2016 NCPC Grant recipient
Carolyn Grosch of the
Asheville Art Museum
In January 2016, the Asheville Art Museum opened a new exhibition that gave visitors a rare opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes in the Museum’s curatorial department. While most art exhibitions focus on the objects on display, the Vault Visible exhibition took the public behind the curtain, inviting visitors to observe and engage with museum professionals at work in the galleries. On any given day, visitors could see the Museum’s staff, volunteers, and outside experts carrying out an inventory of the Permanent Collection, assembling custom boxes and crates to safely store and ship one-of-a-kind pieces, framing two-dimensional works, and performing conservation treatments. The accompanying displays and programs helped visitors learn how to care for works of art, identify different mediums, and, in short, think like a curator.
The Vault Visible exhibition offered a new way for visitors to experience the Museum’s Collection and successfully educated the public about the Museum’s role in preserving objects. Simultaneously, it provided a much-needed workspace for the curatorial staff, who were busy preparing the Collection for migration offsite during the construction of a new state-of-art museum facility, scheduled to open in 2018. With the help of the North Carolina Preservation Consortium, the Museum purchased a Nilfisk GM 80 Museum Vacuum Cleaner to remove dust and particles from many Collection objects before they were packed and moved.
Curatorial staff gave priority to objects being transported to other institutions for outgoing loan during the renovations. One example was the 5-foot tall sculpture by Lonnie Holley entitled I Have Seen Parts of Africa’s Dream in Her Honor given to the Museum in 2015 by Robert Andrew Siegel. exhibition focused on art and sustainability. This assemblage sculpture, made up of wire, fabric,
Dusting off the Collection
Written By: Carolyn Grosch
Provincetown Z by Betty Waldo