AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

The Salon Doré, a gilded salon commissioned by a Count to convey a perpetual wedding celebration in 1770 Paris now finds itself in an Arts & Design School in Washington, DC. The Salon came from Paris to DC via a stop in the Fifth Avenue Gilded Age mansion of “Copper King” William Andrews Clark, a one-term Senator from Montana. It may be tempting to think that surviving the French Revolution, shipment across the Atlantic in the early 1900s, then transport down the mid-Atlantic roads of 1925, means that the greatest threats to the Salon’s preservation are over, however, a malfunctioning HVAC and benign neglect from University Facilities have resulted in notable damage to the gilding. The quest to get preservation attention for the room has taken years but by the time of the meeting, the Salon will have been incorporated into a larger HVAC overhaul, new UV film added to the windows, and conservation of the flaking gilding will have taken place.

What makes this case study more dynamic, however, is the effort undertaken to open the Salon to wider use by the School community. The Salon Doré is housed within the 1897 Beaux-Arts building that was built for the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Corcoran College of Art + Design that closed in 2014 and was transferred to the George Washington University. The Salon has been in a bit of limbo since 2014, being both literally and figuratively locked off from the School Community. There were exceptions for access but this was usually in the form of Art History symposia or musical performances in-line with the period of the room’s creation. But in response to the tumultuous events of the recent past, this mindset of use began to feel more and more elitist. Why can’t the Salon be used for a traditional piano recital as well as for a Hip Hop performance? What happens when Social Practice Master’s students want to host a tea and that tea is purple? How to activate the Salon in ways that all will feel welcome – from those who embrace its traditional aesthetic to those who rage against it – were explored more fully this academic year. Part of that journey involved a vibration study embarked upon to set decibel levels that led to the discovery of lingering dampness in one wall as well as the creation of User Guidelines that we realized needed to include the line: “Performance art pieces that use bodily liquids and/or additional organic materials or live animals must be approved by the Exhibition & Performance Associate and Corcoran’s Conservator, Mary Coughlin.” The quest to improve both preservation and access and the hurdles, both anticipated and unforeseen, that have arisen will be addressed.