Alumni Stories
Ana Alba '09
Ana Alba is the owner and chief conservator of Alba Art Conservation, a private conservation practice established in 2014. Ana earned her Masters and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Art Conservation in 2009 with a specialty in painting conservation from the Garman Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Art History from the University of Florida.
Her clients include The National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington and Jefferson College, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Ana previously interned at both the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Wadsworth Atheneum in addition to receiving the William R. Leisher Fellowship for the Conservation of Modern and Contemporary Paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Ana was recently featured on the National Gallery of Art's website for her work treating Jean Dubuffet's "Façades d’Immeubles (Building Façades)," from 1946.
Malcolm Collum, '95
Like many children growing up in the 1970s, Malcolm Collum, a ’95 graduate of Buffalo State’s art conservation program, eagerly awaited reruns of the original Star Trek TV series, the cult classic that ran from 1966 to 1969 and introduced multiple generations to the adventures of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and their crew aboard the USS Enterprise.
What 48-year-old Collum didn’t know as a child was that one day he would have the opportunity to oversee conservation of the iconic starship that captured so many imaginations. In his job as chief conservator and Engen Chair of Conservation for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Collum has been charged with bringing the 11-foot USS Enterprise studio model, which Paramount Studios gave to the museum in 1974, back to its former glory.
“I know I’ve been handed a huge responsibility,” said Collum, who has worked at the museum since 2008. Previously, he served as senior conservator at the Henry Ford Museum.
For the past 15 years, the starship has been on a centerpiece display in the museum’s gift shop, protected in a glass case. Now the museum is preparing for the Boeing “Milestones of Flight” exhibit that will open in 2016. And it’s fitting that the starship, one of several iconic artifacts included in the exhibition, will be given new life during the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek series.
First, the starship needs conservation treatment. The Enterprise is now in a Smithsonian lab where Collum, in concert with curator Margaret Weitekamp, is embarking on a year-long project, which began with an assessment of its condition. He even borrowed an x-ray machine from the National Zoo to see inside.
“Disassembling any one-of-a-kind object is fraught with uncertainty,” he said. “The radiographs let us know where every nail and screw is located before we attempt to remove components. In some cases it provides enough information to negate the need to remove a part. It also illustrates some of the work that was done during previous restorations and reveals the internal construction. Basically, there are no surprises once we begin work.”
On the exterior, he has found definite evidence of the starship model’s age.
“The paint is starting to flake. There are cracks and some lines where there shouldn’t be.”
The model also suffered damage from a move and a restoration in the early 1990s.
“They were a little heavy-handed with the airbrush paint, and the result upset some Star Trek fans,” he said. “We’re going to do touch-up work and bring the entire model back to the reference point (of the original). I want to make fans happy and get it back to a more true representation of what it was.”
Collum recently hired another Buffalo State Art Conservation graduate, Ariel O’Connor, ’09, to assist with the Enterprise project, along with other projects in the museum, and he plans to bring in an outside paint analysis specialist to help identify the model’s paint history, types, and sequences.
He noted that the art conservation program prepared him well for the monumental task ahead.
“Having the scientific background and the overall art conservation training at Buffalo State instilled in me the confidence to decipher what causes aircrafts to deteriorate and to use logic to find the most appropriate way to conserve them,” Collum said, adding, “I think Spock would approve.”
Learn more about the Enterprise project at trekcore.com.
Photos: Dane Penland, National Air and Space Museum
Robert Krueger, '09
After graduating in 2009, I returned to my hometown of Portland, Oregon to live with my wife, our two greyhounds, and our orange tabby cat in our little white bungalow. I promptly registered my business, Cascadia Art Conservation Center, LLC and began transforming the detached garage into my lab. In March, before the lab was completed, our son, Kalman, was born.
Prior to attending SUNY Buffalo, I worked as the collections manager for the arts council in Portland and in my free time created and showed my own artwork. My job at the arts council offered the introduction to the field of conservation and the need for conservators in the Northwest. When I left Portland for Buffalo, my goal after graduating was to return to Portland, start my own private conservation practice to work with public art collections, and help fill the conservation needs in the Northwest.
Since purchasing our home 6 years ago, the detached garage was my sculpture studio. After graduation I said good-bye to the studio and began converting it into a conservation lab built to current conservation lab standards. The garage was stripped down to the frame and re-built. The former detached garage is now an energy efficient climate controlled modern conservation lab with proper exhaust ventilation , 50,000 Kelvin lighting throughout and a view of our garden.
