In the twentieth century, the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings were subject to a sequential process of documentation as part of their designation as a National Park for public education and display. These processes were part of a broader project known as “stabilization,” which involved both physical repairs—such as waterproofing and reinforcing the effects of erosion—and managing how the site was presented and imaged. The use of certain products—such as Stabinol waterproofing, Stabilene drafting films, and Plasticine putty—reflects how preservation sought to suspend the site in a stable and photogenic state, and equally capture, via measured drawings, a replicable source of information.

In this seminar, Sarah Hearne will explore the politics of preservation documentation and record making. This presentation is part of Hearne’s larger research project on the supplies and materials used by architects in the pre-digital period, that crossed from the office drawing board to the building site and at times into the photographic studio, and that reveal unexpected narratives surrounding authorship, the temporality and phasing of architecture, and the organization of work. This seminar will weave these concerns through objects from the CCA Collection and activate narratives of architectural production.

This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited, so registration is required. Admission to the museum is included with your registration.

Sarah Hearne is an architectural historian, educator, and curator. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver, where she is developing exhibition programming for the College of Architecture and Planning. Her research focuses on a material history of drawing practices, “supplies” and reprographics, their circulation and storage, and the invisible ways they are shaped and ordered. She was the Curator of Print Ready Drawings (MAK Center for Art and Architecture, 2023), Associate Curator of the exhibition Architecture Itself and Other Myths of Postmodernism (Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2018), and Associate Curator of the Chicago Architecture Biennial with Johnston Marklee (2017). While at the CCA, she will explore the politics of preservation documentation and record making shaped by her recent collaborative project Beyond Provenance led with Erin Besler in a symposia series (2024) and a forthcoming publication (JOVIS Verlag, to be published in 2026).