Spooner museum may be hazardous to your painting
When the cold north wind blows, and the temperature falls into the teens, the north wall of the Museum of Art breaks out in a cold sweat, Bret Waller, director of the museum, said Tuesday.
A false wall of one-quarter inch plywood is in front of the windows on the north wall. Water condenses on the wall when the cold air from the windows hits the humid air in the museum, Waller said.
The moisture endangers the works of art in the musuem. This kind of damage takes years to show up in the paintings, Waller said.
He said that on occasion the pictures were taken off the wall and stacked somewhere else until the wall dried or the wind stopped blowing.
"the ironic thing," Waller said, "is that this is the best part of the gallery, and the only part that is temperature controlled. Any modern museum worth its salt has a controlled climate."
He said that to keep the gallery at a constant temperature and humidity the only way moisture can be added to the room is to introduce steam to the heating ducts.
Offices late in arriving
The University Extension Center bought two temporary office buildings which were to be delivered Monday afternoon, but as of yet they have not arrived.
High winds Monday forced the Kansas Highway Patrol to forbid transport. Although there were better weather conditions Tuesday, the buildings never showed up.
The buildings, each 24 feet by 58 feet, will be adjacent to the Extension Center office. They will provide space for 30 desks, said T. Howard Walker, extension director.
A small room in one of the buildings will be reserved for planning conferences and division meetings.
Presently, the Extension Center is located next to the Kansas Union in the former Pi Beta Phi house. Walker has moved his office to the State Extension Center at 645 New Hampshire, and seven desks have been moved into his former office at the University Extension Center.
Walker said that the offices would be used indefinitely.
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Since the gallery on the first floor is the only part of the museum that is temperature controlled, the pictures upstairs suffer winter and summer, he said.
Spooner Hall is the oldest building on campus, built in 1894 as the University Library. Waller said it is a historic wooden building within a limestone shell and in addition to ruining the paintings, moisture ruined the building.
"This problem is very bad for the building itself. The moisture penetrates into the walls," he said.
Waller said in between seasons when the air conditioner was on and when steam was added there were large clouds of steam coming out to the ducts.
During the summer the second floor gallery is closed and the lights turned off when the temperature hits 90 degrees because there is no ventilation on that floor, Waller said.
The humidity fluctuation is worse than the temperature change. The canvas and wooden frame of a painting expands and contracts with variation of the humidity but the paint does not and small cracks appear as a result, he explained.
Art objects in the gallery are not the only works that are in danger. Waller said that only 1,000 works of 10,000 that were in the museum were displayed. The paintings in storage areas have developed cracks, and chips of paint have fallen from some of the paintings.
Waller said, "We try to keep the more valuable paintings in the gallery, they are safer there."
The limited space in the storage areas restricts students in art history from studying the works, he said.
The poor conditions make it difficult for the museum to get loaned works and travelling shows.
He said that the museum tried to shield the loaned works as much as possible and did not display loaned paintings on the north wall.
"If more people knew about this we would have a harder time," Waller said.
He said the museum had a good relationship with the Nelson
Art Gallery in Kansas City but they were one of the more hesitant to loan works for display.
When the museum does get works for display there is another problem. The truck which carries the paintings backs up to the smallest door of the museum measuring about two and one-half feet by six feet. Large paintings are taken out of their packing boxes outside and maneuvered in through other doors, Waller said.
Waller said there is also a problem with security of the museum. There are 13 areas in the building that are used for display. To have maximum security he feels that the museum would need 13 guards.
Waller said funds from the KU Endowment association were specific gifts donated for works of art and could not be used for a new building.
"We have known for years that we need a new building," Waller said. "Suddenly we are faced with everything falling apart at once."
He said that no one had come forward with the $2 to 3 million needed for a new building and while waiting for a new museum the building had not been kept in the best condition.
Waller said he did not know if any funds were requested in the state budget by the University for a new museum.
He said people probably did not feel like donating money for a new museum because they felt it was the state's responsibility.
Democrats refuse compromise bill
WASHINGTON (UPI)—President Nixon stopped just short of meeting Congress halfway in a compromise education and welfare money bill Tuesday, but Democrats said he didn't go far enough.
Nixon suggested a $19,957,125-700 appropriation bill for the departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare. That would be $690 million less than the one he vetosed, but $449 million more than he had originally requested.
Key Democrats said Nixon's offer was still short by at least $350 million. Chairman Carl D. Perkins, D-Ky., of the House Education and Labor Committee, said the offer "falls far short of anything that we Democrats would accept."
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