Staff Highlight: José L. Ribas ’76, Preparator

With his retirement at the month’s end, we celebrate the remarkable 44-year career of José L. Ribas ’76 as the Museum’s Preparator. His career at Bowdoin has spanned six College presidents, seven museum directors, and over 800 exhibitions. In the following conversation, Amanda Skinner, who started at the Museum as an art handler working with José, discusses with him his nearly five decades of service to the Museum. 

The following transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Amanda Skinner (AS): How did you begin working at the BCMA?

José Ribas (JR): I began as a student at Bowdoin College in 1972, and art history was my major. I loved art museums and had grown up in the Bronx going to them with my mom; sometimes she’d even take me out of school to go! I spent a lot of time at places like the Guggenheim, the Frick, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the second semester of my freshman year at Bowdoin, I walked into the BCMA for the first time. Somebody asked me if I would be interested in working at the Museum, so I applied for a job as a student intern. At the time, the Museum was a lot smaller; there were cases for the Greek and Roman objects and a small viewing space to see prints and drawings.

I first started working with David Becker ’70, who had recently graduated from Bowdoin. He served as assistant curator, acting curator, and registrar at the Museum within the first five years after his graduation. Working with David, my first job was to add acid free tissue paper to all the prints and drawings. At that time, art conservation was an up-and-coming field. People were just starting to learn about methods for storing and handling art, and I was learning along with them. Up until that point, the way artwork was stored and handled at the BCMA was not up to the modern standards that are now established as best practices. However, David was aware of this issue, and we worked together to address the needs of the collection. I also began working with Merle Pottle, who was the housekeeper for the BCMA and hung all the artwork in the larger galleries. I helped Merle with all the matting and framing of artworks.

When I graduated in 1976, I initially stayed on at the BCMA as the Ford Mellon Fellow. During that fellowship, I was able to attend many conferences which further expanded my knowledge of art handling. After the fellowship, I left the BCMA to travel, and I also lived in Santa Barbara for a time.

AS: How did you make your way back to the BCMA after leaving Maine?

JR: During those three years away, I knew I wanted to get back to Maine. Santa Barbara was beautiful, but my soul wanted to be here. When I was a little kid, probably about ten years old, I saw Charles Kuralt on Good Morning America do a segment on Maine and lobstering. It was from that moment on that I became fascinated with Maine, so it’s weird that that’s where I ended up! While living in Santa Barbara, I wrote to Lynn Yanok, who was the assistant to BCMA director Katharine Watson, asking if there was anything available to be able to come back. The position of Preparator was available at the time, so I was able to move back to Maine and began working again at the BCMA in 1981.

AS: Has there been a particular highlight of your career?

JR: That’s a hard question! The highlight has really been the opportunity to work on over 800 exhibitions. In working on each of those exhibitions, I got to meet so many different people: artists, outside curators, students, BCMA staff members, and numerous other interesting and creative people. Each show is a new and unique challenge. One of the things I love about putting together exhibitions is that it’s a juggling act to figure out timing and sequencing and to anticipate the specific needs of each one. Installing exhibitions requires great attention to detail, as well as flexibility and creativity.

One of the shows that particularly stands out was The Potatoes Act Out a Paradigm Shift, on view at the BCMA in the summer of 1985. Created collaboratively by artists Sheila Zelermyer and Gerard W. Rinaldi, the installation included one ton of Maine potatoes (approximately 3,000 potatoes), which were supplied by the Maine Potato Commission. The artwork was selected by guest curator Robert Katz while John Coffey was the BCMA’s curator (1980-88). As you can imagine, working with such a large quantity of potatos presented some very specific logistical challenges, which made it particularly memorable!

The Potatoes Act Out a Paradigm Shift was part of the Maine Festival, an arts fair held in Brunswick (and later in Portland). I really enjoyed doing the Maine Festival shows back in the 70s and 80s and loved working with the local artists that were involved.

The other exhibition that stands out is Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert, which was on view in 2011. All the loans came from overseas from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and it was logistically a very complicated show to put together.

AS: Do you have any advice for someone who might be interested in becoming a preparator or art handler?

JR: If you are interested in this type of work, my suggestion would be to reach out to the people who are either doing art handling themselves or who are directing museums and galleries and ask them if there’s a job available. Working in galleries would be a good step to learn and build skills that could translate to a museum setting. A lot of these skills are self-taught and come only through experience. There are, of course, best practices in this field, but most of that knowledge comes with time and experience. You need to learn the nuts and bolts of things, quite literally. Also, it has been invaluable to have built relationships and networks of people in this field. Being able to refer to them with questions has helped me to keep up with professional standards and best practices.

AS: How does the work of the Preparator’s department at the BCMA support the its mission and that of Bowdoin College at large?

JR: Being a student intern at the BCMA back in the 1970s was a formative experience for me, and points to the Museum and College’s shared educational mission. I know it’s also been formative for students who have worked with me; many have gone on to continue to work in the arts. Students who have gone on to be curators and directors began working with me doing things like painting walls and matting and framing.

The work I do as Preparator, especially in building exhibitions, also brings to life the ideas and research of curators and scholars, which is also of course an educational vision.

AS: After 44 years, what will you do next?

JR: My plan is to travel a bit, fix my house, read, and spend time with my granddaughters.

AS: What about golfing?

JR: Oh, and definitely golfing!

Amanda Skinner
Assistant Director of Museum Communications