Art Handling Manual

Introduction

It is hard to think of any staff more central to the successful operation of the National Gallery than the Art Handling Team - they are fundamental to our own Exhibitions and Displays of course, as well as providing an essential service without which continuing research, conservation and photography of the Collection would be impossible.

As well as their day to day work, the Art Handlers have also been active developing new techniques and equipment to improve care for the pictures and the safety of the staff. Most noticeable are large, sophisticated items such as the ‘Blue Hoist’ used for all large picture moves within the National Gallery. This has enabled a common, but problematic and high risk task to be done much more simply and safely. Less noticeable, but equally impressive are simple yet highly effective ideas such as the ‘gadget’ fixings which will reduce both the amount and complexity of handling for small and medium sized pictures for years to come.

In recent years the Department has been working hard to develop their procedures for managing and forward planning their work. They have been successful too in leveraging the Gallery’s Collection Management Database (TMS) to automate and improve the information given to the team staff on the floor doing the jobs.

Much of what they now do sets a benchmark for good practice which is the envy of sister institutions in the UK and beyond. So I am delighted to welcome the first edition of the Art Handling Manual which will be an invaluable resource for the Art Handling Team themselves, as well as the wider staff at the National Gallery and further afield.

A very big thank you goes to all the Art Handling staff for the expertise and hard work they put into the most professional service they provide to the Gallery, as well as the extra effort to produce this manual. Many other staff within the Gallery have advised and helped with the manual’s production too, and we also thank them very much.

Tim Henbrey | Head of Collections Management

Categories:

Category 1: General and Preface

This opening category describes the purpose of the Manual and contains a preface by the Head of Collections.

Category 2: Department Statements

This category contains a Mission Statement from the Head of Department and information on the nature of the Team. The intention here is to illustrate a typical day in the life of the team. This category also includes a brief history of the Department.

Category 3: Recruitment

This category describes the current departmental structure and also contains all the current job descriptions for each team role. The category also contains an outline of the qualities we look for when recruiting new technicians as well as an example of the background and experience of some of our technicians. The Induction Program used to train new members to the Department is also included.

Category 4: Installation & Preparation

This category involves written explanations of the procedures we adopt in the transportation/handling and de/installation of the Gallery Collection. Further information on equipment or more complicated technical issues are held elsewhere in the manual.

Category 5: Admin Working Procedures

This category describes the function of the office and the administration procedures for all the Departments activities.

Category 6: Complicated Installations

This category describes the de/installations that require special methods or particular pieces of equipment. There is also a description of the categorisation method adopted by the Department as well as an example of the document used to list further issues for each picture.

Category 7: Equipment

This category focuses on the design work undertaken by the Department to produce bespoke equipment ideal to our needs. The category describes the design approach taken and illustrates some of the results of these efforts.

Category 8: Operating Procedures

This category includes copies of the “safe systems of work” documents that it has been necessary to write with regards the equipment designed by the Department.

Category 9: Exhibitions

This category describes our role in the Gallery’s Temporary Exhibition program. It includes our procedures when working with couriers and our relationship to the other relevant departments.

Category 10: Casing

This category refers to our arrangements for preparing Collection works to go on loan. The category also deals with our approach to casing, the contractors we use and possible future developments.

Category 11: Health & Safety:

This category deals with the relevant legislation applying to the Department, examples of documentation such as risk assessments and our training responsibilities. The category also gives a summary of the changes in our working practices as a direct result of Health and Safety Legislation.

Category 12: Emergency planning and salvage

Most of the relevant information for this category can be found in more detail in the Galleries Disaster Control Plan. This category therefore, deals with the efforts the Department have made to improve our arrangements and the role of individual technicians under emergency measures.