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Month: April 2013

Christo Captivates a Full House at the Hirshhorn

Erin Rushing
April 29, 2013
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Artist Christo at the Hirshhorn. Image courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gallery.
Artist Christo at the Hirshhorn. Image courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gallery.

This post was contributed by Rita O’Hara, library technician at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library.

At the March 27th public program “Meet the Artist” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Christo engaged a full house in the Ring Auditorium with discussions of two current projects: Over the River,  a 5.9 mile expanse of fabric panels which will be temporarily suspended over 42 miles of the Arkansas River in Colorado, and The Mastaba, a new permanent sculpture reportedly the largest in the world to be situated near Abu Dhabi.  After showing images of his projects, Christo was very entertaining and gracious in answering any question from the audience.

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Helping you care for your collections

Erin Rushing
April 26, 2013
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Conservator Katie Wagner at the Book Conservation Lab.
Conservator Katie Wagner at the Book Conservation Lab.

April 21-27 is Preservation Week!  In honor of this event, we’ve featured preservation-related content on the Smithsonian Libraries’ blog as well as our other social media outlets, like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. We hope you’ve enjoyed getting a peek at preservation activities at the Smithsonian Libraries and beyond. Today we have few helpful links that might assist you in caring for your own  books and collections!

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The Book Conservation Lab: A Brief Tour

Don Stankavage
April 24, 2013
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General Collections items waiting for treatment
General Collections items waiting for treatment

April 21-27 is Preservation Week!  In honor of this event, we will be featuring preservation-related content on the Smithsonian Libraries’ blog as well as our other social media outlets, like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Today, we offer you a peek inside our own Book Conservation Lab!

The Preservation Services Division of the Smithsonian Libraries is committed to the preservation, safe exhibition, and long-term access to collections objects, many of which are irreplaceable. The primary mission of the Book Conservation Lab (BCL) is to treat special and general collections items needed for research, exhibition or digitization.

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The Fix – Andy Warhol’s Index Book

Katie Wagner
April 22, 2013
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Andy Warhol's Index Book - Lenticular Cover
Andy Warhol’s Index Book

April 21-27 is Preservation Week! Preservation Week was created by the American Libraries Association to bring attention to preservation matters in libraries and to help the public maintain their own collections. In honor of this event, we will be featuring preservation-related content on the Smithsonian Libraries’ blog as well as our other social media outlets, like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. We encourage you to join the conversation! And if you’re in the DC area, check out our free event on Wednesday, April 24th!

The Conservation Lab received a very interesting patient from the American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library recently.  The book is “Andy Warhol’s Index Book” designed by the artist in the 1960’s experimenting with the idea of the book as a work of art. 

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