yale university art gallery
Ian McClure, Chief Conservator at the Yale University Art Gallery, is working with Roberta “Bobbie” Pilette, Head of Preservation at Sterling Library, to develop the new Yale Center for Conservation and Preservation. Their goal is to produce a plan for a conservation facility to be housed at West Campus and serving all Yale collections. The Art Gallery’s Conservation Department is already active on West Campus, working on the reconstruction of period rooms and the conservation of a Byzantine mosaic floor, both projects needing a lot of space.
The core of the facility will be a science research laboratory for the collections, investigating the materials of art objects and also researching materials and techniques for their future conservation. The West Campus has three great advantages over Central Campus:
- sufficient space for the research lab and a soon-to-be-developed conservation facility,
- close proximity to other science departments which will generate all kinds of activities, from cutting-edge analytical techniques to the design of the most effective tools for research in conservation, and
- the opportunity for all the collections at Yale to work together to better preserve their holdings.
The facility will develop in close association with a digital core facility also in its planning stage for documentation and the dissemination of research and in developing imaging techniques for non-destructive analysis.
“I arrived at Yale in July 2008 and I am still amazed and hugely encouraged by how much has been achieved already with the support of colleagues across Yale, in particular, my Directors, Jock Reynolds and Amy Meyers,” Ian McClure.
Enhanced security measures were incorporated for areas where collections are kept. They include multiple levels of electronic card access, intrusion alarms, and closed circuit television systems all of which are monitored 24/7 redundantly by UL certified Alarm Central Stations.
