The city of Kettering, a large suburb of Dayton, Ohio, has a growing collection of commissioned public art works known as CitySites. Recognizing the need for maintenance at present, and ongoing into the future as they continue to build their prized collection of Public Art that makes their cityscape so pleasant, they have contracted with the Cleveland area art conservation center McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory of Oberlin to serve their public artwork needs.
Work begins in September 2017 with a complete survey of the condition of each artwork in their collection. From this, priorities for immediate or future attention shall be established.
Kettering is Dayton’s largest suburb with a population of 56,163 (2010 census).
The Dayton Art Institute has been a client of McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory since 1990.
Kettering’s Public Art survey will be led by Robert Lodge who is the conservator at McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory principally engaged in collection information management. Then, in the future, the collection’s needs will be handled by our staff materials conservation specialists. These conservators have specialty expertise individually in stone, mortars and cements; coatings (paint) on metals; metal fabrication and corrosion issues; bronze and castings; fountains; and more.
The city was named for its famous resident Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958) an American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 186 patents. He was the founder of Delco (automotive electrical products), head of research at General Motors from 1920 to 1947. He developed the electric car starting motor, leaded gasoline, and Freon for air conditioning and refrigeration. With DuPont Chemical Company he developed Duco lacquers used for automobile finishes. And more.
Relevance: Cleveland Art Conservation, Public Art Conservation