Ohio University officials say they try to compensate students for damaged goods when winter weather damages their belongings with floods and other infrastructure problems.
Some of the most recent incidents of water damage on campus include flooding or leaks in James, Adams and Shively residence halls, said Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for architecture, design and construction.
In the cases of the residence halls, facilities workers try to help clean up where they can and will even launder items such as carpets, Wyatt said.
“Most of the students, I believe … we can help compensate,” Wyatt said. “It does vary based on the situation.”
Seigfred Hall, which houses student artwork including the OU Art Gallery, hasn’t had any water damage. The building had flooding problems in 2005, though, said Margaret Kennedy-Dygas, dean of the College of Fine Arts.
The building is slated for a $30 million renovation in fiscal year 2017, according to university documents.
“We have faculty and administration in the visual arts who are highly professional, and while they’re frustrated that Seigfred Hall is not in very good condition, they’re also very aware of what needs to be done to protect the work of students,” Kennedy-Dygas said.
Facilities has to take different approaches to cleaning up water damage when it comes to old or valuable university property.
For example, antique furniture in the Claire Oates Ping Cottage, located on East Green, recently began to show signs of humidity damage, which could cause the wood to crack or warp.
Facilities then called antique experts, who recommended that workers slowly dehumidify the furniture.
“If you did it quickly, it might cause the wood to crack,” Wyatt said.
OU’s Kennedy Museum of Art has its own tactics to protect its pieces, said Jeffrey Carr, registrar and preparator for the museum.
The art is kept in a climate between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with an ideal humidity of about 50 percent, Carr said.
Carr monitors the Kennedy Museum’s “data loggers,” which collect the humidity and temperature of all ten storage spaces every day.
Once a month Carr projects the data into a graph to see what the rooms’ environments are.
“You (also) do a physical, personal check,” Carr said. “If the room feels too hot, you know there’s something going on with the heat.”
Carr said he doesn’t find damaged art frequently.
The last major incident happened about three years ago when there was a leak in an upper floor of Lin Hall, where the museum is housed.
“It was raining in the main hall of the museum,” Carr said.
Even then, the water only damaged some mattes of artwork instead of the artwork itself, Carr said.
If artwork were damaged, the university would research who owns the artwork to establish who would pay for the repairs, Carr said.
If the piece of damaged art is on loan to OU, the lending institution’s insurance company will file a claim, and the piece of artwork will be assessed for damages based on its appraisal value.
“If the object has high value for one reason or another, it will probably get sent off as soon as possible for repair,” Carr said. “But if it’s an object that doesn’t get to see the light of day much, or is not deemed valuable … it will have to take its place in line to get repaired.”
Most art pieces at OU and at other art institutions are not insured in order to prevent extraordinarily high premiums, Carr said.
Because appraisal value is an important consideration when insuring artwork, most artwork created by students in classes at OU has no insurance policy or value in case of damage, Kennedy-Dygas said.
“The problem that you have with artwork is if you have students who are developing their abilities, then what is the value of the work they’re creating,” Kennedy-Dygas said.
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This article originally appeared in print under the headline "OU saving art that is under the weather"
