The art handlers - Museums Association

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The art handlers

Behind every exhibition are the people responsible for making it happen. John Holt talks to some of the unsung heroes of the art world
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Behind the scenes at most museums, teams of technicians ensure that the making of exhibitions runs like clockwork, with every artwork safely and securely in place by the time the show opens. But with their work largely happening out of the public eye, art handlers remain the sector’s unsung heroes.

There’s certainly more to the job than hanging pictures; practitioners are just as likely to find themselves accompanying objects on long-distance journeys, reinforcing the floors of ancient institutions or devising their own heavy-lifting gear when they find that the tools of their trade aren’t up to a particular job.

Here, they talk about why their work requires an eye for detail, the ability to think on their feet and a safe pair of hands.

Guy Morey, head of technical services, Momart, London

Artwork comes in all shapes and sizes, so companies such as Momart have to be prepared for every eventuality when storing, transporting and installing art around the world.

At last year’s Ai Weiwei show at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA), for example, 90 tonnes of steel bars that had been warped and twisted in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, then collected, straightened and turned into an artwork called Straight were installed after structural engineers gave the go-ahead.

“After they had been straightened some of the bars were six metres long, and the RA’s lift was not big enough to carry them,” says Guy Morey, who oversaw the transportation and installation of the works for the show.

“We ended up hauling some of them up the lift shaft from above. We made a six-metre case especially for them – as it was being prepared, the case with its fittings attached looked like a rocket about to take off.”

At the other end of the scale, Momart was entrusted with the removal of the Ashes urn from the museum at Lord’s as it began a journey to Australia.

“That was a huge security operation, which everyone was nervous about,” says Morey. “There were decoy trucks going out across London so no one knew which truck the urn was in. Ironically, when the Ashes are won, the winning captain has to make do with a plastic replica of the urn.”

Morey came to art handling via a circuitous route: he started out mapping the sea floor for the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences before moving into the art world, where he began packing objects into crates.

Along the way there have been health and safety method statements, risk assessments and insurance forms to complete. “Companies seem to become particularly anxious when a huge crane is lifting something that’s priceless next to a listed building,” he says.

And while problem-solving gives art handlers immense job satisfaction, recognition for their efforts can often prove elusive.

“Museum directors and curators are friendly with you when you’re working on an installation but they often find more important people to talk to at the private view,” Morey says.

Mark Slattery, senior art handling technician, National Gallery, London

Mark Slattery joined the National Gallery in 1992, a time when the organisation’s art handling work was undergoing something of a renaissance.

The job of art handling had previously been divided between a mixture of security staff and porters, known as “the working party”. Slattery became one of the first in a new intake of professional handlers, all with fine art backgrounds and mainly recruited from the commercial sector. Today, Slattery’s main focus is the preparation and execution of the gallery’s major exhibitions, and his team plays an important part in the planning process.

“That was not always the case, but now there’s a greater appreciation in the building for what we do, and senior staff realise that everyone has a smoother ride when we’re on board,” he says.

Slattery, whose team operates under the aegis of the gallery’s conservation directorate, admits that he “shook like a leaf” when he first came face-to-face with priceless pictures nearly a quarter of a century ago.

“Now, I’m comfortable handling pictures by Van Gogh and Velazquez that are worth incalculable sums of money,” he says. “The secret is simply to treat an object with the respect it deserves, whether it’s an old master or a piece of work by a student.”

The gallery annually hosts Take One Picture, an exhibition featuring the work of schoolchildren and their teachers.

“That show probably presents more challenges than any blockbuster,” says Slattery. “Even though there are only 20 to 30 items, compared with the 80 to 100 we have in a typical Sainsbury Wing exhibition, they are all so different that each requires its own unique fixing.”

Another challenge that used to weigh heavily on Slattery’s mind was the National Gallery’s early Italian altarpieces, which were difficult to disassemble and move. “Over time, we designed a lot of bespoke handling kit, including a lifting frame to move altarpieces,” he says. “We have been lucky that the powers-that-be at the National Gallery share our passion for doing things properly.”

Art handling is an ever-changing and sometimes undervalued calling, he adds.

“It’s esoteric and can be overlooked in some institutions. I’ve often heard skilled professionals referred to as ‘bodies’. What some curatorial exhibition people don’t realise is that these bodies fix a lot of problems that they hadn’t even anticipated in the first place.”

Peter Davis, gallery manager, Parasol Unit, London

“You have to be a jack-of-all-trades and know something about everything,” says Peter Davis of his role at Parasol Unit, a contemporary arts foundation that includes a gallery space in London.

To put on an exhibition, Davis does an array of jobs, from finding foreign agents to assist with the transportation of artwork, filling in forms and taking down gallery walls, to off-the-cuff problem solving.

“A six-metre-high Charles Avery sculpture once had to be fixed to a terrace without us drilling into the granite floor,” says Davis, who learned a lot of his craft during stints at Tate and the Royal Collection. “We ended up having a concrete plinth made, which had to strike a balance between being strong enough to support the work and light enough not to ruin the stone floor.

