The spirit of dance is a difficult thing to capture on film, but photographer Rose Eichenbaum has successfully undertaken that challenge in The Dancer Within, a new traveling exhibit produced by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). The exhibition’s first stop will be at the Ypsilanti District Library in Ypsilanti, Michigan, beginning in April 2008. The show will finish traveling throughout the U.S. in April 2010.
OEC Graphic Specialist Nancy Post is matting and framing forty-eight of Eichenbaum’s photos for inclusion in the exhibit. Framing of each photograph requires two pieces of mat board: a back mat onto which the photo is mounted; and a top mat which has a “window” cut into it that is the same size as the image. Once the two sheets of mat board are attached to one another at the top with linen tape, the photo is mounted on the back mat so that it is visible through the top mat’s “window.” Post then puts plexiglass on top of the mat package to protect the photograph, and corroplast on the back, before placing the matted image into the frame. The result is a secure and well-protected environment in which the photograph can safely be displayed.
Once all of the photos have been matted and framed, they will be carefully labeled, placed in ethafoam trays, and packed into wood crates for their tour.
photo: Post secures a photograph in its frame.