Metal Outdoor Sculpture

Today was my first day in a week-long seminar entitled "The Care of Metal Outdoor Sculpture," sponsored by the New York Conservation Foundation. Sculpture in metal (e.g. bronze, aluminum, stainless steel, etc.) isn't something I'm as well-versed in as compared to sculpture in stone (e.g. marble), not to mention the conservation of it, particularly when exposed to outdoor elements. So this seminar seems like it's going to be a great opportunity to learn more. It supports my duties in my new position as Curator of Art Properties at Columbia, as we have a public sculpture collection on campus (more than one campus actually), and all of it is in metal. Each morning during the seminar we're visiting public sculpture sites in NYC. This morning we started near Herald Square, moved through Bryant Park, and ended near the United Nations. Tomorrow morning we're in the Financial District. The afternoon or evening parts of the seminar consist of a series of talks from conservators and curators. So far it's going pretty well. The picture you see here is a shot I took with my iPhone of our instructor John Scott talking to us about the effects of environmental conditions on this 1911 memorial statue in bronze of William Cullen Bryant by Herbert Adams in the park behind New York Public Library. If I have time later in the week, I'll recap highlights from the seminar.