Though my budget was tight, my goals for the lab were lofty. To save money I did most of the work myself including researching equipment. The handouts on equipment from Dan Kushel’s class served as a valuable guide. I installed a split system ductless heat-pump, exhaust fan, plumbing, electrical, and a humidifier, and unlike Stephanie, I had a contractor do all the sheet-rocking. Most of the equipment was purchased online or second-hand. I built and installed custom cabinets and laminated the countertops with Formica. A year after launching Cascadia Art Conservation Center, business is picking up and getting in the way of putting the finishing details on minor things like cabinet doors, but the lab is now fully functional.
Having a connection to the local art scene through my past work with the arts council and as an artist was integral in making contacts when I began offering my services. Building an informative website has been a huge boost in getting the business going. To date, I’ve been so busy working that I have not yet had a chance to do much outreach. I have also continued a research project I began during my third year at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO, on fountain maintenance. At the 2010 American Institute for Conservation (AIC) meeting in Milwaukee, I presented a paper on this subject.
I couldn’t have accomplished any of this if it wasn’t for the understanding and endless support from my wife Alyssa, the Professors and staff in the Conservation department, and Jonathan Thornton for not only being a great professor, but also helping me find a third year internship that was invaluable in working towards my goals.
Marianne Russell Marti, '87
Marianne Russell Marti, ’87, is a rare breed. From the age of 12, she knew precisely what she wanted to do with her life: become an art conservator.
Inspired by a trip to the Saint Louis Art Museum, Marti was fascinated by the work being done at the museum’s art conservation studio. She loved making art as a child, but treating and cleaning artwork was a whole new world for her. “I really fell in love with it,” she said.
Today, Marti is living her dream as an art conservator with her own practice. After earning a B.A. in art history from Washington University in 1982 and an M.A. in art conservation from Buffalo State, she and her husband, Bob, who is also a conservator, established Russell-Marti Conservation Services in California, Missouri. They specialize in outdoor sculpture with a focus on bronze. “We very much enjoy working on outdoor public art,” she said, “because of the interaction with the local people and the sense of pride that is felt, or sometimes reestablished, through the attention and care given to a community’s public monuments.”
Marti’s work goes well beyond conserving artwork; it’s also about preserving history. In 1988, for instance, her firm was first commissioned to work on Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Illinois. Over the years, they’ve done maintenance work on the outside of the burial tomb and spent some time inside the tomb itself, cleaning the decorative bronze works. Ironically, they’ve done similar work in Chicago on the tomb of Stephen Douglas, Lincoln’s political opponent in the presidential election of 1860.
Several years later, Marti and her crew traveled to Pearl Harbor to work on the ship’s bell from the U.S.S. Arizona, which was sunk during the surprise attack in 1941 and is still submerged today. “At the time, there were some questions as to whether the bell had actually come from the Arizona,” she said. “But we discovered charred and burned material inside the bell, indicating that it had been on the boat during the attack.”
In May 2010, Marti’s career came full circle when she arrived back in Buffalo to conserve part of the Queen City’s history. During a three-month project overseen by the Buffalo Arts Commission, she and her crew restored 19 indoor and outdoor sculptures. Work included removing dirt and grime from a marble bust of Millard Fillmore in City Hall, reapplying a protective coating on the Young Lincoln in Delaware Park, and removing graffiti from the Indian Hunter, also in Delaware Park. The work that probably received the most attention involved the David sculpture along the Scajaquada Expressway. These restoration efforts included attaching the statue, which had previously been free-standing, to its pedestal.
Busy in her flourishing career, Marti points to her degree from Buffalo State as a great starting point. “Buffalo State offered a well-rounded education in art conservation,” she said. “And it helped me enormously right from the start. It’s such a respected program, and it opened a lot of doors for me. I still get a lot of ongoing support from the faculty. So it’s just been a wonderful resource.”
Julie Parker, '07
Julie Parker offers a wide range of Objects Conservation services to both institutional and private clients through her private conservation practice, Parker Art Conservation LLC. Julie is based in Denver Colorado and specializes in Ethnographic and Fine Art Objects, Collection Surveys, and Assessments for Exhibition and Insurance purposes.
Laura Schell, '97
Laura Schell, '97, has worked as a paper conservator in private practice since 1999. She has treated a wide variety of paper-based objects ranging from western and Asian fine art, Old Master prints, large and small ephemera, historic objects such as wall maps, charts, blueprints, and significant documents. Her client list includes museums, non-profits, historical societies, upscale framers and private owners.
Gwen Spicer, '91
Gwen Spicer, '91, started Spicer Art Conservation, L.L.C. in 1995, caring for collections from museums, historical societies, state agencies, businesses, and private owners. Her focus is to distinguish long-term collection care and preservation of artifacts. Gwen Spicer is a trained object, textile and upholstery conservator.