 The
Barnum Museum will be presenting another in the lunchtime lecture series featuring
artifact Conservator Chris Augerson on Tuesday, July 24 at 12:15 p.m. in
Bridgeport. The program is called Glimpse Into the Wonderful and will be held
in the People's United Bank Gallery, connected at the back of the museum's historic
structure. Augerson will demonstrate some of the fascinating techniques used to
repair and preserve artifacts damaged by the June 2010 tornado from museum's collection.
Augerson will talk about the conservation of the horse-drawn carriages of Tom
Thumb and Commodore Nutt and the delicate restoration techniques required to refurbish
the wood and gold detail of the furniture from Barnum's fantastically decorative
Iranistan mansion.
There will be a subsequent program with
the same name on September 25 when Augerson will address the conservation techniques
used on marble sculptures, gilded mirrors and picture frames, among others. During
each program, attendees are invited to bring their lunch. Some time after each
program, video versions of the presentations will be available online. Christopher
Augerson earned a Bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College in Brunswick ME with
a double major in chemistry and visual arts in 1986. Thereafter he worked as a
research assistant for the Chemistry Department of Bowdoin College and later as
a microscopy technician for the Furniture Laboratory of the Winterthur Museum
in Wilmington DE. He conducted brief apprenticeships with conservators Marjorie
Cohn (of Harvard's Fogg Museum), Clifford Craine and Virginia Norton Naudé
(conservators in private practice in Boston and Philadelphia, respectively). In
1992 was awarded a Master's degree in art conservation from the State University
of New York College at Buffalo. In 1992 Augerson opened Augerson
Art Conservation Services, specializing in the conservation of decorative arts,
sculpture, and furniture. He has since conducted fellowships at the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco, St. Louis Art Museum and Belgian Royal Institute of
Artistic Heritage. From 1997 to 2006, he worked as conservator of paint and gilding
of carriages at the Coach Museum of the Palace of Versailles. Since 2006, when
Augerson Art Conservation Services UK was established, Augerson's clients have
included English Heritage and the National Trust for Scotland. In 2010, he began
working with The Barnum Museum to assess and treat numerous artifacts damaged
by the tornado that hit Bridgeport and severely damaged the landmark museum building. What:
Glimpse Into the Wonderful Where: The Barnum Museum,
820 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT 06604. Visitors are asked to enter through the
double glass doors at the back of the historic building where it connects to People's
United Bank. The front doors are closed. Learn more at: barnum-museum.org or call
203-331-1104. When: Tuesday, July 24 door opens at noon,
lecture begins at 12:15 p.m. An additional Glimpse Into the Wonderful program
is set for Tuesday, Sept. 25 at the same time. Cost:
No charge, however donations are always welcome Recovery
in Action is funded in part by the Department of Economic & Community Development's
State Historic Preservation Office and Bridgeport's Downtown Special Services
District. Grant funding from the Connecticut Humanities Council has allowed the
museum to consult with top scholars in the field in order to plan new exhibitions
that will be installed once the historic structure is restored. The
National Trust for Historic Preservation is also a supporter of The Barnum Museum's
restoration and recovery projects. The original
Barnum Institute building, designed by the architectural firm Longstaff and Hurd,
was completed in1893. It is owned by the City of Bridgeport and is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places.
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