The Totem Pole Is Up and Ready For You To Visit!!!

It's official, the Totem Pole is up and ready for the public to see.  Yesterday was the first official day that the public could visit the Chief's Crest Pole in its new location at the Benaki museum.

The day started with a visit from a delegation from Simon Fraser University, representatives from the Benaki museum, as well representatives from the Canadian Embassy.  All of these people, as well as a few that couldn't make it, worked hard to arrange, and fund this entire project.  It was nice that they could come and see the fruits of their labor.

After a few words everybody got a close up look at the Totem Pole.

Make sure to stop by the Benaki museum (at 138 Pireos Street) yourself and visit the Chief's Crest Pole.

The Move Downstairs at The Benaki Museum

A new base has been designed for the Totem Pole, and the paint/consolidation work is all dry.  This means that the Totem Pole is ready to be moved to the ground floor of the Benaki museum for display, standing upright, as it was meant to be seen.  Once again our expert team of movers wraps up the Chiefs Crest Pole preparing it for the move.

As with moving it upstairs, everything is done slowly and carefully.

Once in the area when it will be displayed, the Totem Pole is carefully positioned and lifted to its resting place.  This was the moment that everybody was nervous and where the movers worked extra carefully.

But everything went off without a hitch, and after a few adjustments to be sure that the Totem Pole was placed in the best possible spot, the protective wrapper was removed.

Now the Chief's Crest Pole awaits its grand showing, this Thursday when the Benaki museum open's its doors.  If you'd like to come visit the Totem Pole, this Thursday, or any day, it will remain on display for a while.  You can click here for more information about the museum and its hours.

Consolidation, Visitors, and a Whales Head

While it looks like Andrew is simply painting the Totem Pole in this photos, there's a lot more going on.  Andrew is using something called a consolidant to repair the old paint as well.  The product does have pigment mixed in, but it's much more than that.  Consolidant protects the original paint on the Totem Pole by helping it bond to the wood and adding a layer of protection on top.  This technique allows the spaces where the paint is too damaged and had to be removed to be filled in with colour, as well as protects the original paint that remains.

If you haven't had time to visit Andrew at the Benaki museum, you might want to make arrangements soon.  He's only here till the end of the month (Here's some more information about visiting the Totem Pole).  Already hundreds of people have stopped by to say hello to Andrew and the Chief's Crest Pole.  Hopefully a few people have left with a better understanding of Canadian culture and history as well.

Some people have commented that the base of the Totem Pole seems like it's in really rough shape.  As you can see, Andrew has been doing some serious work here.  It's probably the most challenging part of the repair, with a great deal of detail missing on this side.

Fortunately the other side of the Totem Pole seems to be in better condition, and this gives Andrew many clues as to how the other side should look.  Andrew has even sketched the details from this side of the Totem Pole to help him work out how to fix the other side.

This Saturday (October 27th) the Benaki museum is putting on an educational program all about the Totem Pole:


Totem: a gift of friendship
Two unique visitors from the other side of the world are eager to reveal their secrets!
How will you reciprocate this gift?

If you want to be a part of this wonderful program click here.

The Detailed Work Pays Off

At this point signs of how the Chief's Crest Pole is going to look is starting to become apparent.  The details that may have been lost or obscured are coming back to life in vivid colour.

Andrew is continuing to slowly and meticulously fill in the cracks with his collection of wood pieces sent to Greece from Canada.  After the pieces are securely filling the cracks, Andrew is ever so carefully carving them to match the contours of the Pole.  As more and more of this work gets done, the details of the Pole come out.

At the same time, Andrew has started to repair the paint.  He is both covering the areas where the cracks had once been, and also covering areas where the paint has chipped away completely.  The Pole is truly coming to life a little bit every day with these fixes.

Andrew has also started to fill in the areas near the base.  This, along with the top of the Pole, are the most damaged parts and require a great deal of filler and careful reconstruction.  Wherever possible Andrew is using wood to fill in the gaps, but later this week he plans to use some epoxy to fill in more of the holes that are too difficult to fill with pieces of wood.  Fortunately the Chief's Crest Pole, appears to be very solid and strong int he middle and these large outer repairs might be our biggest challenge.

The Start Of The Restoration

Now that the Chief's Crest Pole is safely in it's studio, Andrew Todd has started to work on restoring this piece of Canadian culture back to it's former glory.  The work is very detail oriented and time consuming, but it's coming along very well.

This first step is to clean and remove any debris and paint that is just too damaged to repair.  In most cases this damaged material is from past restoration work that had been done many years ago.

Along with a vacuum  and several brushes, Andrew's main tool of choice is a simple wooden stick.  He uses this stick to remove debris that is loose.  Wooden tools to not scratch or damage the original wood of the Totem Pole, and are very gentle on the paint as well.

While some of the loose debris is simply thrown out, some is to valuable to simply be disposed.  In these cases Andrew must re-attach these pieces using wood glues.

Andrew is also not simple eliminating all of the past restoration work.  For example, many of the cracks have been filled with these small slivers of wood.  These are likely from a past restoration, and where ever possible Andrew is leaving these.

This is a time for Andrew to explore the Chief's Crest Pole, and find out what kind of condition it is truly in.  So far he's optimistic, and let's hope it stays that way.

