While Wendy Waszut-Barrett is traveling for research and art acquisitions (October 14-29, 2017) she is reposting the first fifteen installments from “Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar Acquiring: The Fort Scott Scottish Rite Scenery for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center.” Here is her sixth post from February 20, 2017.
Part 6: Scenery Storage
Prior to my departure for Kansas, I had difficulty in locating an appropriate storage space for the incoming Fort Scott scenery acquisition. I needed a climate-controlled space for eighty drops, measuring 28’ long by 12’ wide. Furthermore, we needed to be able to back up a 30’ truck directly to the loading door. Transferring each 100-pound tube from the truck to the storage unit would be impossible if we had to navigate narrow corridors. The rolled backdrops and other scenic elements would be temporarily stored in this facility prior to their restoration and final installation in the new Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center for the grand opening on June 24, 2016.
All of my initial research suggested that finding a space to accommodate the Fort Scott scenery collection would be difficult at best. Not because these units were non-existent, but because of the logistics necessary to navigate the long rolls into any of the available storage bays that were climate-controlled. I also had come to the conclusion that we would need a minimum of two storage units – each holding a 6’-0” x 8’-0” custom-constructed system with 12” x 12” slots to accommodate each scenery tube. This design was similar to the one that I had used for the Winona Scottish Rite scenery project in 2014.
In September of 2015, I provided technical drawings to the CEO for the construction of two historical scenery storage units. He contracted Outhouse Exhibit Services, the same company that was hired to build all MMHC museum displays and who would eventually restore the Fort Scott scenery. Although the company had never handled any historic scenery before, the owner’s husband felt confident about building and installing the two storage racks based on my specifications. They would be placed prior to my arrival with the drops.
One of my greatest challenges as Curatorial Director for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center was the lack of any supportive staff during the planning and construction of the complex. Since starting in my position as Curatorial Director on June 1, 2015, I was consistently working 50 hours or more each week. My job was only a part-time position, however, for 30 hours each week. My expertise in various areas meant that I was constantly called upon to weigh in on many of the projects pertaining to both the design and construction of the complex. There were too many tasks for one part-time person to complete, especially the time-consuming one of locating two scenery storage units. This job should have been able to be competed by anyone with time, something that I did not have while planning and preparing for my departure to Kansas. It was the only task pertaining to the scenery acquisition that I did not directly oversee. I would later regret having delegated it to anyone else. During late August of 2015, I handed off this one responsibility to the general director at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center.
On October 8, the general director confirmed that he had finally located a climate-controlled storage unit in Bloomington, Minnesota. It was a secure space, measuring 10’ x 30’, with drive up access for a reasonable fee. I immediately reminded him that we would need at least two of these units as the entire collection could not fit into a single space, again mentioning that I was concerned with navigating the 25’ tubes into the storage rack. I specified the need to back a 30’ vehicle adjacent to the door of the storage unit and directly unload the drops into each storage system.
BellaTEX requested information pertaining to the space where they would be delivering the scenery collection in late October. After arriving in Fort Scott, I engaged in a daily ritual of asking the general director for pictures of the storage unit to pass along to the BellaTEX team. The general director’s standard response was “Don’t worry about it.” I did worry, as I could not provide any specific information or images as requested by the owner of BellaTEX. Out of growing concern at being able to provide the necessary information to the transportation crew, I ended up reaching out to the Outhouse Exhibit carpenter who would have to measure the storage units prior to effectively proceeding with the construction and installation of the storage racks.
On November 12, the Outhouse Exhibit Services’ carpenter sent the following email:
“Hello all, The length of the drops while rolled up is 25 feet. It will be difficult to turn them into the space as things are configured at that location because you would need to turn them in a 22 foot wide space…”
This news was a harbinger of doom, as we now had no space to store the scenery collection once it reached Minnesota. The project was nearing completion. We had removed the majority of the scenes and were starting to roll the drops for transportation. The scenery would arrive in Minnesota on Monday, November 24. It was a terrible situation for all involved and there was no solution in sight.
To be continued…
