Today another intern and I have been cleaning sculptures We were outfitted in lab coats, gloves, and respirators, and given brushes and a vacuum to clean the dust off of the bronze sculptures. We were told what to do, though some instructions were obvious (of course you would dust from the top down, what kind of madman does the opposite), and sent on our way. I think we've done rather well. We've cleaned 4 bronze sculptures so far, which took a decent amount of time and effort (and maybe a little scare on the ladder). Soon we will start on the plaster sculptures, but we have to wait for Scott to instruct us and he's away at lunch at the moment. I'm back on front desk duty while I wait.
It's quite tiring, but I think it's mostly just the fact the the vacuum is a bit heavy to have on my shoulder for such long periods of time. Also being on the ladder is difficult because I'm clumsy as is, and the vacuum offputs my balance, but I'm stubborn and try to make it work regardless.
I tried to add some before and after pics, let's see if it worked~
Ha! This brought back some memories for me, Megan, because I also had a day during my graduate school summer internship at the Ringling Museum of Art where I cleaned bronze statues! Ours were outdoor statues though so a little different ballgame in terms of how we had to clean them. I think you did an excellent job! I hope Scott approved too :)
ReplyDeleteCool! We have an outdoor sculpture trail, and as you can imagine, because of our location basically inside of a national park, we get a lot of bird poop and other issues that require cleaning. I go around with the Preparator before every big event and we clean them. Its nasty but kind of cool, and most def something we can put on a resume.
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