Columbus Museum of Art

Project Background

The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is a mid-sized art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio, with deep holdings in European and American modern and contemporary art. Their busy curatorial team, led by Nicole Rome, organizes several temporary thematic and monographic exhibitions and installations of their permanent collections annually. In line with the CMA’s mission to “create great experiences with great art for everyone,” the museum hosts exhibitions of both internationally renowned and regional artists.

As a mid-size museum, we unfortunately do not have the resources to have a full-time publications department and we are always looking for key collaborators that can help us realize our ambitious publication goals. Our experiences with Flatpage have always been exceptional.

Nicole Rome, Curator, CMA

As part of their special exhibition Quilting a Future: Contemporary Quilts and American Tradition, the museum published a 238-page catalogue honoringthe Donna and Rodney Wasserstrom Quilt Collection, which was gifted to the CMA in 2015. The team at Flatpage assisted in the final stages of the publication process by generating a comprehensive index for the catalogue and proofreading the final page proofs for any remaining typographical or layout errors.

The Collaboration

CMA has collaborated with Flatpage on a number of different projects, prior to this catalogue the Rodney and Donna Wasserstrom Quilt Collection in 2023. The text for this catalogue had already been copyedited, designed, and typeset, and was in its final stages by the time they approached us for this project.

Through our various partnerships with Flatpage, I have come to trust and depend on their expertise and professionalism. They are always very efficient and communicative. As an institution that strives for excellence in our publications and exhibitions, I know I can depend on Flatpage to meet our high standards.

Proofreading and indexing usually take place concurrently, since they are both performed on the publisher’s page proofs—designed and typeset PDFs of the book’s final layout that will eventually be sent to a printer. However, this project took place in two stages: the index was prepared on the final Microsoft Word document of the text and the proofread was completed several months later on the final proofs.

During the indexing process, Flatpage’s indexer read the manuscript and prepared an alphabetical list of the significant terms, people, places, and themes contained in the book. They also prepared a memo describing their methodology in detail and listing the errata found among the book’s contents.

The proofreader completed their work in a few days on approximately 18,000 words of text, marking up the PDF page proof with final corrections so that the text was error-free and the layout consistent.

The Outcome

The CMA published In the Eye of the Beholder: The Donna and Rodney Wasserstrom Quilt Collection by Joseph Sarah and Ellice Ronsheim, edited by Christopher S. Duckworth, alongside the exhibition’s opening in October 2023. Flatpage has since collaborated with CMA on several other editorial projects.

I would tell colleagues in the field that the team at Flatpage is great to work with from start to finish. They are professional, efficient and committed to the success of their clients and partners.