CCAHA

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that CCAHA is one of 817 nonprofits nationwide to receive an NEA "Art Works" grant. CCAHA is recommended for a $20,000 grant to support a postgraduate fellowship.

Pennsylvania's first constitution, written by Benjamin Franklin (among others) in 1776, has been described as the most democratic in America. It recently traveled from the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg to CCAHA for conservation treatment.

The repeated rolling and unrolling of hanging scrolls means that almost all that come to CCAHA for treatment have a similar problem—horizontal creases. This was true for several hanging scroll paintings that recently arrived from Bryn Mawr College.

In his Hiroshima series, Jacob Lawrence painted eight scenes that took place at the moment that the atomic bomb dropped. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts brought all eight paintings to CCAHA to address two main condition issues.

Is your institution the home of a great Pennsylvania artifact? Nominate your object for Pennsylvania’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts, a new statewide awareness and fundraising campaign that will engage institutions and the general public in a little friendly conservation competition.

Despite his celebrity status, scientist Albert Einstein managed to enjoy a quiet life in his home in Princeton between 1933 and 1955. The Institute for Advanced Study recently brought the globe from Einstein's home study to CCAHA for conservation treatment.

This fall, Art-i-facts looks at ephemera, those fragile, inexpensively manufactured paper objects—such as greeting cards, pamphlets, brochures, tickets, postcards, advertisements, comics, and catalogs—produced for a specific use or event and intended to be thrown away.

Staff at CCAHA are available to assist institutions and individuals with recovery of paper-based collections that sustained damage during Sandy. Call 215.545.0613 during business hours or use our 24-hour emergency assistance hotline, 215.688.0719.

When this 2007 Chuck Close portrait, Janet, developed a crack along the figure's eye level, CCAHA Senior Paper Conservator Soyeon Choi used a syringe to administer wheat starch paste—in this case, conservation's Botox equivalent—to mend it.

CCAHA's Housing & Framing Department has expanded its services to include housing and framing of paintings on canvas. Services include the “sealed package” system, a preservation measure that aims to reduce the need for future conservation treatment.