Two years after mold forced parts of the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts to be temporarily sealed off, Grinnell College Museum of Ar...

Two years after mold forced parts of the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts to be temporarily sealed off, Grinnell College Museum of Art is officially done with fungi. The HVAC system was entirely revamped this summer, according to Kristina Nguyen `29, an assistant in the museum’s archives and collections who began working there this past March, giving the museum the temperature and humidity controls required for its collections and exhibitions. Nguyen said museum workers have since begun returning some artwork to the Bucksbaum storage area. The timing of the HVAC work became particularly important ahead of “Abstract Expressionists: The Women,” which opened Thursday, Sept. 17. Construction delays put the project several weeks behind an already tight timetable, said Susan Baley, director of the Grinnell College Museum of Art. “There was a period of time where they thought the show would not be able to come to the museum because of the HVAC,” said Amy Kan `27, an art history major and collections assistant at the museum. The work was ultimately completed before paintings for the exhibition arrived on Sept. 4. “Fortunately, the work was completed just in the nick of time to assure a stable climate for the incoming crates of Abstract Expressionist paintings,” Baley said. Collections Manager and Registrar Jocelyn Krueger said the museum has since incorporated the experience into its emergency planning. “We relied on our training and campus partners to pull off an emergency response, and we updated our emergency management plan with the new HVAC and data monitoring information,” Krueger said. https://lnkd.in/g2QCw2V3