Q: What does it take to install the Period Rooms?
A: A whole lot of people!
In future posts, we’ll describe how the Schenck House was moved, but right now we are in the thick of preparing the entire floor to re-open to the public. A great deal of dust was generated from the construction of the past two years. Melanie Tran has been vacuuming chairs in the Danbury Room. Melanie is a volunteer in the Conservation Lab, who is interested in attending a graduate training program in art conservation. Getting experience in a conservation lab is one of the requirements for a graduate program.
The Danbury House, or Room, ca. 1775. Wood, brick, plaster. Brooklyn Museum, Henry L. Batterman Fund, 15.511
Jason and Jim, two of the Museum’s art handlers, have been working with our current intern from the University of Delaware graduate program in art conservation, Jakki Godfrey. They are reinstalling the doors on a piece of furniture called a kas. The kas was recently treated anoxically for a pest infestation. The object was placed in a chamber and the oxygen was exchanged for argon gas, causing the wood eating insects to be exterminated. This technique has the advantage of not leaving toxic residues behind.
The vacuuming and reinstalling will continue for the next couple of weeks. Please come and visit when the rooms open!
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Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum
Why are (half of) the period rooms closed again?
We waited so patiently for what seemed like 5 years for the marvelous Schenck House and the rest to open again, and now a sign tells us everything is closed for construction!
Hi Steveo,
Some of the period rooms are closed because of the construction of a new gallery for Contemporary Art that will open early this fall. The period rooms will reopen when the new Contemporary Gallery is completed. We apologize for the inconvenience and frustration caused by the closure. It is sometimes necessary, in an old and complex building, to close some galleries in order to create more and better galleries for the future. We hope that this exciting new gallery, which will provide a permanent home for the Museum’s collection of Contemporary Art for the first time in many years, will make the wait worthwhile.
Thanks for your reply.
It makes it much easier to know it’s because something excitingly new and interesting is coming!
Steve