How-to: Strengthen your Mitered Frame Corners with Easy Splines

You’ve seen these I’m sure. Little keyed pieces of wood on the four corners of frames. They’re called splines, or splined miter joints. Just knowing what they are called is half the ...

How to Repurpose a Crate for Artwork that Travels

In this article Sean outlines a fine method for making the most out of what gets shipped out. Along the way he introduces us to casket lock hardware (new to me), some fun ways to nest and pack in a cr...

Stained Glass hanging with rail and cable

In the summer of 2021 I was gifted a Arakawa art rail system from a Museum Trade reader give-away. At the same time I knew a friend wanted a stained glass “Steal Your Face” Grateful Dead window hung i...

VIDEO REVIEW: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Getting the Work Ready for the Exhibit

  Hello Trade Folk, Here’s a little behind the scenes for opening up crates, condition reporting, laying out the art, and hanging techniques. There’s a pretty wide swath of activities in this vid...

Do Not Touch Signage Example at LACMA

  Yeah, Mr. MC Hammer said it best “You can’t touch this!”. How do you Do Not Touch? It’s an uphill battle, always. I was fortunate to get a tour (thank you Matt & Edw...

Art Preparator & Art Handler Training Video: Succinct and Useful

Hi Museum Trade Folk, The Western Australian Museum put this video together and wow did they pack a ton into 5 minutes and 25 seconds. It certainly does not cover everything, but if you have new team ...

How Matt Construction is Building a Museum Using Augmented Reality. Yep Really.

Hi Museum Folk, I came across this and it blew my mind. I mean, in retrospect of course they are using augmented reality in building, but I hadn’t seen it yet. What makes this even more tangenta...

Winner Revealed for the Summer 2021 Article Series [BONUS Tip at the End]

  For those of you who prefer to read or can’t use volume right now, the transcript is below:   Hey, everybody. Thanks for contributing to the survey, it was close for a while and one ...

How Our Museum Faced the Challenge of a Case Without Space for Object Labels

How a Professional Art Mover Ride Their Blanket Stack

Hey there you art, science, history, children’s preparator handler technicians. I saw this today, I think for the first time in all my years. It may be ordinary to some of you or an epiphany to ...

The Working Side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1928

Hi Gang, Here’s a really nice one from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, celebrating 150 years last year (2020), WoW. I’m sure they had many gala’s planned for the whole year, hopes, d...

How Lumber was Reused After Framing Out a Giant Platform at the Oakland Museum of California

Transporting an Unstretched Painting from Oakland to Sonora

How-To: Resources for Basket Mounts

Historic baskets are both highly functional and highly artistic creations. They show incredible skill by the weaver, but they also tell us about larger community life. Baskets illuminate stories about...

How Do You Create a Faux Brick Floor for a Fireplace?

What makes being an art preparator, museum technician, art handler so much fun is solving problems and puzzles in not enough time. This was a fun and weird one that I solved, but not with 100% satisfa...

BASICS: Opening a Crate, a Few Solid Art Installer Tips

It’s been a long while since I, or anyone has added anything to the site. I thought I’d have all this extra time to dig into content creation. I did organize and centralize all my content,...

A Day in the Life from Denver Art Museum Registrars – As Told by NPR

Hi Gang, This may be something that you encounter everyday or maybe it’s brand new to you. Either way it’s a fun little read and listen. It’s nice that NPR has taken the time to let ...

The British Museum Conserves Dürer’s Work, Patiently, Methodically

Hi Gang, Here’s a fascinating project from the British Museum, they conserved Dürer’s Triumphal Arch. What time and care it took to clean this up. It goes to show that housing something ri...

Have a ♥️, Don’t Touch the Art (!)

Locked eyes on this sign as it was hanging in the second floor galleries of the Last Bookstore in Los Angeles. The placement might not fit at a museum, but let’s think with this approach to comm...

Go Behind the Scenes with Creative Director in an Interactive Installation Workshop

Hello MuseumTrade community. I thought this was an insightful interview. Many of us don’t get to touch on the design aspect, but it’s fun to hear where it came from and why. And who knows,...

