Conservators of Public Art Nationally for 20 years
For the past 20 years (as of 2019), McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory has been busily engaged in the conservation of Public Art throughout the United States, principally in work caring for the federal national collection, the Art-in-Architecture collection. This enormous collection of artworks and our care of it is in locations on federal properties in all states of the contiguous United States, and also in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. By now we have been engaged in Public Art conservation projects in all these areas.
Below is a brief review of some of our Public Art conservation contracts at the city level.
2013 through 2017 Fort Worth Public Art and Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas
2013-2017 A professional services contract with Fort Worth Public Art, Tarrant County, Texas for conservation consultations to its Public Art Collection commenced in June 2013.
The initial contract was for three years and NTE $200,000.00 with the option to extend it for three additional years, NTE $60,000/year. Options for extensions have been taken and we remain in contract.
Contact:
Jennifer Conn, Public Art Collection & Special Projects Manager\
Arts Council of Fort Worth
1300 Gendy Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76103
817-298-3023
2017 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Washington, DC
2017 IDIQ Contract orders are in progress to perform multiple conservation treatments and multiple condition assessments as needed for selected collection installations.
Previous History of the Annual DC Contracts:
2006 Contract to perform the first collection-wide condition assessment of installations throughout the district.
2014 IDIQ Contract orders to perform multiple conservation treatments and multiple condition assessments of selected collection installations.
2015 IDIQ Contract orders to perform multiple conservation treatments and multiple condition assessments of selected collection installations.
2016 IDIQ Contract orders to perform multiple conservation treatments and multiple condition assessments of selected collection installations.
2015-2017 Art Maintenance Services, City of Columbus, Ohio
Annually renewed art maintenance services contract since 2015 to perform multiple conservation treatments, maintenance, review of new commissions, and multiple condition assessments as needed for collection installations.
Contact:
Lori Baudro, Public Art Project Coordinator
Planning Division
50 W. Gay Street, 4th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
614-645-6986
EXAMPLE OF PAST PUBLIC ART COLLECTION CONTRACTS
2011 Charleston, West Virginia
(1) Collection Survey and coordination with our Public Art consultant (Renee Piecoicki, Pittsburgh) for fundamental collection organization, preservation and promotion.
(2) Design and provision of the collection’s first database (MS Access)
McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, Inc. for its part alone provided the services below
- Physical condition of items in the collection;
- Recommendations for treatments and maintenance;
- Condition-related costs and cost projections;
- Design and construction of a relational collection management database with conservation section;
- Database capabilities to report financial projections, task lists, and similar action-needed reports;
- Establishment of attention priorities and priority reporting capabilities;
- Digital photodocumentation of current condition of items in the collection
McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, Inc. was the lead firm, with Pittsburgh Public Arts’ Renee Piechocki as its Public Art sub-consultant.
McKay Lodge, Inc. performed all tasks involving collection information management, database design (in collaboration with the client), database construction, collection condition survey, population of the database fields related to the diverse condition information, identifications of maintenance needs, projections of the costs of current maintenance and for periodic future maintenance population of the database with maintenance and costs information, and all other issues related to the physical objects and their care.
Renee Piechocki, public art consultant, subcontracted by McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, Inc., developed the public art policies and guidelines, and the public art tours. Her areas of expertise are public art program development and management, public art policies, public art best practices, project management, and educational programs.
Their respective tasks overlaped and required collaboration, mainly on issues of use, public safety, sites and artistic interpretations of the items in the collection.
2008 Atlanta, Georgia
Throughout September 2008, McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, Inc. president Robert Lodge completed comprehensive condition studies of 83 public art works in the City of Atlanta, Georgia under contract with the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
In addition, McKay Lodge, Inc. designed and built for the Atlanta Public Art Program its first relational database and populated all the fields.
During this project, each of the 83 artworks was given an updated review of condition and, for the first time, a comprehensive art conservation treatment plan and a maintenance prediction with budget. While all field work was performed by conservator Robert Lodge, the findings were be reviewed by the company’s other conservators representing various specialties such as painted surfaces and murals, metals, mechanical/electrical systems, tiles and mosaics, cements and masonry, stone, and fountains.
Atlanta established its percent-for-art ordinance in 1977. The program took off in 1994 under a new plan and continued with great activity through the 1996 Olympics to today. A maintenance program for the collection was established in 2000 and the percent funding was increased to accommodate the expenses of maintenance and conservation treatments.
The Database:
Because of the scale of the survey and the critical importance of information organization, the survey results were presented in the form of a Microsoft Access database designed by Robert Lodge. McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, Inc. provides in-house designed MS Access information management systems and, coupled with VBA programming, attractive user interfaces for condition information management systems.