Erin Fitterer

Ever wondered how we keep the outdoor art at Olympic Sculpture Park looking beautiful? It’s all thanks to the hard work and expertise of SAM’s talented conservation team members.

Among them is Erin Fitterer, Assistant Objects Conservator at the Olympic Sculpture Park. She is the newest member of SAM’s conservation team, joining us from a prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the National Gallery of Art.

A graduate of Seattle University, Fitterer left the Pacific Northwest for the East Coast to pursue studies in art history and criticism and conservation at New York University and Rutgers University. Her experience includes internships at the Hirshhorn Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum.

Fitterer returned to Seattle earlier this year to care for the Olympic Sculpture Park’s 22 monumental sculptures by modern artists. On September 18, Fitterer kicks off this season of Up Close with Conservators, our member-exclusive lecture series, to discuss the process of preserving and presenting the outdoor art at the Olympic Sculpture Park.

Ahead of her talk, we chatted with Fitterer about the maintenance behind the magic, as well as her experience at SAM so far.

What is one of the major challenges of outdoor art conservation at the Olympic Sculpture Park?
One of the consistent challenges of working with outdoor sculpture is simply their scale. When working on objects in the museum, you are able to pick them up and maneuver them to help facilitate treatment. When working on outdoor sculpture, their scale is such that not only can they never be moved, but they generally require equipment such as ladders and lifts to be able to reach all of the areas to assess and treat them.

Prior to accepting this job, you were working on the East Coast. How does the Northwest environment impact the conservation process?
The environment here offers a lot of interesting challenges. While conservators are always keeping an eye out for corrosion on our metal surfaces, it’s especially important here to monitor for changes as this is the kind of the environment that really encourages metals to corrode. 

Do you have a favorite sculpture at the park? Is it one of the easier—or harder—pieces to take care of?
My favorite sculpture is often the one that I am working on at the moment. Treating sculptures allows us to look closely at their surfaces and really appreciate the details and care each artist took when creating their works. However, overall, I’d have to say my favorite are the three sets of eye benches by the artist Louise Bourgeois. I have always liked working on stone, ever since I worked on archeological material as a preprogram conservator. I particularly like the contrast between the highly polished surfaces with the surfaces she allowed to remain matte.

As the newest member of SAM’s conservation team, what are you most looking forward to in your role as assistant objects conservator?
I am excited to be working at SAM and am especially looking forward to learning from the more experienced conservators in SAM’s conservation department. While I had experience as a student and fellow working on outdoor sculpture, in this position, I am now able to learn more about their long-term care and major treatments such as repainting projects from SAM’s experienced conservation team. 

Image credit: Chloe Collyer