Spirits not dampened

It’s two steps forward and one step back in the herculean effort to conserve the Southwest Museum’s collection of Native American art and artifacts.

One very soggy step back.

Much has been done in the two years since the impoverished museum on Mount Washington merged with the richly endowed Museum of the American West (formerly the Autry Museum of Western Heritage) in Griffith Park, under the umbrella of the Autry National Center.

Some 5,000 of the 225,000 objects in the Southwest’s collection -- including an immensely valuable holding of Navajo and Pueblo textiles -- have been moved to an accessible storage area at the Griffith Park facility.

The Autry National Center recently selected Overland Partners Architects of San Antonio, Texas, to develop a master plan for the Griffith Park site, including a 100,000-square-foot expansion. About 50,000 square feet of that space will be used to display and store the Southwest Museum’s collection.

At the historic building on Mount Washington, a 20-year-old exhibition on the main floor has been replaced with “People of California,” featuring 500 freshly cleaned, newly mounted objects. A former gallery space on the lower level has been converted to a collections preservation area, where the rest of the objects will be cleaned, fumigated, documented and photographed.

So far, so good. But then the rains came. The deluge that turned Southern California streets into rivers and hillside homes into valley rubble did not spare the Southwest’s 91-year-old building. Storms don’t make exceptions for cultural landmarks, even those listed on the National Register of Historic Places, or museums with assets such as the world’s largest holding of Native American baskets.

At first, water seeped into cracks and saturated weak spots of the museum, leaving stains and bulges like those that have appeared on much-younger buildings. As the rain continued to pound on the roof and walls, water trickled, then poured through housings of light fixtures in the ceiling of the tower, where about 10,000 ceramic works are stored. The artworks, many of which were made to hold liquid, were unharmed. But when the mess was cleaned up and the skies cleared, trouble began in the tunnel.

Built as a subterranean entrance in 1920, six years after the main part of the building was finished, the 200-foot-long tunnel is lined with small, glass-covered dioramas of Native American life, mounted in the walls at eye level. Visitors who enter by this route take an elevator 110 feet up to the galleries.

The tunnel was closed for three weeks during the heaviest rains while staff members dealt with problems elsewhere. When they got back to the tunnel, water that had saturated the museum grounds had begun to drip from the rounded ceiling and walls. Six of the 20 dioramas were wet; three were damaged.

The worst case was loaded with symbolism: Persistent drips in a grain-milling scene caused a mini-mudslide and sent a couple of tiny figures tumbling into the abyss.

“It was really a tragedy,” conservator Richard Moll said. But the figures weren’t hurt and the damage in all three dioramas can be repaired, once they dry out, he said.

Southwest Executive Director Duane King, who has presided over the museum since 1995, took the setback in stride.

“Even though we had problems with the rain like everyone else,” he said, “the conservation effort is going very well. We have dedicated a considerable amount of space in the building to conservation, and we have staff to deal with it. This will enable us to mount the kinds of exhibits and do the kinds of programs that we need to do to serve the public.”

Massive collection

Founded in 1907 by Charles Lummis, a journalist, photographer and historian, the Southwest Museum has one of the nation’s most important museum, library and archive collections related to Native Americans. It also has extensive holdings of pre-Hispanic, Spanish colonial, Latino and Western American art and artifacts. The challenge of examining every last basket, blanket, pot, beaded bag, painting and sculpture in the collection and attending to problems is daunting. But the enterprise is “absolutely on track and on budget,” said Autry President and CEO John L. Gray.

“Since the merger we have put in $5 million,” he said, referring to expenditures on conservation and building improvements at the Southwest. “We anticipate that it will cost about $5 million a year until the conservation project is complete.” Taking care of collections is a never-ending task, but the current project -- partially funded by the Ahmanson, W.M. Keck, Rose Hills and other foundations -- is expected to be finished in three more years, at a total cost of $20 million, Gray said.

The most visible result so far is the “People of California” exhibition. Organized by curator Kim Walters, the new installation covers some of the same territory as the former one but brings the story up to date -- including a section on gambling with a real slot machine.

“We wanted to tell a story about vibrant and living cultures,” King said, “one that reflects a continuum.”

Somewhat like displays at the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., objects from the Southwest’s collection are set in a graphic context with photographs of people and places, and first-person narratives of Native Americans. Divided into geographic sections, the exhibition explores themes such as natural resources, hunting, trade, men’s and women’s activities and leisure.

Praising these visible efforts to work with Native Americans, W. Richard West Jr., a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma and founding director of the museum in Washington, said he has “no qualms” about the Autry National Center’s commitment to continue the collaboration.

“In establishing their Native American Stewardship Council, on which I sit with several other native people,” he said, “they have made a very important move in terms of Native American involvement in all of their activities. The council looks at everything from exhibits to public programs and the care of the collection.”

Behind the scenes in the new collections preservation area a walk-in freezer has been installed to kill insects that infest artifacts made of organic materials, such as wood and animal hides. Kachinas will compose the first load; they will be packed in airtight plastic bags and frozen for 10 days at 20 degrees below zero, said Linda Strauss, senior director of collections for the combined holdings. Special air flow and vacuum cleaning systems are also ready. Computers installed nearby will be used to add newly documented works to the Autry National Center’s database and make them available online.

At the Autry, in a cavernous room that will eventually become gallery space, 2,200 Navajo and Pueblo textiles are rolled on acid-free cardboard tubes sheathed in Mylar. The rolls are stored on metal racks equipped with muslin dust covers. When scholars and curators make appointments to see specific examples, the requested textiles are set out on tables with computer printouts of documentation. Many other objects from the Southwest’s collection -- including Hispanic material from Casa de Adobe, a facsimile of a pre-1850s Spanish California rancho maintained by the museum and located nearby on Figueroa Street -- are stored on shelves and in boxes around the edges of the room.

At this point, the Autry doesn’t have room to store much more of the Southwest’s collection. Most objects that pass through the conservation and documentation process will go back into storage at the Southwest, in new acid-free housings. When the expansion is built in Griffith Park, the bulk of the collection will be moved there.

“It’s an exciting process” that amounts to “a labor of love,” King said. “The creation of the Autry National Center has ensured the future for the Southwest Museum. It will enable the educational mandate and ensure the proper treatment of the collections for future generations.”

But the process of transforming the museum has been painful. Community groups from Mount Washington and the surrounding area continue to express concern about how the building will be used after the Southwest has a new home in Griffith Park. The Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, an umbrella group representing 75 organizations, recently issued a press release contending that the museum and Casa de Adobe “can and must continue to operate as fully functional museums at their present locations.”

Gray said the Autry National Center will maintain the Mount Washington building, but that its function has yet to be determined.

“We are committed to fulfilling the original vision of Charles Lummis, but doing it in the 21st century,” he said. “We have come up with many alternative uses for the Southwest site and we are still involved with the community process to find the best public use that will save it.”