Artifact conservators Ed Bowkett and Daniela Kolbach PORTRAIT / PROFILE
C ANDICE V ETTER candice.vetter@eap.on.ca
Cemetery in Montreal, the Molson Mausoleum doors, Billings Estate Museum, and almost every museum in Ottawa. Of them all Bowkett’s favourite is the National War Museum. Daniela, who is from Berlin, finds that amusing, as her home city features an anti-war museum. Both say they like working with their hands, like the flexibility of their lifestyle, couldn’t stand to be stuck in an office, and love learning the stories that go with the objects. They also enjoy learning about and working with different materials, such as amber from Saskatchewan. They have one child and are involved locally as well, as members of the Russell Historical Society and of Vintage Iron. They married in the Cumberland Township museum. Ed Bowkett is featured once a month on CBC Radio’s Ontario Today as a guest expert. His next show is April 20 between 12:30 and 1 p.m. on 91.5 FM.
RUSSELL | A life’s passion is a rare thing to share with a life partner, and is something Russell Village residents Ed Bowkett and Daniela Kolbach appreciate, because they share an unusual passion, the exacting discipline of restoring and conserving old artifacts. Neither of them started out in that field. Bowkett was studying chemistry at Carleton University and working at Fort Henry for the summer where he became interested in the museum’s artifacts. Kolbach was an Art History major in Montreal, which she found too theoretical and not enough hands-on. Both of them ended up taking Art Conservation at Sir Sanford Fleming in Peterborough, where they met. Kolbach worked three years with the Canadian Conservation Institute and one year with the National Gallery. Bowkett interned at Fort Henry then was hired by the National Museum of Science and Technology. The steam locomotive there was restored by him and his father, and Bowkett goes back every summer during a special exhibit to run the train. After a few years of employment at national institutions, they decided to strike out on their own, doing contract conservation work for government institutions and private owners of priceless items. Many of their jobs have been fascinating, and scary. Says Kolbach, “Whether it’s worth five dollars or a million, the pressure not to break it is daunting.” The pair say the work involves knowing about all kinds of materials. They work on three-dimensional objects like sculpture and architecture, as well as stone, metal, wood, paper and paintings. Living near Ottawa is handy with all its museums and heritage buildings, and they have worked extensively on the ongoing Parliament Hill restoration. Every job presents special challenges. While working on the renovation of the Museum of Nature they uncovered the original walls, and discovered huge painted murals. The museum was in a panic, the demolitioncrewwasreadytogo,andBowkett and Kolbach barely had time to cut each mural into six pieces of 400 pounds each while suspended 15 feet above the floor. In the end they cut out the plaster wall sections, thinned them down as much as possible, and placed them on aluminum frames, bringing their weight from 2500 pounds to a few hundred, then mounted them on a steel frame. They’ve worked on New Brunswick lighthouses, Fredericton’s Robbie Burns statue, coastal defences, Mount Royal
photo Candice Vetter Ed Bowkett and Daniela Kolbach, Russell residents and professional artifact conservators, stand with an unsigned bronze sculpture made using the lost wax method, which they will be cleaning up and restoring for a client.
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