Rub-a-dub-dub

Spring cleaning time! Meet conservator Helen Ingalls. A conservator is specially trained to care for the objects in a museum's collection.

Once a year Helen washes the museum's outdoor sculptures with some soapy water. One thing Helen likes about her job is getting to know every nook and cranny of a sculpture. "It's like getting to look over the sculptor's shoulder," she says. She looks forward to working on Luis Jiménez's Vaquero each spring because it's a welcome change to work outside and to watch the people passing by. "But, I'm always surprised by how dirty the sculpture gets between washings," she notes. After she washes off the dirt from car exhaust, pollution, and passing birds, Helen will give the sculpture a protective coat of wax, just like you wax a car.

Visit SOS4KIDS to learn more about outdoor sculpture. Save Outdoor Sculpture! is sponsored by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Heritage Preservation in cooperation with interested citizens from communities all across the United States.

Pictured top: Helen Ingalls, Objects Conservator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, cleaning the museum's sculpture, Vaquero by Luis Jiménez, with the assistance of Tom Irion, Conservation Specialist.

Pictured bottom: Helen Ingalls, Objects Conservator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, cleaning the museum's sculpture, Vaquero by Luis Jiménez.