Uplifting Community and Incorporating Reuse in Conservation Planning for the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2023 the Noah Purifoy Foundation received a Mellon Foundation Grant to develop, with conservators, an innovative and thoughtful conservation plan for the over 100 sculptures at the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Sculpture. Located in the high desert of Joshua Tree, California, USA, it encompasses four hectares of rural art space where Purifoy lived and worked from 1989 until his death in 2004. Although Purifoy was a trained artist, his works also draw from his time as a US Navy Seabee and the tradition of Black self-taught artists from the American South. His artworks were never complete, but alive, and in an ongoing conversation among him, nature, and material. Amidst the physical challenges of addressing found material assemblage in a challenging landscape, the project also requires bringing stakeholders and knowledge bearers into conversation to determine an appropriate ‘patina’ of weathering for the works. To achieve this, the project involves identifying Purifoy's definition of community, reuse, and interaction with the natural landscape into the conservation plan. The project also included drone mapping as a documentation tool alongside condition surveys and photographic documentation. Being led by a group of racially diverse conservators who are centering community involvement in the work helps the team mimic Purifoy’s own commitment to community engagement. This project has the potential to act as a model for the development of conservation plans for other sites of contemporary sculpture, especially those in remote locations or those focused on African American artists.