Art Handling, Transport and Storage
Duration: May 10 – Jun 7, 2021
Fee: 172€
Max seats: 30
Enroll before: May 6, 2021
Dedication: 3 hrs/week
This course offers specially designed training on the handling, storage and transportation of cultural heritage focusing on modern and contemporary artworks (paintings, sculptures and installation works).
Artworks have to be moved, packed, transported, stored and presented properly to guarantee their preservation and safety. Curators, gallery staff, art handlers and technicians are indirect and frequent contact with artworks and therefore need to know the essentials of proper care, maintenance and preservation. Additionally, in an ever-expanding global art world this knowledge is crucial as the loan and transportation of works of art have increased significantly in recent years.
This course is useful for anyone in contact with artworks and will provide basic guidelines for handling, packaging, transport and storage of works of art. In addition, the lecturer will enrich these guidelines, methods and techniques through case studies and day-to-day examples.
Week 1. Presentation
- Introduction to the program and course overview.
This is a one-hour-only welcome session. The lecturer will introduce the program and participants will introduce themselves. No prior preparation is necessary.
Week 2. Handling
- general introduction into handling artworks: how to touch, move and place objects
- what not to do – common mistakes in art handling
- handling equipment and its application
Week 3. Packing (How to pack and crate an artwork)
- different crates used for transport (e.g. transportation frames, climate buffered crates) and their applications
- overview on materials used for soft packings like Tyvek, bubblewrap, Polyethylene foil or acid-free cardboard
- basic guide to safeguard glazed and framed paintings and drawings/works on paper
Week 4. Transport
- basics about how to transport artworks
- handling equipment: how to make best use of pallet jacks,forklifts and other devices to move heavy duty artworks
- requirements for short, in-house as well as long distance transports
- introduction on how to communicate with a transport company
Week 5. Storage
- general requirements on storage organisation
- materials and tools for storage use
- monitoring, pest management, housekeeping
- summary of good practices for daily work
Katharina Haider is the owner of Bacon Studios, a modern and contemporary art conservation company in Berlin and Munich, founded in 2012. She holds a university diploma in Conservation / Restoration and a Master’s in Polymer Science. She has worked at Tate and Museum of Modern Art MKK Frankfurt. Her regular customers include international museums, corporate and private collections, galleries and artists alike. Katharina is an experienced courier and managed relocation projects of private and museum collections. Since 2014, she has been a lecturer for the conservation of modern materials at the Munich Technical University.
https://bacon-studios.com