Remember, if you want to see Andrew Todd at work, you can visit the Benaki Museum at 138 Pireos street, Thursday to Sunday's.  You can see more photos from his work on our Facebook page, and you can also see Andrew Todd's lecture at the Canadian Institute in Greece on October 17th.

A Quick Video of Last Week's Move

Last week's move from the basement to the 3rd floor of the Benaki Museum was a slow and meticulous maneuver.  The move itself took more than 3 hours, but you can watch all of the highlights from the move in less than a minute and half.

The Move Upstairs

When planning this restoration project, the goal was to make as much of the process available for everyone to see.  Today the Chief's Crest Pole was moved to the 3rd floor of the Benaki museum from the basement. It was kept in the basement because of the need to get rid of the ant infestation before keeping it around other artwork, but the ants are gone now.  In the 3rd floor of the Benaki museum anybody in Athens can come and see Andrew Todd work on the restoring this wonderful piece of art.  But getting it from the basement was no easy task.

The first step in moving it upstairs was to make sure it was well protected.

Since the Chief's Crest Pole was much too long to fit even the biggest elevator at the museum, the Pole had to be taken out the garage door.

The Pole had to be moved outside, and rolled down the street into the main entrance of the museum.  I think the neighbors were very puzzled with this strange object blocking traffic.

Getting it into the main part of the museum was the first step, the next step was to move it onto the 3rd floor, with no elevator big enough.  Fortunately the Benaki museum has ramps all the way up to the 3rd floor.

Unfortunately the ramps take very steep turns and the Chief's Crest Pole is a little to tall for the landings.

With a great deal of ingenuity and a lot of brute strength the pole arrived into Andrew Todd's studio at the museum.

A quick hoist up on the work benches.

And the Cheif's Crest Pole was unwrapped and ready for the restoration work to begin.  We'll keep you posted on the hours you can come to the Benaki Museum to watch Andrew Todd work his magic.  We'll also be announcing several lectures by Andrew as well.

The First Cleaning, Spay, and Inspection

Today was the first day of restoration on the Chief's Crest Pole.  After spending a month in storage the Chief's Crest Pole was carefully unwrapped.

Andrew Todd, a Canadian restoration expert from British Columbia, has come to Athens to repair the Chief's Crest Pole.  The first step is to carefully inspect and clean the Pole to asses what kind of damage there is, and to make sure any dust and dirt is removed.

Every single nook and cranny has to be meticulously cleaned out.  This is important because if the Chief's Crest Pole has dirt in the cracks it will make it harder for the ant spray to go deep into the center where the ants are hiding.

When Andrew Todd was happy with the cleaning, he started to spray. The spay is a product known as Tim-Bor, and it has "been researched and approved by many conservation science labs, and continues to be used effectively in the museum world for wooden objects especially."  It is apparently only dangerous for wood boring insects.  As soon as the spray was applied, the ants started to scatter.  The hope is that the ants will be gone and by Wednesday the Chief's Crest Pole will be moved to the final work space.

The Benaki Museum Space

After many years, the Totem Pole has been moved to the Benaki museum.  This museum houses some of the great works of art by fine artists all over the world.  The experts that take care of this museum are familiar with many different forms of restoration, so the Totem Pole is in good hands.

While the Totem Pole is being fumigated for ants, there is a space waiting for its arrival.  The plan is to have the Totem Pole on display as it's being restored.  This open space will allow the public to watch the restoration in person, as well as allow school children to interact and learn more about this Canadian art form.  If you come and visit, you'll be able to talk with Andrew Todd, the Totem Pole restoration expert that will be coming from Canada to do this work.  The Benaki museum is also planning several interactive lectures with Mr Todd.

Now this space is empty, but soon it will be a place to watch a piece of Canadian heritage being restored.

Moving From The Official Residence To The Benaki Museum

The big day has arrived, the Totem Pole is making it's way from it's current home at the official residence of the Ambassador from Canada, to the Benaki Museum where it will be restored in front of a public audience. The tensions were a little bit high this morning, because we wanted everything to go perfectly.

The movers arrived and assessed the situation, the first priority was to make sure the pole was in no danger of being damaged, so a layer of padding was added.  This layer was added to make sure that all of the hands needed to move this very large and very heavy piece of art would not scuff or scratch the delicate surface.

As soon as it was wrapped up tight, the nerve wracking moment started.  Slowly the Pole was lowered to the ground where it could be wrapped with even more padding, and eventually moved to a crate waiting near the moving truck.  The piece could not be crated on site because the crate was too large to move onto the property.

The move across the property was smooth, slow and calculated.

Fortunately the Totem Pole made it safely where it was gentle placed in its crate ready for the ride to the Benaki Museum.

The ride to the Benaki museum went very smoothly and the Totem seems to be in fine condition in the crate, however a new problem has arisen...

It appears that the Totem Pole has become the home for a colony of ants.  With the infestation the Totem Pole cannot  be brought into the final room at the Benaki Museum where the repairs are to be done.  Instead the Totem Pole will have to be stored in a storage room for a little while and fumigated to get rid of the ants.

This delay should not affect the repairs and restoration of the Totem Pole since they where not scheduled to start until early October.  We'll post more details about the fumigation as it happens.


 Here's a bonus YouTube video showing a time-lapse of the Totem Pole takedown.

If you want to see more pictures from the move, like the Totem Pole In Attica Facebook page.