Alumni Develop System For Packing Priceless Artworks

by Lisa Suhay

Kevin Gallup ’85, who was the lead sculptor of the bronze lion on Old Dominion’s Kaufman Mall, has now embarked on a business partnership with Yale University and U.S. Art, which combines computer programming and laser scanning with computer modeling to move fragile, priceless works of art.

It is a high-tech marriage of lasers and art, computer wizardry and packing foam, resulting in a solution to the costly and time-consuming process museums face when they need to transport precious pieces without incident.

Gallup, who also has taught at the university on an adjunct basis, has developed a revolutionary system to scan fragile objects and translate the resulting 3-D images into data, which are then transferred to a computerized router that cuts the perfect reverse in packing foam for quick, cost-effective, smooth moves. Helping him create the new system was another ODU alumnus, Burrus Harlow ’82, associate director of installations at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Now, thanks to a partnership with U.S. Art Co. Inc., a fine art handling company specializing in museum-quality transportation, crating, installation, storage and international customs services, and Yale, the system is about to go global.

“Until we came up with this system, museums had to wait months and spend tens of thousands of dollars for hand-carved cases to be sculpted from foam,” said Gallup, who has a patent pending for his process. “Even then, they couldn’t accurately sculpt memory foam and other art-packing foams.”

Developing this technology took both skill in computer technology and the eye of a master craftsman.

Ajay Gupta, director of computer research at ODU, has teamed with Gallup and Yale to both create the software which makes it all work and develop new uses for the technology in such fields as chiropractic medicine.

“We have been working with Yale to help Kevin make a well-defined package, enhancing it and applying it to a number of fields,” Gupta said. “As Kevin field-tests the technology, we work with him to refine the software. And as we go along, we discover more and more uses for this highly profitable technology.”

One field test involved moving a priceless Brancusi vase from the Yale Gallery to the Tate Museum in London. Patricia Sherwin Garland, the gallery conservator who oversaw the recent move of works for a traveling exhibition, said, “I was impressed by the method developed for moving our 3-D collections. We have a wide range of materials, from small sculptures, to Chinese scrolls to ancient pots. The simple shape-scanning system allowed us to protect, pack and ship literally thousands of objects within a tight schedule.”

Over the years, the Yale Gallery had developed successful manual foam-packing techniques, thanks to the work of Harlow. But the magnitude of the recent traveling exhibition exceeded this capability.

Gallup is currently working in partnership with U.S. Art to offer modeling and cutting services so that clients do not have to purchase costly equipment.