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| Picture
imperfect: The Normal School building at Lodge and Howard
streets in mural form. |
Out
of the Past
An
extensive and expensive restoration process began this week
on the first of 14 delapidated illlustrations of the Capital
Region’s past at the University at Albany. The project, estimated
to take three years and cost $100,000, will be under the direction
of Joyce Zucker, a conservator from the Peebels Island Resource
Center.
From 1933 to 1946, David Cunningham Lithgow was commissioned
to paint one panel each year for the Milne School library
as a gift from the graduating class. At the time, students
paid for them through holding dances and sales. The Milne
School was part of the New York State College for Teachers,
which evolved into the University at Albany. The murals still
reside in what was the library and is now used as a reading
room for the Rockefeller School of Public Affairs and Policy.
In the intervening years, Lithgow’s murals have suffered.
Many of the painted canvasses are detaching from their mounting
on the walls, seven have cracks, some are simply dirty or
faded, and still others have water damage. “Over time the
adhesive has defecated, they have dried out and become very
brittle, and at the edges particularly the fabric has separated
from the wall, almost curling,” says Zucker. They will be
restored on an individual basis because “each [of the murals]
have their own special needs.”
The first mural undergoing a facelift is Heyward and His
Female Companions. The conservators will do all of the
work on the paintings “in situ” (that’s conservation-speak
for “in the original position or location”). After the surfaces
are restored, the “original fabric has to be relaxed and re-adhered
with a new adhesive, and then a light pressure will be applied,”
Zucker explains.
A group of Milne School alumni contributed enough money to
pay for the first mural’s restoration, which in turn will
serve as an example to help raise money for the work required
for the remaining 13. The mural restoration is part of a larger
effort to renovate the original College for Teachers buildings
under the $500 million Campaign for the University at Albany.
Locally, Lithgow is responsible for murals in Proctor’s Theater
in Troy and on the ceiling of what was the State Bank of Albany
(now Fleet Bank on State Street). He also sculpted the Spanish-American
War Memorial on Henry Johnson Boulevard.
Murals will be open to viewing today (Thursday, Aug. 14) and
tomorrow (Friday, Aug. 15) from 10 AM to noon and 1 to 4 PM
at Milne Hall (135 Western Ave., Albany). The restorers will
be on hand to answer questions and talk about the project
both days from 2 to 4 PM.
—Ashley Hahn
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|
Martin
Benjamin
|
Artists
of a Feather
on Monday, 12 artisans from the Capital Region-area Designer
Crafts Council flocked to downtown Schenectady to install
100 birds. Under the direction of artist Jane Allan Ingram
of Troy (a celebrated sculptor and installation artist), the
12 artists learned how to use poured paper, wire and paint
to create colorful birds; they in turn taught the process
to another 30 artists. Over a seven-week period, the group
worked at 440 State Street, Inc. (an arts center) to make
the birds. Then, on Aug. 11, they were installed along funky
old Jay Street and on the Proctor’s marquee. The bird project
flew into Schenectady after successful sojourns in Cazenovia,
Rochester, Ithaca and Lake George.
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