Packing and Shipping Art
Packing, unpacking, and shipping of art is a multi-level process, as are many processes in the art world. It is certainly extremely dependent upon the types of art you are shipping - jewelry? metal sculpture? watercolors? oil paintings?
If you are like most artists, you do not want your art damaged (or worse) during shipping, so we will take as a starting point, the safe delivery of the art and its arrival in exactly the same shape as it was sent. Taking pictures of the art in the condition it left your studio, therefore, may be a good idea, if you are really concerned about your art's safety. Why do I say this? I have worked in a gallery for several years, and I know for a fact...many people who really should care about your art, and should use all the proper gloves, and handling techniques, may not care as much as you do, and may not use archival and safe handling, packing and unpacking techniques.
Have I worked at the Met in NYC? No, I have not. Should I assume that people in other galleries treat art differently? I am not sure about that. I do know that I have dealt with several galleries in different parts of the country, and from what I have seen, it is a very good idea to create simple packing schemes as much as possible, and always allow for less than ideal situations that might arise.
Of course galleries and museums are most interested in keeping art in excellent condition, and shipping art out in the same condition in which they received it. As a matter of fact, the gallery director of the Landmark Gallery at Texas Tech University, Joe Arredondo often ships art out that is much more carefully packed than when it arrived. I know this because I have helped pack said art on numerous occasions. He does not want any problems with art arriving at its next destination damaged, and believe me, some artists and galleries do not do a very good job of packing art.
Does every $8 per hour employee feel this way about the packing and unpacking of gallery art? What do you think? I am not saying that gallery personnel will play frisbee with art. The point is, in most cases, you, the artist, will probably be the person most interested in the long term life of your own artworks.
This is not necessarily a malicious or non-caring attitude I am referring to here. I once received a wall sculpture back from a gallery with which I had a written contract. A gallery employee thought that a certain part of my sculpture was a handle, which it was not. In all the time I spent designing and creating the piece, it never crossed my mind that that nice little zig zag wooden shape would be seen as a handle ... and it came right off when used as such!
I hope I have more than made this point!
As far as the actual shipping of pieces is concerned, I have tried several shippers, and had good results with several of them (and less good results sometimes, too). The main thing to keep in mind is that ground shipping by motor freight is handled similarly to how airplanes are routed. I learned this along the way as I was trying to track a very large crate. The shippers have nodes where many trucks converge. From there, the freight moves out into the smaller towns and cities. My crate was being shipped from Texas to Tennessee, but it had to go to Atlanta first, to the central node, and then back to Tennessee. So my art was subjected to a few hundred miles of extra bumping and pounding which I could not avoid.
I was none too happy to find this out, but it is good to know how shipping works, and design solid crates that can take the stress. For a one time shipping job, it might not be a big deal, but building a crate is the real thing. I usually try to build crates that can be used more than once, especially if they are coming back to me.
This is a good example of a really well designed crate, with a nicely fitting top. Hopefully the picture is good enough to show how the crate was built. The lid slips neatly over (and also inside the crate) and screws hold it in place.
For larger crates, it helps to install handrails of 1 x 3's to help the movers. You can use small 2 x 4 spacers to hold them out from the sides. This will keep the loaders at the company you use (if you ship a lot of art) from disliking you quit a bit. Having good relations with the shipper is a good idea in my opinion. No need to aggravate the people who are moving around your precious artworks, sometimes with a forklift.
For smaller art, corrugated boxes can be safe enough (still a little scary for me, though, I must admit). I use overnight air if at all possible. I want them in transit as short a time as possible! And they need about 4 inches or so of good bubblewrap, or other good packing material. Foam peanuts are NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Your art could easily shift to the side, especially sculptures! There are foam paddings available, etc. and your neighborhood packing store will probably have some suggestions for you. At the gallery where I work, we have lined the inside of crates with pink building insulation. Not fiberglass - it is more of a foam product - available at most home improvement stores. Then we wrap the pieces, and THEN use the foam peanuts, etc.
WARNING - Double boxing is almost always the way to ship, when using corrugated boxes. I did not really make that clear in the preceeding paragraph, but I do need to emphasize this. The outer box will hopefully absorb any serious blows, and the inner box gives a second layer of serious protection to the art. And the number two warning...be very wary of styrofoam for certain packing usages. It is stiff and HARD. Not for use near ceramic arms, or protrusions. Remember that a piece of insulating foam brought down a Space Shuttle! Use foam rubber, and carve out a nice little nest for your precious pieces.
For my own art, I have stuffed the boxes with crumpled newspaper - just always remember the "hardness" rule. Bubblewrap or peanuts are better of course. With many of my wall sculptures, I have screwed through the back and simply shipped them that way...this is not necessarily a really good way to ship. The first time I tried this method, one wall sculpture came loose and arrived in San Francisco damaged. The art director had me send some paint and she repaired it for me. Thanks to her very much! So you can see that I have had some "learning" experiences.
I did finally develop a better method of strapping the pieces down with homemade strips made of plastic grocery bags which I stapled down. This method works well for me. I still usually put a couple of screws through the back of the wooden crate into the piece, at least for large sculptures. AND I ENCLOSE unpacking instructions!!!!!
