Artworks are loaned by artists, corporations, museums and private collectors, and the AEIP pays the costs of packing and shipping to the destination city. Further information on the program is available at : http://aiep.state.gov/index.cfm

The site also supplies guidelines for artists interested in submitting art to their Registry. For students and other art hungry travelers, the website contains a listing of what works are currently on exhibit in which cities, together with artist statements and details of the pieces on view. This is a great way to support American artists and to beat the lines and entrance fees encountered at so many better known exhibition venues.

Betsy Dorfman

I get some variation of this phone call all too frequently:

ARTIST:   Hi, I have a crate I need to ship to London. I built it myself.

ME:           Okay, we can help with that. I will need the dimensions and weight.

ARTIST:   I got everything in one crate, if you can believe that. Eight by seven by about, oh the height has gotta be, I’m five eight so let’s say, six.

ME:          (Hopefully, but knowing better) Feet or inches?

ARTIST:  (Proudly) Feet. It’s in my garage. You’ll need a lift gate. Wait, you thought I was five inches tall?

ME:          What is the size of the largest work in the crate. These are paintings?

ARTIST:  There’s a couple of big ones, maybe four, then a whole bunch of medium and little ones that I stacked double high and double wide. Kind of up on a shelf thing on the inside. Sectioned. That way it could all go in one crate.  (Pause) Hello?

ME:      Sorry I’m just…is there any way you can cut this thing in half?

FADE OUT

Okay, some actual useful information:

HEIGHT

Many airlines have height cutoffs of 60-63″, depending upon the actual equipment flown. Above that height you will need to book on a freighter, which gives you fewer flights to choose from and is often more expensive. You typically need an advance booking on a freighter, and such freight can wait in line sometimes for days until space is available.  Sometimes you can’t avoid this, with a large installation piece or bronze, but where it can be avoided it should be.  

WEIGHT/HANDLING

Oversize crates cost more at every stage of shipping and handling, and if very heavy can be dangerous to move as well. They are more likely to be fork lifted rather than hand carried or dollied.

FREIGHT COST

With inventories of mixed sizes it is nearly always cost effective to fabricate multiple crates with contents grouped by size.  It is the overall volume that determines freight cost, and splitting into multiple crates often saves on final volume. 

ACCESS: THE END GAME

Also consider that the average doorway is only 30 or so inches wide. If your shipment is going to a corporate location, office building, or a downtown gallery your giganto crate may not fit through the doorway. Not every business has a dock or wide receiving doors. So now you’ve got some preparator unpacking the crate at the curb — not going to be your biggest fan once that is done.  And then what do they do with the crate? Have you seen the average gallery store room? 

DAMAGE ISSUES 

Most damage in shipping actually happens during packing and unpacking. Creating an oddly sectioned crate, which also has a high center of gravity, may not be simple to unpack. The recipient could open the wrong side or not perceive where all the works are located. We have seen examples where small works were sectioned off behind larger works, but where the separating foam or cardboard was mistaken for the wall of the crate.  Out goes the crate into the trash still holding the small works – ouch.   Always include a pack sheet detailing the crate contents, and unpacking instructions as well. Unfortunately many artist packed crates don’t have such instructions included.

 RETURN SHIPPING

If the destination can’t or won’t store your oversize crate, you may be asked to pay for storage at an offsite location or charged for a new crate to return unsold items. If you are lucky and they do store it, and, even luckier, they sell half of your artworks at the show, now you are going to have to ship that huge crate back half empty. Had you built 2 or 3 crates, chances are the returning volume could have been downsized into 1 of 2 of those.

Like most art handlers we are happy to give guidance to artists or others building crates. Call us BEFORE you build and we may be able to save you some money, or grief, or both.

Betsy Dorfman

Many self storage facilities boast in their advertising and signage that they offer “climate controlled” storage. Chances are, they don’t. As they tilt towards full disclosure, this is amended  to “air conditioned” or “temperature controlled,” which is closer to the truth. For those needing to store sensitive or high value goods, understanding this terminology is crucial to selecting the appropriate storage venue.

At FINE ART SHIPPING, like many fine art handlers, we offer a mix of storage options including museum standard climate control.

