The University of Arizona Art & Conservation Tour

by Sonja Rossow

We arrived at the Arizona State Museum on the campus of the University of Arizona (UA).  The building had originally been the school library but was now the anthropological museum, and houses the world’s largest and best collection of Southwest pottery. Nancy Odegaard, Head of Preservation, called some of the pots on display “rock stars.” These pots were ones that have been photographed and are in textbooks, etc.  We entered the lab and Nancy gave a brief introduction to all of the staff and the things that were going on. We were able to examine artifacts from Mexico that were going to be on display in an exhibit that would go up in November. They did have a few books, but since this is an object conservation lab, no one was really familiar with book conservation.

We then drove over to the Book Art & Letterpress Studio.  This building has just recently been occupied by book people. Phil and Karen Zimmerman have really done a great job getting this facility off the ground.  While there is not a formal book arts program, it is used regularly by students in the art department with instruction from the Zimmermans. The room that the presses are in have lots of natural light. They have 4 Vandercooks and a C & P to print with and many drawers of type.  The building had been an Italian restaurant and now houses, in addition to the book arts studios, a Mexican restaurant.  What more could a person ask for! There is also an interesting history, true or not, attached to the building.  It is called the Corleone building because it’s said that mob boss Joe Bonano moved down to Tucson when the heat became to hot for him in NYC and the Italian restaurant was a front for his dealings. Joe was purported to lived upstairs in an apartment with his henchmen living next door in an apt. complex also named the Corleone Apts. The Zimmermans have great plans for the book arts area and soon there will a place for binding and a photo polymer plate room upstairs.

Dennis Jones, Director of the Art Department, came over and we toured the graduate art studio building. What a building!  It is only 2 years old. The Art Department took it over from another department and renovated the entire place.  New ventilation was put in for those working with more toxic materials. They have their own wood shop and metal shop and each grad student has a space in which to create.  The skylights on the roof flood the building with natural light.  I’m sure this is truly a special place to work.

Out last stop was to the Center for Creative Photography. We were met by Cass Fey, Director of Education. She talked a little about the Center and the current exhibit, The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography.  We then went upstairs to the viewing room and were shown artist’s books that were photographic in nature.  Jonathan was our moderator. We sat or stood around while he showed up a variety of books.  Some were from people we weren’t familiar with and others, like Keith Smith, that we were.  We concluded with a little time to walk around the aforementioned exhibit.

With that our day ended. We got back on the bus and returned to the hotel. All in all it was a good and interesting day.