This I learned after the "handle" experience, in the early days of shipping disasters. I have found that galleries usually prefer to return art that have been damaged. My experience with the San Francisco gallery was a one time thing. And usually, I am thinking, most artists really do not want other people making too many "repairs" to their art. It is always best to get the works there without mishap.
Some art can be safely rolled. Watercolors, usually. Acrylics, if they are not too thickly applied, and the canvas primed with gesso. Photographs, usually. Most paper art, generally. BE SURE TO TEST FIRST. If something goes wrong with a rolled, shipped art experience, I do NOT want to be blamed, when I specifically said to make a test first!
One thing to definitely consider is art insurance. It does not usually cost that much (ha ha), and is probably worth it. We are talking fine art, even though you may have to spin it as crafts, etc. (I am not talking about major fine art shippers here, of course. If you can afford their services, that is a very good thing.
There is a "small" problem with some of the carriers. I hinted at this in the previous paragraph. They often won't ship art. Or if they do, it will cost substantially more. They are afraid of the liabilities involved if there is a problem. Well, what are you going to do? You have art to ship, and you have to get it from point A to point B. Sometimes the shipper will ship paintings but not sculpture, or vice versa. Whatever. I've had to ship art a number of times, calling it wooden "parts" or some other name. Unique, one of a kind...not good phrases to use with shippers. Learn the words they do not like, and find a way to NOT use them.
I just have to tell myself, sometimes, "I am a creative person, an artist. If a piece is destroyed, I will not like it. It will bother me quite a bit, but I will survive it, and I will create more art." I always take some good slides and digital images of the shipped artworks, anyway. If disaster did happen to strike one of my artworks, I probably would not be able to reproduce it exactly (nor would I want to). I still would have the photographic record of it, and would be able to post it on this website. I do not worry quite as much about shipping disasters as I used to. They do happen sometimes. I would say they are relatively rare, compared to the huge volume of crates and boxes the shippers handle every day.
Unpacking of Artworks!
Remember what I said, in all caps red, USE SPECIAL GLOVES. If you value your artwork, and that of other artists. You saw the gloves on Mac's hand in the crate picture. He does not wear them when man handling crates, but he always wears them when unpacking art, hanging art, moving art, packing art, etc. We sometimes receive artworks that have been handled by non gloved hands. You can tell, by the dirty hand smudges. Art is not dishes. You cannot simply wash them off! Ok, I am done. The main thing I want to stress, besides gloves, when unpacking, is tape awareness. ALWAYS make sure to fold over every single piece of tape that comes off the packing material. It is rather tedious, true, but it just takes one accident - one time when a piece of packing tape accidentally touches the surface of an artwork, and you are in some trouble. It could happen to your own artwork just as easily as someone elses.
Other issues in unpacking concern the actual laying out of the artworks once they are unpacked. Do not put them directly on the floor. Put down something clean. And remember the "handle" incident with my artwork. Check for unpacking instructions. And be certain you have a plan for where the art will "go" once it is unpacked. You need to have spaces ready on a table, or floorspace with something down for them to rest safely on. This may all seem like commonsense, which it really is, but when the actual unpacking happens, nothing needs to go wrong with expensive art pieces, including artist's one of a kind paintings and sculptures.
Usually the packing material is taped together around the artwork, and must be cut loose. Need I say anything about the care that must be taken when cutting the tape, lest a disaster result, with damaged artwork? You may be thinking, "Gallery work seems to have a certain amount of "anxiety" associated with it." That is a definite yes! And around showtime, things get very intense, with the deadline fast approaching! Gallery directors can get a little bit uptight to put it mildly, the day before the opening, when there is still artwork to be hung; and lighting is not finished either (obviously). It is a performance, and several operations must be organized to come off just right. But I digress, partly because I am typing this two days after this very "event" just happened.
As I have said before on this website, I am the lighting tech at Landmark Arts Gallery and I have been through the processes I am describing a time or "two!" Even though the director was about to have a stroke in the middle of the afternoon for a few hours, it all came together, and the show presentation looked very good! We made a student show look perhaps better than the art itself! But that is another story, and the purpose of art school is to help students learn and grow, and that they do! Anyway, back to the subject or packing and shipping.
Please keep the unpacking issues in mind...I have taken some heat from professors who were none too happy when their photographs were not handled well. They do not frame them, using instead experimental hanging techniques (push pins and bulldog clips!) I am not kidding. This makes for some interesting moments in the art gallery, especially when mixed with students who are none too sure they are interested in gallery work!
I tell these things to give the interested reader, hopefully some artists who do not know all about the inside track of galleries, a little bit of what goes on. It is very different in many ways from the art studio. It has to be, of course. Usually, artists who work for a semester or two in a gallery situation gain a very different perspective on "things" in the artworld. They seem to shift their focus regarding how their work is hung, and techniques they use to mount it. Also, lighting art may take on more importance. If you are involved with one show after another, you really begin to see just how much difference lighting makes to the presentation of artworks. In fact, you begin to see just how much difference presentation of artworks makes as a whole.
The most important thing is to keep the art process going, and keep learning, no matter what happens. Or does not happen. That is how I perceive it, anyway.
This does not come close to covering the subject of packing, unpacking and crating art, and more will probably be added as time goes on. If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions, please email Robert.
