Thu 11/19 @ 5PM
For more than 60 years, the ICA – Art Conservation (ICA), which is the nation’s first nonprofit regional art conservation center, has been providing a priceless service to art and historical communities throughout the region. Basically, if there’s a piece of art that’s faded or damaged, the folks at ICA are the ones who get a call no matter how meticulous, intricate or nerve-wracking the job.
Originally located on the campus of Oberlin College, adjacent to the Allen Memorial Art Museum, the operation moved more than a decade ago to Cleveland’s West Side where it now boasts laboratories, a climate-controlled art storage facility, a large space and more.
Folks interested in getting a peek inside are invited to the annual ICA meeting and open house taking place Thu Nov 19 @ 5-7 pm at its Detroit Avenue venue. Cool Cleveland talked to ICA Education Outreach Officer Jennifer Souers Chevraux about not only the special free affair but also the unique organization.
First of all, what exactly is the annual meeting all about?
Because we’re a nonprofit organization, we have an annual meeting, although it’s usually very informal and only takes about 15 minutes. The rest of it will be an open house at our conversation lab in Hingetown. We’re going to have some snacks and refreshments from our Hingetown neighbors. People can wander through the lab and meet the conservators and ask questions and see what we do. There will be a little presentation from Graham Veysey (North Water Partners) about the new projects taking place in our neighborhoods.
It sounds like the entire evening is booked as well.
Right, annual meeting and open house is from 5 to 7 p.m. Also, the Transformer Station is going to be open, so we’re going to encourage people to go over there. They have an exhibit right now of the contemporary art from the Akron Art Museum. Then the Jukebox around the corner from us is going to have a special cocktail in honor of the ICA. Also, the Bop Stop at 8 p.m. has a trio playing and anybody who comes to the ICA annual meeting and has an ICA tag can get in there without paying a cover. So it’ll be fun.
In layman’s terms, can you describe what it is ICA provides the art world?
We are the regional resource for the preservation of the artistic and cultural heritage for this part of the country, but especially in Ohio. We’re the only nonprofit, regional conservation center in this part of the country. So we take care of objects such as paintings, paper, textiles, ceramics and glass. We’re the ones who took care of the Free Stamp when it needed to be cleaned up and repainted. We did the conservation restoration work on the PlayhouseSquare murals inside of the State Theatre. So it’s lots of places around town, public art they’d have seen around town. We’re the ones who keep it looking good. We like to say our best work is invisible. This open house is sort of an opportunity for the public to kind of see behind the curtain.
ICA’s work is so important but it seems as though it goes under the radar.
It does. People come in and say they never knew this existed. We hear that all of the time. A year ago we had an Egyptian coffin, which is probably the oldest thing we ever worked on. And then we have contemporary pieces of art that are collected around town. When they’re getting installed, if something happened, ICA has to fix it. We worked on a big contemporary collection that was damaged by water during the flooding in lower Manhattan during superstorm Sandy. So we run the gamut.
As far as attending the open house, it seems as though folks who enjoy watching History Channel or Discovery Channel would enjoy the affair.
You bet. We have a map right now in the paper lab that’s actually in the collection of the University of Michigan’s rare books and manuscripts. It was hand-drawn in 1773. Then we have a couple of jerseys actually in the textile lab right now from the Football Hall of Fame. We have a couple of renaissance pieces right now from two different museums that are in the paintings lab. We have all sorts of public art right now.
Is it an overstatement to say you’re keeping history alive?
No, it isn’t an overstatement. On our end we use more technical language but that’s essentially what we’re doing.
So if I gave you my tattered and faded Def Leppard concert t-shirt from 1988, you could return it to its former glory?
We tell people we’ll work on things and we don’t do any appraisals. We don’t really care how much the value is. As long as it’s important to you, it’s important to us and we’ll treat it like it’s priceless, just like anything else that comes through our lab.
Wow, so I’ll be able to “Pour Some Sugar on Me” again?
[Laughs] Totally.
The ICA open house is free and open to the public. RSVP at 216-658-8700.
[Written by John Benson]