In our case this means a facility:

 – heated and cooled as needed 24/7 to maintain a temperature range of 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit year round

–  relative humidity maintained between 45-55 percent year round

–  sufficient equipment to provide redundancy should a system experience failure

–  internet display monitored from on or offsite with snapshot printouts of readings as needed

–  filtering “clean air” technology to remove impurities from circulating air

When comparing rates among “climate controlled” services it is important to have the facility in question provide their climate specifications. They may or may not meet museum, or your, standards. An “air conditioned” facility may air condition to a point above or below the ideal for paintings.

Air conditioning, as delicious as it is, is for people; full climate control with monitored air balance is needed for correct storage of old master and other sensitive paintings and commodities.

Many  warehouses such as ourselves offering true climate controlled storage also provide  a range of companion services such as crating, inventory management, condition reporting,  viewing rooms, shipping, and insurance.  Asking for references is a good idea; if museums store at the facility you are considering it is likely the real deal.

Betsy Dorfman

FINE ART SHIPPING

On the surface this seems to make sense, given that textile experts have expressed concern over the deteriorating condition of the garment over time. I am not a textile expert but common sense suggests that it is in the nature of textiles to degrade. Hence, lint. But then comes this sentence: “But some textile conservators expressed concern, saying the coat was too old, too fragile and too famous for long-term display.” Really? In what way does being famous degrade an object? And even in storage the coat is still going to be old, and fragile, and valuable, these factors not being reversible.

There is just too much here in fact that does not make sense. First, current climate control technologies can protect all sort of objects from environmental insults, including light and atmospheric conditions. Museums do this all the time. In essence, the same conditions that will protect the item in storage can protect it while on public view. This has been done with rarities including, not far away, the U.S. Constitution which is on display at the National Archives in Washington DC. So the too delicate etc. argument is hooey.

Next comes the delicious part about bringing the bloodstained coat out of storage and putting it on display for special occasions such as the anniversary of Lincoln’s death. Again, really? Anyone in the fine art handling and shipping world, and all insurers of such commodities, can attest to the fact that objects are at increased risk each time they are moved and handled. Insurers correctly charge more to cover items in transit over items in stable storage. So in order to preserve the coat they are NOT going to house it in a permanent and stable display environment, they are going to pack and unpack it several times a year, schlep it to and fro from wherever and put it up on view for a day or a few days under conditions that are not going to be ideal.

The Theater is spending $50 million on a renovation which, when completed, will include a new gift shop but will not include a proper installation for climate controlled and secure display of arguably the single most historic artifact in their possession. And the one which, presumably, would draw the highest number of visitors to shop in the….you get the point.

For $50 million I suggest they take the whole theater apart and put it into storage for safekeeping. My company will be the first to offer space in our climate controlled warehouse to accommodate the pieces. Each piece will be numbered and the theater can be reassembled in the future when an enlightened public has reclaimed its history from the curators.

Betsy Dorfman

A well known science research institute selected this dramatic cover artwork for a recent special journal report on China. The sedate and aesthetic rendering of classical chinese characters perfectly set the tone desired by the prestigious Max Planck Institute. Except that, unfortunately, the researchers forgot to do their, well, research. As in, hiring a translator. Turns out this was not a poem or artistic composition but an advertisement.

Which is how the latest edition of this well regarded a scientific journal was published with a cover extolling the services of stripping housewives in a brothel! The poetic looking artwork was in fact a flyer offering “hot houswives in action”, put out (pun intended) by a Macau strip club. Follow the link below for further details.

Leaving aside what your artwork “means,” you now have to be concerned with what it says, especially with so much modern art incorporating symbols, words, icons, and elements from disparate cultures. It probably won’t be long before art services companies such as ourselves offer translation and “embarrassment risk management” services together with our usual roster of packing, crating, storage and shipping services.

Betsy Dorfman

Click here for the full article from The Independent.

FINE ART SHIPPING has had the pleasure, and challenge, of crating and shipping many of Daniel’s works over the years. Not only are they sculptural works often with pliable parts, but they are mechanical and, obviously, need to arrive in functional form at the other end.

Also included in the show are works by Amanda Ross Ho and Jedediah Caesar, both artists whose work we handled last winter for the Whitney Biennial. 54 artists in all are included in the exhibition so there is surely something for everyone.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-ocma4-2008nov04,0,7367638.story

Posted by: Betsy Dorfman/ FINE ART SHIPPING