticity, and state of preservation. They work closely with the conservation and curatorial staff to conduct applied scientific research on the museum’s collection and collaborates with other museum and industrial scientists to pursue basic or fundamental chemical studies of artists’ materials. The scientist works with conservators to gain a better understanding of artworks undergoing conservation treatment. This information can be vital in selecting appropriate materials and methods for the repair of artwork or for selecting appropriate storage or display conditions.
