Three Chiefs Culture Center welcomes back restored paintings
This painting of Kootenai Chief Koostata was one of the larger pieces that fell from the upper walls of the rotunda during the 2020 fire at the People's Center in Pablo. Art restoration specialist Joe Abbrescia said it was an honor to be able to restore this and several other pieces for the Tribes. (Carolyn Hidy/Lake County Leader)
After nine months of painstaking, detailed repairs, several paintings that were damaged in the devastating People’s Center fire of September 2020 have returned.
Professional art conservator Joe Abbrescia Jr. of Kalispell delivered nine paintings to the Three Chiefs Culture Center on Thursday. He said damage included smoke, heat, water, tears and cracked frames due to some having fallen from the rotunda walls during the fire.
The first order of business was to air the paintings out well to reduce the smoke smell, Abbrescia said, a process that took at least four months. He then carefully cleaned each square inch and repaired, touched up paint, and stabilized rips. Often when he removed the frames, there was some original, unmarred paint under the edges that could be tested to see if it was cleanable before tackling the main picture. New frames were constructed to match the rest of the collection by a custom framer in Kalispell.
“Fire restorations are often some of the most challenging,” Abbrescia said. “If the paintings get too much heat, it can actually burn the paint layer, or the soot gets baked into the paint. There’s no cleaning that; it's done.”
At least one of the nine pieces he took in, a portrait of Salish elder and master beadworker Agnes Kenmille, could not be salvaged. Still, Agnes’ smoky portrait will be hung with special care — part of the story of the collection indelibly told across her kindly visage.
Marie Torosian began at The People’s Center in 2003. She now directs the Three Chiefs center, established at Allard’s Station on Highway 93 at St. Ignatius as an interim site until a new facility is created. Torosian said many paintings had been stored in metal cases in a repository at the People’s Center and were not as damaged as those that fell from the walls.
Insurance is covering the expenses of restoration, but the emotion of the loss from the fire still affects her.
“This brings back joy,” Torosian said.
She said the paintings had greeted her and her crew every day as they came to work at the People’s Center.
“Joe’s work bringing them back to life, it makes us happy. We’re glad to see them come home again, let them be seen by everybody and shared by their families. We’re still here telling our story.”
“These should be good for years and years and years to come, to be enjoyed by generations into the future,” Abbrescia said as he described the ways the paintings had been stabilized and protected.
Torosian said she expects a shipment of restored beaded artifacts to arrive next month.