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Keeping track of art in my house isn't much of a problem--a few "minimalist" pieces done by special little friends hanging on the refrigerator, alongside three framed postcards from John Singer Sargent's work, and a few inexpensive prints I really like on my walls. My only "real" art are four Tuscan watercolors, an oil given to me for my 21st birthday, and a really nice ink drawing done by my daughter.
For Sherry Rouse, curator of campus art at Indiana University, it's a different story.
Veritas Filia Temporis (Truth, Daughter of Time), a work by the late Robert Laurent who once taught at IU, is on the west wall of Ballantine Hall in Bloomington. It's a favorite of Sherry Rouse (photo below), curator of campus art for IU's eight campuses. Throughout the campuses, employees, students and visitors pass by any number of the university's art treasures each day--an antique chair, a screen, a limestone gargoyle, a piece of crystal. They're all part of the visual legacy that helps define the university. A detail from Laurent's work is pictured above; the sculptor is perhaps better known for his work on Showalter Fountain in the IUB Fine Arts Plaza, which depicts the birth of Venus.Photos by Heather Hill
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It's anything but refrigerator art--these oils, etchings, furniture, china, rugs, sculptures and other fine pieces--owned by the university. On eight campuses, Sherry Rouse is cataloguing IU's extensive collections 'outside museum walls.'
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"Almost anywhere you look, there is something beautiful to enjoy--oils, etchings, watercolors, woodcuts, photographs and lithographs, and decorative arts like antique furniture, china, crystal, rugs, screens, wallpapers and tools. And there is sculpture--from a modern Alexander Calder in front of the Musical Arts Center to the gargoyles on historic campus buildings."
Rouse is approaching her first-year anniversary as curator of campus art for all eight IU campuses, a risk management position new to the university. Her responsibilities center around cataloguing and collecting data about the art kept at IU outside of museum walls.
Previously, IU's artwork was cared for on an "as needed" basis for the most part, said Rouse. "The Office of Risk Management maintained a database of collections," she explained, "but no one individual was responsible for the data. With some exceptions, this basically had been a job of reacting to problems."
For insurance purposes, Rouse, with a master's degree in arts administration from IU, has independent appraisers determine the value of various works. She is also responsible for maintaining IU's art in good condition. Paintings are cleaned with cotton swabs and a number cleaning solvents by the conservator on the Bloomington campus or those in Indianapolis. Conservators also are hired to restore ornate gilded frames and conserve paintings that are damaged.
And Rouse pays close attention to how art is displayed--nothing on the refrigerator.
"Light, heat, humidity and people all have a variety of effects on artworks," she said. "I do not hang pictures over computers, coffee machines, water fountains, and heating and cooling units. I try not to hang them on outside walls that may be very cool in the winter. Spotlights can also be damaging.
"Paintings and works on paper should be shielded by an unbreakable, ultra violet plexiglass, and even with UV protection, works on paper should spend a good part of their year in the dark. Pictures in public areas are hung with security hangers, and three-dimensional objects often require cases or crowd-control roping. Large, unroped sculptures are subject to fingerprints, food and drink spills, and outright vandalism."
Rouse also is a Certified Professional Fund Raiser through the National Society of Fund Raising Executives. One of her goals is to help people realize the value in art and the importance of funding its preservation for future generations. She plans an exhibit of IU art that will travel from campus to campus and tours that focus on the stories behind the art.
"Many of the artworks around campus were gifts to the university, and there is often an interesting legacy behind the gift, " she said. "Other artworks are part of a thoughtful collection process that promotes the history of Indiana artists for all of us to enjoy."
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