Student Interns Nicole Saint and Stefani Schulte, who are rising seniors in the SAAH pre-art-conservation program, worked on the John Thompson mural restoration project over the summer.
An area of the mural previously covered by paint is revealed at the April forum.
Unknown to most people, the 350-sq. ft. proscenium that frames the DU’s Little Theatre at Margery Reed Hall, boasts a unique mural that has long been covered by layer on layer of black paint and construction materials. Created by the Colorado Modernist painter John Edward Thompson in 1929, the vandalized mural features a number of scenes from Shakespeare, and includes the figures of Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and the three crones from Macbeth, as well as a portrait of the great bard himself. The mural was painted over in 1931 and then largely forgotten. Over the years it’s foundation has been badly damaged by set construction and various renovations, but through the efforts of DU’s Victoria H. Myhren Gallery and the Daniels School of Business, it is now the subject of a two-year project of cleaning, stabilization, and restoration.
On April 6, 2008, pre-conservation students Nicole Saint and Stefani Schulte, DU Art Collections curator Dan Jacobs, and others spoke at a public forum in the theater and displayed the conservators’ progress over the past six months. More than 60 per cent of the cleaning phase is now complete, and major damage to the surface has been repaired.
DU ART COLLECTIONS 