George Mason Plaster Cast Collection

Abstract

Under the direction of Carol Mattusch (Department of History and Art history, emerita), seventy plaster casts which had been loaned, donated, or—in few cases—purchased for George Mason University from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York were restored and placed on display across the Fairfax Campus in the years between 2005 and 2010. The Metropolitan casts had been collected by that institution during the late 19th and early 20th century, but by the 1930s, the display of casts was no longer a priority for major art museums in America and Europe. After languishing in storage for decades, the Metropolitan began a process of distributing these pieces, which included examples from throughout the history of art. GMU’s seventy pieces represent works from the Classical (Greek and Roman) Mediterranean periods through the early 20th century and feature examples from non-Western contexts as well as the Western tradition.

After being cleaned and conserved through the efforts of student and faculty volunteers, the casts were placed on display across Mason’s Fairfax campus. A substantial number were exhibited in Robinson Hall B, home of the Department of History and Art History. With the construction of Horizon Hall to replace that building, the plaster casts needed to be re-homed. In the spring of 2020, Christopher Gregg (Department of History and Art History) led a curatorial seminar of graduate and undergraduate students that re-evaluated the Robinson casts. Research confirmed and expanded information on these pieces; new labels were written in English and Spanish; the initial stages of a JSTOR catalogue database were undertaken; and a display plan to re-install the casts in Horizon Hall was designed by the students of the seminar. In addition, a book of essays, Engines of Education: Essays on the GMU Plaster Cast Collection, was produced. New photographs and measurements were also made by the Office of the University Curator. Due to logistical issues, the re-installation of the casts was delayed. The casts, however, are expected to take their place in Horizon Hall in the spring of 2025, following the arrangement proposed by the students in the seminar and with the labels produced in the class. The remainder of the collection continues to be displayed in various buildings on the Fairfax campus.