“In the Queen’s Gallery, Clarence House or Windsor Castle, my job invariably involved huge Van Dycks and Canalettos in ornate frames that, if you gave them a nick on the floor or wall, could easily disintegrate. It wasn’t particularly tricky work, but if anything went wrong there would have been implications.”

Davis stresses that common sense and adaptability are key to art handling.

“Sometimes, people just expect things to be done and have no idea of the logistics involved,” he says. “Art handling as a phrase sounds easy. People think our job is just straightening pictures, but we learn new skills all the time. The fact that the job is often not seen as belonging in the skilled pay bracket can be difficult.”

Dan Cowap, head of art handling and galleries management, Royal Academy of Arts, London

The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is the annual art handling Olympics, with thousands of entrants – from keen amateurs to household names – competing for gallery space and a moment in the spotlight.

“It’s a massive undertaking – controlled chaos,” says Dan Cowap, who leads the team that installs this show, the world’s largest open-submission exhibition.

“It requires a lot of experience as much as anything else because of the unique nature of the submitted work. They include watercolours, oils, drawings, sculptures, models – pretty much everything across the board, from miniature pieces to 20-tonne sculptures and 22-ft canvases.”

Ten years ago, it was not unusual for the academy to process 14,000 works submitted by hopeful punters, but the first part of the selection process is now carried out digitally, with a more manageable number of 3,000 works arriving physically for curatorial consideration.

As if keeping galleries stocked with beautifully mounted art wasn’t enough, Cowap has had his work cut out over the winter as the RA is undergoing major construction work that will eventually unite it with the neighbouring Museum of Mankind building in Burlington Gardens.

“A lot of the routes we normally take through the building are unavailable,” Cowap says. “Traditionally, since the 1860s, artwork has been taken down the main corridor, but now that part is being redone the alternative route is through the RA’s art school.

“We had to construct a large platform to negotiate the stairs at each end. It has been logistically demanding. We have liaised with the contractors to make sure that we comply with their restrictions, as well as ensuring that all the artwork lenders are happy with how their work is now being transported.”

Cowap often escapes the mayhem of the RA with foreign travel, escorting artwork around the globe.

“When I couriered a set of RA paintings to Australia for a tour, I observed the work being packed here, which is a big, complicated job because of all the intricate conservation and condition reports,” he says. “Then at the other end, I checked the works on to climate-controlled trucks with state-of-the-art air suspension before unpacking them at the Australian gallery. I oversaw the fittings, that they were hung properly, and then I flew home.”

The best art handlers have immeasurable amounts of patience, uncanny levels of spatial awareness and an artistic bent."


Matt Kelly, gallery manager, Hepworth Wakefield, West Yorkshire

The best art handlers have immeasurable amounts of patience, uncanny levels of spatial awareness and an artistic bent that gives them natural ability with their hands and an understanding of a wide range of materials, says Matt Kelly.

“I trained as an artist and now make furniture so the job is a natural fit. A lot of technicians we use are artists who do the work to complement their practice,” adds Kelly, who has an advantage over many of his peers in that he works in a state-of-the-art building by architect David Chipperfield.

“I’m responsible for maintaining the Chipperfield aesthetic and we often take cues from the architects and the materials they used when we meet artists and design shows,” Kelly says.

Kelly’s other main influence is Bruce McAllister, the former Tate handler-in-chief and now an art handling consultant.

“McAllister defined what an art handler’s job should be – all our practices come from him,” says Kelly. “Before I came to Hepworth, he had worked with the architects here and designed the back-of-house art route, including the loading bays and stores.

“Artwork now arrives from all over the country and drivers can pull in and have a cup of tea, happy in the knowledge that no roads had to be closed and that there’s secure and undercover loading with no steps, and a lift that can carry nine tonnes.”

There is just one dedicated art handling training course in the UK and Kelly is keen on developing other resources that expand the knowledge base further, ensuring that all practices and experiences are shared.

“Installing a complicated show can require the best of my abilities, but unless I work with that artist again, that knowledge is lost,” Kelly says. “We now have a Google Hangout collective so if someone posts a problem, there are others who might be able to suggest a solution.”

Kelly was recently challenged by the Lynda Benglis show, for which the artist requested her paintings be installed sitting on the floor and her sculpture fixed to gallery walls.

Quartered Meteor – one of an edition of five molten metal pieces made to fit the corner of a gallery space – proved particularly problematic. “Tate Modern has one of them on display so the staff there talked us through the installation process before one of the pieces arrived,” Kelly says. “Four of the five sculptures are made of aluminium, which is a hard metal and didn’t raise any alarm, but we heard rumours the fifth was made of lead.

“Sure enough, a couple of weeks before opening, the lead one turned up. Lead is malleable so we couldn’t use any of our normal gantries because they would change the piece. We ended up using Teflon sliders and pushed the work into the corner, but only after reinforcing the walls and erecting signs telling children not to lick what could be a poisonous piece of art.”


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