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In this state: schutz, the curator extraordinaire behind the"people's house" by ferujkll sdff
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In this state: schutz, the curator extraordinaire behind the"people's house" by FERUJKLL SDFF
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| Article Posted: 09/06/2012 |
| Article Views: 63 |
| Articles Written: 2023 - MORE ARTICLES FROM THIS AUTHOR |
| Word Count: 1218 |
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In this state: schutz, the curator extraordinaire behind the"people's house" |
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Editor's note: In This State is a new weekly column by AndrewNemethy, Bryan Pfeiffer and Dirk Van Susteren about Vermont'scharacters and innovators, its unique ideas and quirky places. Thethree authors, who will take turns writing the column, formerlyworked as reporters and editors for the The Times Argus and RutlandHerald and have contributed to other publications in Vermont andaround the country. MONTPELIER On the second floor of the Statehouse, Curator DavidSch tz is doing a slow, awkward waltz with Gen. William WallaceGrout.
Grout looks on with a serious countenance befitting a Civil Wargeneral and Vermont congressman whose formal and capacious portraitwas painted more than a century ago. His arms outstretched to holdthe big ornate frame, Sch tz has taken Grout off the wall becausehe s unhappy with the surrounding paint and has asked for sometouch up work in the frantic week before the Legislaturereconvenes. Not many people can walk into Vermont s 1859 capitol and just pullthings off the wall, but as curator, Sch tz (pronounced sheets ) has spent more than three decades researching,restoring and rearranging the Statehouse. He s the maestro, andalso the minister of minutiae, a chief picture hanger, colorcoordinator and drape decider.
One minute he s relating the visionof architect Thomas Silloway or an enthusiastic history about yeolde men s room in the basement and its magnificent marble androw of urinals, the next pondering escutcheons and bullnoses, voluptuous drapery and wall colors whose paint names historic morning dew, clementine he has amazingly allcommitted to memory. It may be the People s House, a name Sch tz thinks is amisnomer considering Silloway s elegant intent, but its authentic19th century decor is all Sch tz. I m very lucky. I ve always from my early years been aninteriors person, he explains.
After 32 years, his interior knowledge of the Statehouse isencyclopedic, visionary and no less passionate than it was when hecame to Vermont as an art history major with a masters injournalism, hired to assist Braintree art historian Daniel Robbinswith Statehouse research. This spring, Sch tz hopes all the intimate knowledge and all thetales and history he has absorbed and recorded will be available ina lavishly illustrated coffee-table book titled, IntimateGrandeur. The book will showcase the transformation two decadesof restoration have achieved, an effort that has returned thebuilding to its intended statement of splendor, as he puts it. In no small part, that showcase is due to Sch tz s near-maniacalpassion for his job, one that he landed almost accidentally.
Schutz, an Ohio native, visited Vermont often at a young age. Hisfather, a college professor, had ties to a family summer home inDorset. After graduating with an art history major from Ohio Stateand obtaining a journalism degree from DePauw University inIndiana, he expected to end up in Boston or another major city inmuseum work, but on a lark applied for and won a job as researchassistant to Robbins. He eventually helped Robbins author hisscholarly 1980 book on the Statehouse, which along with Mary GreenNye s 1936 guide, are the only books about the structure.
More importantly, Robbins report for the Vermont Arts Council onthe Statehouse advocated creation of a curator s position andformation of a Statehouse advocacy group, both of which becamereality. Sch tz was appointed curator, and Vermont Council on theArts founding executive director Art Williams of Fayston becamehead of the Friends of the Vermont State House. That created anincredibly fruitful partnership: The Friends, a nonprofit citizensadvocacy and preservation group, raised more than $1 million torestore the capitol, and Sch tz worked tirelessly to turn thebuilding into a museum-quality workplace. The best statehouses speak intimately to the states they serve, he says. Many state chambers have been turned solely into museumsor modernized and lost their character.
Vermont, he says, isdifferent. Ours is both a museum environment that looks just as it did 150years ago, and yet is still very much in active use, he says. Sch tz says he s incredibly pleased at how the book hasturned out and credits much of that to his collaborators. Hisco-author is Montpelier s Nancy Price Graff, who has taken hisprose and dug even deeper into Statehouse history and lore,spending the research time he didn t have (as curator his job alsoincludes monitoring no less than 235 historic state structures.) It s been wonderful from my point of view because there is noway on earth I could have done this book without her, he says. The photographer is Jeb Wallace-Brodeur, also of Vermont, whosephotographs have long graced the pages of Vermont Life, theBarre-Montpelier Times Argus and many publications around theUnited States.
The book, appropriately enough, is being publishedby the Friends of the Vermont State House. Sch tz hopes Intimate Grandeur will give Vermonters anaccessible read on Statehouse history and convey the sense thatthis building was as grand a building as Vermont was capable ofcreating in the 19th century. Sch tz has spent much of his time as curator undoing years ofmodernization that ate away, and very unconsciously eroded thebuilding s character. Over the years, lamps, original skylightsand windows, drapes and innumerable other items were replacedwithout historic context as they wore out. Little by little theStatehouse began losing its historic character, he says.
He notes most of Vermont s iconic buildings are humble structuressuch as barns and general stores. But the Statehouse was designedto reflect a grand vision of democracy, and that s what therestoration and book are both about. It has not always been easy implementing that vision. He has goneto the mat make that carpet for authenticity on rugs, wallsconces, tin roofing and paints, while allowing the necessarychanges to bring the Statehouse into the 21st century, from runningextensive wiring for broadband to energy conservation and addingmodern-day storage, not to mention a modern-day addition to theback of the Statehouse.
He loves to recount his most gleeful accomplishment: the removal ofthe ubiquitous brown upholstery that had spread across chairs andcouches throughout the building. Knowing his visceral aversion,Vermont craftsman and conservator Jonathan Schechtman saved thelast piece of upholstery removed and stitched a souvenir walletfrom it for Sch tz. It s one of my favorite things, he says with a smile. Italmost made me wistful for the loss of all that brown Naugahyde. When he s about to pull his hair out, of which there s not asmuch as there once was, he instead pulls out his ever-present senseof humor, whose generous application has helped ease many aconflict or crisis.
I want the walls looking nice and smooth, within reason. Yourbest work, he says with a wry smile directed toward longtimeStatehouse painter Marc Marineau, who professes mock offense. OK, not your best work, Sch tz says with a laugh as he thenwanders off to address another pressing detail, one of the endlessstring of decisions he makes, year in and year out, that have cometo define the character of the Statehouse. I m an advocate and I have advocacy in my very being, Sch tzsays.
That s one of the reasons I m still in this job, why I mstill going 32 years later. I am Chemicals writer, reports some information about chemistry of pyrotechnics , costume jewelry wholesaler.
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