Possessing no artistic skills or training as an art restorer, I am on a mission to restore a work of art.
I would like to restore the joyful Princeton town/gown artwork that graced the interior front wall of Starbucks on Nassau Street for 18 years.
The work of art by Princeton University alumna, Abbie Bagley-Young, now Abbie Vandivere, class of 2001, was destroyed in the store’s recent renovation that involved knocking down the wall that displayed the much-loved mural.
The Starbucks renovation, by the way, is spectacular, except for the destruction of the wonderful piece of art that transformed a generic Starbucks store into a coffeehouse with a real Princeton identity. How ironic that the artist responsible for the work of art that I am trying to restore is now a world-renowned art restorer.
Abbie’s mural, placed (thanks to photo mural technology) on the wall behind the seats on the right side of the store, featured a faux windowpane in three sections. Each panel represented a different era and different seasons in Princeton history, as reflected by life on Nassau Street. The first panel was a sepia-toned street scape on an early spring day in 1900; the second panel showed Princeton University Professor Albert Einstein walking on Nassau Street in the winter of 1950; the third panel was the year 2000 in the fall, as students (including the artist Abbie and her friend Michael) were racing off to classes.
In 2000, Abbie, who had just started her senior year at Princeton University, won the opportunity to get her artwork on display at Starbucks, by actually winning a Starbucks’ marketing contest. Called “Rich in Traditions,” the contest asked for mural designs that captured the “rich flavor” of Princeton. Abbie was one of 12 entrants competing for the $1,000 prize and the honor of being part of the Princeton landscape permanently – or for what turned out to be 18 years.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have the original artwork,” said Abbie. “It was a colored chalk drawing on paper that I had to send to Seattle, Washington (Starbucks headquarters), when I won the contest. Someone at Starbucks had to scan it at high resolution to make the wall-sized ‘sticker.’ They also had to do a small bit of photo editing: sharpening up the Starbucks logo on the cup in the foreground.”
When she won, she dashed off an email to her mother and said she intended to put the $1,000 prize money towards her fund for an undoubtedly “crappy” New York City apartment. In fact, she never got to live in New York, and the money was used to help her stay right here in Princeton.
After graduating from the university, she stayed a year longer to work at the Princeton University Art Museum. She accepted an internship position at the Guggenheim in New York City (she commuted from Princeton) and then ended up in Europe, where she studied paintings conservation in England and got her Ph.D.
Now, she is a paintings conservator/restorer working in the Netherlands, where she restores Old Master paintings at the Mauritshuis museum. She recently has received international media attention (including a February, 2018 New York Times article), because of her work on the project to examine legendary painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer.
When Abbie was a freshman at Princeton University in 1997, she had plans for a profession in dentistry, and, as it turns out, her affinity for science and technology has played an important part in her success as a restorer/conservator.
“I took the pre-med courses but majored in visual arts. The art I made for my thesis was based on science: views through a microscope or x-rays. As part of an art history class we got a tour of the Princeton University Art Museum. The conservator, Norman Muller, showed us the studio and told us that art restoration is a combination of art and science. That day I called my parents and announced that I wanted to become an art conservator,” said Abbie, who was born in Wimbleton, England, but raised in Calgary, Canada.
After I did some detective work and finally connected with Abbie, she had no clue as to why I was so intent upon succeeding at my art restoration project of restoring her art. As director of the Princeton University Office of Community and State Affairs for several years, I was one of the university officials who attended the ceremony that unveiled Abbie’s artwork, which we at the university saw as an artistic bridge between town and gown.
“My work takes me to the U.S.A. pretty frequently, but unfortunately I don’t make it back to Princeton very often,” said Abbie. “If I can make it there for my 20th reunion in 2021, I will definitely visit Starbucks to see if my artwork found its home again.”
Okay, Starbucks, the countdown clock to Reunions weekend, 2021, has begun. I am happy to help restore the art mural that gave the store its rich, local flavor, a special Princeton blend – even if it involves the tough job of drinking a lot of coffee.
