Princeton Weekly Bulletin January 12, 1998

Gatekeeper of the Art Museum

By Caroline Moseley

Maureen McCormick is "used to getting blank looks when I tell people I'm a museum registrar," she says.

McCormick, who is registrar of Princeton's Art Museum, describes her job as "a cross between a librarian and an air traffic controller. You could say I'm the gatekeeper of the museum, keeping track of what comes into our building and what goes out." For the Art Museum, that means approximately 400 acquisitions a year and approximately 60 loans to other museums.

Photograph (Denise Applewhite): In museum storage area, Maureen McCormick examines "Judith With the Head of Holofernes," a copy by Rembrandt Peale (American, 1778-1860) of a painting by Cristofano Allori (Italian, 1577-1621). The painting has been returned after being on loan to a traveling exhibit, "The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy, 1770-1870," which was shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

With assistant registrar Eliza Frecon and the office staff, McCormick maintains a computer file for each work of art in the collection. The entry for Monet's "Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge," for example, notes that the painting is oil on canvas, 90.5 x 89.7 cm., signed and dated by the artist in the lower right. The entry also includes provenance and date of acquisition, among other information, including the whereabouts of the work -- whether on display, on loan or in storage. "Ninety percent of the museum collection is in storage at any given time," McCormick points out. "Many works of art -- watercolors, for example -- would deteriorate if always on view. In museums, we have to find a balance between preserving a collection and making it accessible."

The Registrar's Office also maintains a photo file, says McCormick, which employs a photographer for one week per month to photograph new materials.

Journey with "Crucifixion"

About 30 percent of the registrar's time is concerned with loans to other museums. "We're an educational institution, and we like, when possible, to share our collection," she notes. In addition, "Curators at other museums do research for their exhibits, which benefits our museum and the field in general."

McCormick recently traveled to Houston, Texas to accompany a panel painting, "The Mystical Crucifixion" attributed to the 15th-century artist Matteo di Giovanni, which was loaned to the Houston Museum of Fine Art for an exhibit entitled "The Body of Christ." Her journey with the "Crucifixion," she says, gives an idea of the complex logistics surrounding the presentation of any work of art.

First, "We agonized with Conservator Norman Muller over whether or not to lend the piece, since panel paintings are sensitive to climatic changes." Once it was decided that the work could withstand shipping, it was wrapped in seam-taped polyethylene and placed in a specially built insulated crate. The lid was sealed with weather-stripping, and the crate was painted on the exterior to make it water-resistant. Thus, says McCormick, "We created a micro-climate inside the crate similar to what the painting experiences in the museum, with the same 45-to-50 percent humidity level." The crate contained silica gel to control humidity and foam to protect the painting from shock as well as from temperature changes.

McCormick came to the museum at 6:30 a.m. to meet a climate-controlled truck that would transport the painting to Newark Airport. "There are dozens of companies that do nothing but transport works of art," she says. "Driving to Newark in a truck isn't bad, but when we need to fly from JFK we have to go all through Staten Island, because trucks aren't allowed on the Belt Parkway."

"Live reptile"

Riding in the front of the truck, McCormick arrived at the Newark Airport cargo facility. "The flight wasn't until noon," she recalls, "but the cargo check-in was 8:30 a.m. A representative of Masterpiece International, a fine-arts freight forwarder, met me at the cargo facility, and together we walked back into the hangar to see the painting `containerized.' On this flight it was the only thing in the aluminum container; sometimes you see other crates labeled `flammable material' or `live reptile,' and that makes me nervous."

After a long wait "on a freezing concrete floor," the containerized painting was taken onto the tarmac for loading. McCormick then hopped back into the cab of the truck and was driven to the passenger terminal, where she stood at the window until she saw "her" container loaded on board.

Hours later, in Houston, "We did it all again, in reverse. Their registrar met me; we went to the Houston cargo facility, and so on, until the piece was uncrated in their museum and examined by their conservator."

Not all loaned works need to be accompanied, McCormick points out. "There's a confluence of factors, including fragility and special handling needs, that determine whether we'll have a courier. Value is one of the factors, but if you simply want security, you hire it." McCormick traveled with armed guards when she escorted Van Gogh's "Tarascon Diligence" to an exhibit in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

363 items, 170 lenders

Any major exhibit at the Art Museum, she says, involves many such complicated transactions. In the 1995 exhibit on "The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership," there were 300 objects from 40 lenders -- so that "we only had to arrange 40 transits." For the 1997 exhibit celebrating Princeton's 250th Anniversary, however, "We showed 363 works, from 170 lenders. That's 170 transits to arrange, from all over the world. Most of the pieces were in private collections, and all had to arrive here in a two-to-three week period in early 1997."

McCormick was aided in this mammoth undertaking by Atelier Art Services of Philadelphia, which "packed and transported the New York City, New Jersey and Philadelphia loans, and assisted in the installation of the exhibition in Princeton." Other assistance came from the American Federation of Arts, which arranged "about a third" of the transits. McCormick is quick to point out that her job is to coordinate events, to "act as a ringmaster. I don't make crates, hang pictures, issue bills of lading. I just try to make sure things happen."

Despite occasional overload, McCormick particularly likes her job at Princeton. "Because we're a small staff, I get to do a little bit of everything. At large museums, registrars may only handle outgoing loans, for instance."

McCormick received her BA from the State University of New York, Potsdam in 1978 and her MFA from Temple University's Tyler School of Art in 1980, where she studied printmaking. Two years in the registration office of the Columbus [Ohio] Museum of Art convinced McCormick that she had found her niche. A year as director of touring exhibitions for the Ohio Foundation on the Arts followed, and in 1984 McCormick became assistant registrar at Princeton. Promoted to associate registrar in 1986, she has held her present position since 1988.

Enchanted by minutiae

Though in recent years it has become possible to earn advanced degrees in museum studies and collections management, most of McCormick's training has been on the job. "Museum registrars are born, not made," she says. "You have to be detail-oriented, compulsive and practically enchanted by minutiae."

McCormick's own taste in art is eclectic; currently she is studying and painting "icons in the Byzantine tradition." She also has a special place on her office wall for paintings by her three-year-old daughter, Phoebe.

Most museum-goers, McCormick observes, "think of a museum as static. They're in a gallery, gazing at a painting on a wall. They're generally not aware that, behind the scenes, there's a loading dock opening and closing regularly. There are conservators, preparators, truck drivers, riggers, crate builders, insurance companies -- and registrars -- busy every day. If we're all doing our jobs right, we're invisible."

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