Daly Conservation

As I am preparing to go to Shelburne, Vermont for July and August 2009, I thought I should do some research on the area and find some activities.
I first looked into food, There is a farmer’s market on the Saturday from 9am-1pm, with fresh fruit, veg, herbs, prepared food, and crafts. I also found a pick-your-own berry farm that I am eager to check out. I am a huge fan of picking fresh fruit and veg, when I was in Wilmington, DE I took my boyfriend on an apple picking adventure that was lots of fun. And honestly fresh food is more flavorful than anything in the supermarket. And there is always the thrill of the hunt when you are picking your own, you can exercise more quality control, although I tend to pick way too much and have to make pie or something to bring to work, hopefully my future collages will be able to handle my baking.

I want to try my hand at local cuisine and Nancie Ravenel, objects conservator at Shelburne, suggested Poutine. It sounds dangerously good, french fries with cheese and gravy. Some blogs are really specific about the type of fries, cheese, and gravy so I should wait until I get to Vermont to see if I can successfully make authentic poutine.

I am a textillian, I am currently working on a hooked rug and a quilt. Laura Brill, the advanced conservation fellow at Shelburne Museum recommended The Bobbin, a sewing bar and craft lounge where I can craft with a cold beverage.

I have been checking out the Shelburne Museum homepage. The place is huge, it has 39 exhibit buildings, many of which are historic structures that were relocated to the site. Until recently, I was unaware that collectors like H.F. DuPont (Winterthur) and Electra Havemeyer Webb (Shelburne) collected entire buildings. In the case of Mr. DuPont, he sometimes bought a structure then took one room or one element, like the staircase, to be installed at Winterthur. My house-mate Josie refers to this practice as “buying a house for the parts”. This is something the very wealthy could easily do, and something the not wealthy would never really think of doing. I am really looking forward to exploring the grounds at Shelburne and seeing how Electra Havemeyer Webb installed buildings on her property in comparison to Mr. DuPont.

There are “Concerts on the Green” in the summer featuring Jackson Browne and the Tragically Hip They both sound like great artists to listen to sitting out on the grass.

More suggestions about things to do and see would be welcome, Above I outlined my main interests as: food, crafts, museums, live music, and I would add outdoor activities like: hiking, camping, and cycling.

I found a link on the Target website listing sponsored events for the summer in some states. Free admission is a good reason to get out and visit a new museum this summer. Performances are also sponsored, places like the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC-pretty fancy!

Events on the weekends can be crowded, and museums should be avoided when it is raining, as everyone else will have the same idea ‘let’s get inside the museum’. I am a fan of Thursday evening events as they are usually smaller and Thursday is not a busy night for me.

I was reading the cons dist list in March and I came across an NPS/NCPTT Ornamenetal Iron workshop in New Orleans, June 18-19 2009. It sounded great to a student finishing her first year of grad school, actual hands-on work and the city itself was a huge draw, New Orleans holds lots of memories for me.

My grandfather on my Mother’s side of the family was a croatian immigrant who worked in shipping to ports throughout the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans was his favorite place to visit and he was happiest eating raw oysters in a bar in the French quarter. My mother and my older sister went to Loyola University in New Orleans. My mother later wrote her master’s thesis about Francis Parkinson Keyes, the author who wrote the novel Dinner at Antoine’s in 1947. Antoine’s is the oldest family run restaurant in the United States, and the little facts like these about New Orleans make it such a special place. In another turn, my sister Anne who studied at Loyola New Orleans as well, went on to culinary school and worked at Brennan’s Restaurant, a creole restaurant that began in New Orleans and opened a branch in Houston, Texas.

I was accepted for a summer internship beginning in July at Shelburne Museum and I quickly e-mailed Jason Church to see if there was space in the workshop for another student. All spaces were taken so I told him to drop me a line if someone couldn’t make it. Luckily a space became available.

I wrote an application for Professional Development Funds from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC). The application was approved so I could use funding to pay for the plane ticket and some expenses.
I flew into Louis Armstrong Airport on June 17th and my cousin Allison Daly was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and take me to her house in Uptown New Orleans, where I would stay for the next few nights. She lives only a few blocks from Tulane and I could walk to classes each day. Many of the other workshop participants were staying in dorm rooms at Tulane University for $25 a night, which is an appealing price and I hope more workshops offer that type of accomodation, on a student’s budget it could mean saving enough to attend another workshop.

Allison and I went to Jackson Square and Cafe du Monde. The beignets and iced coffee were exactly what I needed to revive from the flight and get enough energy to go to the French Market and wander the shops in the quarter.

I began wandering around the open air market, then into junk shops further into the quarter. I went to Faulkner’s Book Shop on Pirates Alley, my favorite book store in New Orleans, and I bought The Cajun Cornbread Boy a variation of the Gingerbread man, except his phrase is “Run cher, run, as fast as you can! You can’t catch me-I’m full of cayenne.” Too funny to pass up. The store has some of the best books and authors who wrote about New Orleans. My favorite is A Confederacy of Dunces. The book captures the feeling of the city as it runs along the Mississippi River and the characters who live there. You can also find books by Walker Percy and about Edgar Degas, the only impressionist painter to visit America, who lived in a house of Esplanade Avenue which is now a historic home, courtyard, and inn.

The places I remember from visiting New Orleans as a child remain mainly unchanged. During this trip we drove around the city considerably and I did see buildings that were abandoned, probably more than I remember when I was younger. City Park was heavily flooded and lost many of the old oak trees. There is still some clean-up as the advertisements for trash removal will tell you “Our businesses stinks but it’s picking up”. There appears to be a program to rebuild and replant all around the city, and one of the golf courses around City Park has already been rebuilt and I could see people golfing while I was visiting. The trip was wonderful and I was glad to go and experience the city and the food, which is amazing whether you pay $6 for lunch or $60 for dinner. There are festivals about New Orleans food like the Po-boy Preservation. If there was only a position in culinary-conservation I would certainly take it.

There is a description of the workshop in the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network Blog (ECPN).

I became fascinated with performance art while I was studying for my undergraduate degree.  I had studied theater in high school, performing as bit and background characters. It was exciting getting ready to go onto stage, the feeling of ‘anything can happen’ and the hope that you do well and the fear that you might forget your lines or the set might all fall apart. When I first learned about performance art I thought it was fantastic and exciting in the same way as live theater. I don’t love all of it, I can pass on anything with unnecessary nudity, screaming, or overly bizarre costumes. I like performance that is educational and funny, something that would make a great photo or a good story.

I missed out on Performa 07 but I hope I can see some of the work that will be presented at Performa 09.  http://performa-arts.org/performa.html

I really like Performa and the idea of having a festival of performance art thoughout New York City for a month. The images from Performa 07 show some great work.  I love the piece with people hula-hooping on top of buildings, it is funny and visually very interesting.  

Performance art does not create an object.  It can be documented and archived, and it is. In an interview with RoseLee Goldberg, the founder of Performa 07, she has a sign hanging behind her saying “LIFE WITHOUT OBJECTS” clearly showing her view about art and performance. I would like to see more documentation of Performa 09. I realize to fully understand a performance it should be seen, but everyone can’t go to New York City for a month, and hopefully there are many visually interesting performances that could be translated into a short film or series of images.