Page 8
University Daily Kansan, April 20, 1983
Medieval exhibit requires special care
By JUDITH HINDMAN Staff Reporter
Modern technology sustains the flowers of medieval art now blossoming in a gallery at the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum G. art.
In an exhibit, "Gardens of the Middle Ages," rare art works, as delicate as the flowers they portray, are being supported by a special environment created by a museum staff concerned with science as well as art.
The exhibit is a collection of items borrowed from several museums, including a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in York that is devoted to medieval art.
is developed. Jan Deiling, registrar for the Spencer museum, said that because of the special requirements by some of the lending museums, the staff had to take extra precautions in designing the exhibit and providing a protective environment for the loaned art works.
"THE TEMPERATURE AND his midity requirements of this exhibit have probably been the most strict that we have ever had," she said.
She said that the museum always maintained a steady temperature range between 68 and 72 degrees and a relative humidity between 45 and 55 percent because wide variations in temperature and humidity would damage valuable art works.
"The most blatant example would be a panel painting, which is a painting on wood. If the painted surface gets really hot, and then it gets really cold, the wood expands and contracts, and the paint surface just falls apart." Dreiling said. "Panel paintings are not very often loaned from one museum to another because of this problem"
- This exhibit contains two panel paintings, one of which was loaned by the Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas City.
A plexiglas box was built by the Spencer staff and then taken to the Nelson. The painting was sealed inside the box, with a container of silica gel used to control humidity, and a thermometer mounted on its own protective environment, was brought to Spencer and hung on the wall.
morning "THAT WAS THE ONLY way the Nelson would lend that particular painting;" Trelling said.
Mark Roeyer, exhibitions designer, and the person directly responsible for the environmental conditions at Spencer, said that several measuring devices that were sensitive to both temperature and humidity were situated throughout the museum, continuously charting the temperature and humidity.
Roeyer said that maintenance of the proper temperature was complicated by the amount of heat generated by the gallery lighting and by the visitors to the gallery.
"Any time you turn on the inca.
ndescent lights in the gallery you get a temperature rise. These lights are very hot because most of the energy to flood them is being converted to heat. Less than one percent of the electrical power converted to visible light," he said.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT consideration in the design of the exhibit was the low amount of lighting allowed on some of the art works.
Drelling said that improper light conditions could cause fading of prints and drawings, and fading and deterioration of fabrics.
She said that because damage by heat and humidity variations could also occur during shipping, five or six items in the exhibit were brought by courier in order to avoid exposure to extreme variations.
Art works are also susceptible to damage by acids from the hands of the museum staff. To guard against this damage, staff members wear white gloves to keep the oil and dirt on their hands away from the art works.
Poetry society hires armed guards to keep peace
By United Press International
A tiny monkey grasping a cup and perching on a limb new greets people entering the Museum of Natural History in Dyche Hall, hoping to raise money for a museum struggling with a tight budget.
New Darwin, who sits in a display case in the entrance of the museum, reminds people who visit that they can donate money to the programs in budget cuts.
MEMPIHS; Tenn. — The Poetry Society of Tennessee, better known for rhymes than rowdiness; hired armed guards to maintain order during its last
"Darwin" is a stuffed capuchin monkey, once with a W.W. Pickering sideshow, that probably at one time held a cup for donations while a turn-of-the-century hurdy-gurdy man cranked out a tune.
By JENNIFER FINE Staff Reporter
ceived during the campaign forced the special security measures for the April 2 election at the public library.
2 electrons at the public press. Hatchet said, "When we got to the meeting, there were two security guards there in full uniform with large pistols on their hips and bullets in their belts. One or two of our little old ladies became so alarmed they turned around and left the meeting."
History museum seeks donations to ease cuts
The incident began when some 200 members of the group split on a choice of new officers. For the first time in 30 years, two slates of candidates were presented and battle lines were drawn.
Letter-writing campaigns were waged for Wanda Rider, a high school English teacher seeking to move from the vice presidency to the presidency, and her opponent, Ken Beaudoin, an elderly blind poet.
"I call it. 'Shootout at the Iambic Corral,' or 'Mayhem and Metaphor,' " society member William Hatchet said yesterday. "Things got pretty warm."
Rider said the guards were there to maintain order.
rump flumphrey, directory of the museum, said the museum was suffering from reduced state support along with the rest of the University.
"It was thought to be a precaution to have the guards," she said.
SHE SAID the guards were hired by outgoing president Ken Thomas, a move Hatchet termed silly because the governor was too elderly and not prone to violence.
Hatchet said, "I mean, this is a poetry society. The most violent thing we could do would be to throw our teeth at each other."
RIDER ALLEGED THREATS re-
WITHOUT FUNDS, THE speed in which new exhibits in the museum are developed will be slowed and cuts in expenses and supplies will have to be made, Humphrey said.
"THE ONLY SOLUTION we can see is to gently ask people to give on a voluntary basis. We have to take small steps not only to enhance the resources available to us, but we've got to join the rest of the University in letting the public know there is a problem," he said.
"By appealing to the public in this way, perhaps we can avoid irreparable damage to the museums," he said. "We would like to become as independent of budget cuts as we can, but that is impossible. To be totally independent, we would have to have an endowment of 15 to 20 million dollars."
"Frankly a number of us are uncomfortable about taking this step. In the best of all worlds, regular annual support of the University and the faculty would mean that we wouldn't have to take extra voluntary support from the public."
The budget for scholarly publications, which are used in exchange programs with other universities, are reprinted in scientific journals and are used to attract graduate students to the University, has been cut in half.
tive functions has been cut by 30 percent.
next year's operating budget for expenses such as graduate studies and research, care of the collections and exhibits and clerical and administra-
He said that although many museums in the country required an admission fee, the museum did not want to begin charging since taxpayers payed an admission charge through their state taxes.
Ruth Genrich, public education director for the museum and chairman of a five-member committee that examined the effects of requesting donations, said that until recently, he had not seen any prominent place in the museum. He will soliciting donations on an experimental basis for a year.
DARWIN WILL HAVE a sign hang, over him asking people to give what they can. Humphrey said the museum did not want to force people to give.
Nobody Delivers Like . . BALFOUR
Movin'out? RENT A RYDER TRUCK
If you're 18 or over you can rent a Ryder truck to use locally or on a one-way (rent-it-here, leave-it-there) trip to another city.
Compare costs before you make plans for moving at the end of the semester. With a truck you can take along your stereo, 10-speed clothes, all your stuff, and still have plenty of room for one or two other people and their things, so you can share the costs. Compare that to a plane ticket. Or even a bus.
Rent from the best-maintained, most dependable fleet in the world - Ryder. The best truck money can rent.
A-1 RENTAL
2936 IOWA
842-6262
SPRING IS HERE!
AT
Wednesday Night
BOITOMS UP!
25c draws
a serious drinking establishment
7-12