Preserving and Integrating Conservation Photography at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields as the 2016-2017 VRAF Intern

Abstract

The Clowes Collection of Old Master Paintings housed at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields (IMA) includes seventy-eight works by Flemish, Spanish, English, Dutch, and Italian masters, comprising some of the museum’s most important artworks. The IMA recently embarked on an interdepartmental project to create a new digital catalogue that will highlight the history of each piece. What makes this publication unique is an emphasis on the conservation history as documented in thousands of images, including X-ray, infrared, and UV photographs. In order to facilitate this project, it became necessary to bring together all conversation imagery regarding the Clowes Collection, apply appropriate metadata, create new metadata workflows for Conservation staff, and ingest the images into Piction, the museum’s DAMS. Over the course of six months, the author worked collaboratively with the Conservation, Photography, and Archives department at the IMA to integrate Conservation assets into Piction. This work involved consulting multiple standards for visual resource management, building a custom schema, creating a custom controlled vocabulary, and working with the DAMS vendor, all within a set time frame.

Acknowledgements:

The author would like to thank the Kress Foundation and the Visual Resources Association Foundation for whom this project was possible due to their generous funding. At the 2017 Visual Resources Association annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky, the author presented the following work as the VRAF Intern at the poster session. Sharing the experience, including the successes and challenges of the project, with others in the visual resources field provided the author with invaluable professional development growth. The practical experience gained from the internship not only solidified the author’s metadata skills, but gave her the opportunity to develop project management, communication, and training skills, all of which has been integral to her professional growth. She would also like to thank Samantha Norling, Tascha Horowitz, Anne Young, Annette Schlagenhauff, David Miller, Fiona Beckett, Erica Schuler, and the entire Conservation department at the IMA for their expertise and enthusiasm during this collaborative project.