More responses from Steve:

RE: Only one week to Close the Gallery
    This is totally unfair!  What we are talking about here is a one-time,
major improvement to your gallery display systems.  You should petition for
adequate time to install and prepare the walls properly.  Thereafter, one week
between normal shows should be adequate to take down one display and put up
another, since you will have little to no maintenance on your new walls.

RE: Out-Gassing of Walls Covered with Canvas and Painted
    Only the plywood primer might present a problem.  The Elmers, or Tightbond
thinned with water should present no reactive vapors, although humidity might
be up for a few days.  Winter or living in the desert will help.  The canvas
could be primed with gesso prior to painting with latex... However:
I am not an expert on this and would strongly advise talking to the conserv-
ators and preparators at the Smithsonian or your nearest major museum (Anyone
out there?)  They must have addressed the problem of painting galleries by now

RE Outgassing from Walls Covered by Carpet-Like Fabric
   This could be more of an issue.  Ours was installed by commercial carpet
layers using an industrial cement trowelled or rolled onto the walls.  This
was done the year before I arrived at the museum.  I'm sure the stuff was
volaile and smelly and migraines etc.  Again, get specific information from
your installer, then check with conservators who know all the organic
chemistry.

RE Marks on the Walls
   First: Supervise your subordinates!  Yo do have my profound understanding
of the problem: I train 3-5 new college work/study students every semester,
and am continuously amazed at how fast I can move to avert these events.
Second: One clever alternative which I use all the time is to have a variety
of scraps of mat board with the velcro dots on the back.  These can be placed
on the walls wherever one needs, shifted, used in pairs, marked on with
colored pencil, discarded, replaced easily.  I have an assortment of 2x32"
pieces, some shorter, and some "L" shaped.  I mark on them centerlines, the
space between frames, whatever.

I think all this is fun.


   ============================================================
   Stephen B. Ringle, Registrar             [log in to unmask]
   University of Maine Museum of Art
   5712 Carnegie Hall, Room 109              vox: 207-581-3257
   Orono, Maine   04469-5712                 fax: 207-581-3083
   ============================================================