Unearthed: A behind the scenes look at the Rose Art Museum

An exhibition at the Rose puts the work of its staff front and center. But what is displayed is just a glimpse into the life of the museum’s permanent collection

Hepzi Rapoport holds a black, blimp-shaped object that’s about the size of an eggplant. Wearing white gloves, she carefully turns it over, closely examining it under a lamp, making notes of its size and condition.

The object is part of an installation piece by artist Richard Artschwager. It’s among the hundreds of small sculpture pieces that belong to the Rose Art Museum’s permanent collection. Rapoport is cataloging the item before it gets photographed as part of a federal grant-supported initiative to make the museum’s digital catalogue more comprehensive. A more robust online database will be useful to scholars and to other museums who may wish to learn about or borrow from the Rose’s renowned collection.

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Normally, this work is done in an industrial, windowless room in the back of the Rose Art Museum that Rapoport, a collections maintenance technician, and Collections Assistant Betsy Nelson like to call “Middle Kingdom.”

But on this day they are doing their work in the middle of the Lois Foster Gallery during museum hours as part of “Collection at Work,” an exhibition that puts the Rose staff in full view of museum visitors. It’s also an opportunity for the public to see pieces from the permanent collection in a different setting, according to Rose Curator Kim Conaty.

Next to the table where Rapoport and Nelson are doing their work, an easel holds a small painting that will soon be cleaned. Across the floor are bins full of small sculpture and installation pieces. Next to them, a photographer has set up a stand and backdrops to photograph the objects.

“This exhibition gives people an idea of some of the work that goes unseen, and also to see the breadth of the collection in a way they wouldn't see in a curated exhibition,” Conaty said.

But what is shown in the Foster Gallery is just a small glimpse into the life of the museum’s permanent collection behind the scenes.

‘Artists come up with some crazy ideas’

The Rose Art Museum has its own storage space in an austere backroom of the museum, but the permanent collection outgrew that area long ago. These days, about half of the items are now housed off-site at Fine Arts Enterprises in South Boston, which specializes in art storage and transportation for museums and galleries. A running list is kept of items that need to be examined or transported from the off-site storage for regular trips to the facility by museum staff.

The primary storage space at the Rose is overseen by Head Preparator Roy Dawes. It has tall ceilings, concrete walls and closely hung painting screens, which are metal-framed chain link hung on sliders on the ceiling. The very biggest paintings might have their own screen, but most of the screens contain several works, which are neatly organized to maximize the space of each screen.

Although there’s quite a lot of open floor space in the storage room, it’s actually packed to the gills - ample elbowroom is necessary for moving large, valuable paintings.

“It's like a Tetris experience, storing all these in here,” Conaty says while taking in the room. “His thinking is almost magical.”

Any time a piece is moved, either from this room or from off-site storage, Dawes is consulted. He knows every odd corner and doorway of the museum. When it’s time for something to go out on display, it’s up to him to make the vision a reality. Once, the museum hosted a Barry McGee installation that included a pick up truck. A piece of the gallery wall had to be removed in order to roll the truck in. Dawes recalls the scene unexcitedly - such odd projects are ordinary for him.

“We're a contemporary art museum and you never know what artists are going to do,” he said. “Artists come up with some crazy ideas. Curators, they come up with crazy ideas, too.”

Sometimes, the job calls for handling pieces that are considered to be astronomically valuable. It’s a subject Dawes prefers to ignore.

“I try to tell my crew not to think about it. I don't think about it,” he said. “I just think about doing things carefully and correctly.”

Some assembly required

Pieces that need to be deconstructed for storage usually come with assembly instructions either typed or handwritten, directly from the artist. It’s a critical piece of information for an art curator if they want to maintain continuity for a piece.

“When I am acquiring a work of art, if I'm not getting that information, I'm asking for it,” Conaty said. “In order to be good stewards we have to know how this is supposed to look, both today and 15 years from now.”

These instructions can vary: Some are detailed to a point, while others deliberately leave certain aspects up to the person who will set it up.

“The trickiest to assemble are ones that have a sort of guide, but that are also supposed to be slightly subjective,” Conaty said. “You're basically asking people who are trained to put things together according to instructions to take liberties.”

An area where no liberties are taken? Loaning out pieces to other museums and institutions.

Simply agreeing to loan out a piece can be a painstaking process and that’s only the beginning.

The loan process usually begins with some kind of an informal inquiry. Maybe an institution has learned about an item in the collection during research for an exhibition, or saw it on display elsewhere.

Once it is decided that an institution would like to seek a loan, it submits a formal request, typically written to the director of the museum that holds the piece, that outlines the conditions the work will be presented in: temperature, humidity, presence of natural light, and a description of the exhibition the piece will be a part of.

“It's always a risk for us to lend our objects,” Conaty said. “They need to be convincing that the object will be safe at the site.”

But that’s just the beginning. Hanging a piece from the Rose collection on a wall in another museum is a meticulously overseen process.

They are packed in custom-built wood crates. Professional art handlers move it from storage to a truck. In the case of truly prized pieces, a courier will often travel with it door-to-door, from the Rose to its final destination, even if that means riding in a truck across the country or flying half way around the world, Conaty said.

“You don't want anyone to know the value that truck is carrying,” she said.

When a piece has to be moved by plane, the courier stays with it for as long as possible, watching as it is moved to a hangar at the airport as it prepares to be loaded on the plane. The courier then rushes to the terminal to make the flight, but they don’t get on the plane until it is confirmed that the piece is on board, too.

If an individual piece doesn’t have a courier, a group of museums in the area will often organize shipments to certain parts of the country and there is one designated courier. In those cases, someone from the Rose flies to meet the work at its final destination, and the crate isn't opened until they are there. Putting together and installing a piece once it arrives at its location can be a slow process. The staff at the receiving museum will often ask the courier about every move during assembly and installation.

“The work has to be firmly in place and once the courier leaves it can't move," Conaty said.

But all the work that goes into a loan can be worthwhile, Conaty says.

 “When we lend a work to great exhibitions or when it is beautifully contextualized, it is such a benefit to us,” she said. “It helps bring recognition to the collection that goes so far beyond our walls.”

While a couple handfuls of pieces are loaned out every year, there are thousands more that need to be cared for and maintained.

It’s a special opportunity for the museum’s staff to be able to use the gallery space for their work, and while the exhibition will close to the public June 11, they’ll continue to use the space through the summer, Betsy Nelson, the museum’s collections assistant said.

“We've never had an opportunity like this before,” she said. “We’ll take advantage of it for as long as we can.”

More information about the “Collection at Work” exhibition and the other spring exhibitions at the Rose can be found on the museum’s website.