Two grants recently awarded to the Heard Museum will allow for the restoration of eight iconic sculptures by American Indian artists and a new skywalk project.
Bank of America’s 2015 Art Conservation Project Grant will fund the cleaning, preparation and necessary stabilization work for the eight sculptures. The pieces are works by influential American Indian artists, including Allan Houser, John Hoover, Bob Haozous and Doug Hyde.
Visitors will be able to watch the conservation project in action and have a dialogue with the conservator about the process.
“It will allow us to have some conservation work done on some sculptures that we haven’t had the chance to exhibit before,” said Diana Pardue, curator of collections at the Heard Museum. “Bank of America is very interested in having a public component to the grant, and this is the kind of work that translates very well for a public program.”
To complete the project, the Heard Museum is bringing in conservator Ronald Harvey, who will arrive at the beginning of the year to get started on restoring the sculptures. The museum plans to have the art on display in April.
“He’s very willing to give information and an important part of this undertaking is to have a conservator who will have a conservation with our visitors while the work is being done,” Pardue said. “The public learning aspect will help to educate patrons on the complexity of maintaining artwork.”
A little over a year ago, the museum and Bank of America had a conversation about the possibility of the grant and what projects could really benefit from additional funding.
“Not only did we have to identify the items that needed conservation, we had to have a treatment proposal for each,” Pardue said. “We had to have a budget, time frame and an agreement with the conservator to undertake the work.”
Since it’s inception in 2010, Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project Grant has funded 85 conservation projects in 28 countries around the globe in an effort to support communities and show that the arts are important. This is the first year the Heard has received the grant, which doesn’t have a specific dollar amount but will cover all the costs of the project.
“The Art Conservation project provides grants to nonprofit museums around the world to conserve really historically or culturally significant works of art,” said Russell Goldstein, institutional client advisor at U.S. Trust, Bank of America. “We really wanted to work with the Heard to see if there was a collection or piece that needed conservation.”
Together, the two identified the importance of the American Indian sculptures that the Heard already had that needed restoration work before they could be displayed to the community. They also agreed on the importance of having an educational component, so the community could learn more about art restoration during the course of the project.
The museum was also awarded a $1.1 million dollar grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. The museum plans to use this money to build a skywalk to connect two second-floor galleries, including the signature, long-term exhibit, “Remembering Our Indian School Days: The Boarding School Experience,” which will get also an update with some of the grant funds.
“One of the most important exhibits we have at the Heard Museum is our Boarding School Experience, and it’s been running here for over 15 years. It’s really a groundbreaking retelling of a tragic chapter in our history,” said Natalie Vandeventer, director of institutional advancement at the Heard Museum. “We’re building a Nina Pulliam crosswalk. You will be able to walk right into Boarding School.”
Contact the reporter at rbouley@asu.edu