INSTRUCTIONS: How to Handle Ruth Asawa’s Hanging Metal Works

  Ruth Asawa’s works are popular for a reason, they are ethereal and beautiful. They are also fragile due to the nature of being woven metal. She has provided and excellent HOW TO guide for...

The Beautiful Art of Lighting, The Renwick Gallery Transforms its Spaces

Lighting has a long history in museums and in the past 10 years it feels like its been on hyperdrive. When I started at the Crocker Art Musuem in 2008 I was already looking to find lams that would bri...

The Story of How a de Kooning Painting Was Easily Stolen

A few tips can be found in this story, a few things you can do to prevent a similar occurrence at your museum. Aside from a couple solid tips (spoiler using cameras is one) it’s a weird and fun ...

A Cool Way to Fold a Box

Hi All, this one speaks loudest from it’s images. It’s fairly simple to make, does anyone out there already have a template for this style of box? We should start a section dedicated templ...

One Way to Improve a Security Hardware Tool (UPDATE: 2 Ways)

Hi All, Have you ever scraped the wall while taking a secured painting on or off the wall? Then you have to clean or touch up the wall to make it look good again, right? No more, this is a quick littl...

How to Make Custom Forms with Wet Gypsum

This guys is true craftsman. There must be 100 videos about this kind of work, but this one is simple and to the point and inspired me to think outside the, box. Think curves and this is a way to get ...

How to Make A Support Mount for a Bowl

Hi Gang, We can across this nice article (May 9, 2016) about making a support mount for a bowl that we thought you’d be interested in reading. Mount Making Focus is a nice resource. The lessons ...

Science Museum Tips: On Producing Exhibits in a Developing Country

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine ON PRODUCING EXHIBITS IN A DEVELOPING ...

Science Museum Tips: On Planning Traveling Exhibitions

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine ON PLANNING TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS When...

An Easy Way to Contextualize Height

Here’s a low cost way of adding a photo opportunity (which we know is likely to be shared socially) while helping contextualize the life cycle of the giraffe. What do you use? What more could th...

Excuse Our Mess, With a Sense of Humor

My 5 year old got a kick out of this changing exhibit. It’s a bit nicer than doing nothing or even just a hand written sign. It’s a thoughtful little touch I think most folks will apprecia...

Science Museum Tips: On Designing Interactive Exhibits for Young Children

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine ON DESIGNING INTERACTIVE EXHIBITS FOR ...

Science Museum Tips: On Partnering with Researchers

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine ON PARTNERING WITH RESEARCHERS Increas...

Science Museum Tips: On Writing Exhibit Text to Facilitate Learning

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine ON WRITING EXHIBIT TEXT TO FACILITATE ...

Science Museum Tips: On the Process for Developing and In-House Exhibition

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine ON THE PROCESS FOR DEVELOPING AN IN-HO...

In Honor of Plywood

We take plywood for granted, but since the 1850’s it has literally shaped contemporary design. “Plywood, Material of the Modern World” at the V&A London, tells the little known story o...

Science Museum Tips: MORE On Naming an Exhibition

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine MORE ON NAMING AN EXHIBITION Naming is...

Science Museum Tips: On Collaborating Successfully with Clients and Partners

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine ON COLLABORATING SUCCESSFULLY WITH CLI...

Science Museum Tips: On Designing Digital Games

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine ON DESIGNING DIGITAL GAMES Future Ener...

Science Museum Tips: On Prototyping

EXHIBIT TIPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD This is an extended version of an article that appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of ASTC’s Dimensions magazine. Kari Jensen, senior exhibit developer...

Science Museum Tips: On incorporating Current Research into an Exhibit

Hide-a-Cord Can be Busy or Ugly, Why Not Gaff the Crack?

Hide-a-cord has it’s place in life and is an essential tool in the technician’s toolbox, but it can add a bit of presence on the wall. You can paint it to match of course, but it’s s...

Attention to Detail Makes Me Smile

  Photo by Internet Archive Book Images

Painting Tip (newer buildings)

  DO YOUR WALLS HAVE A SMALL REVEAL AT THE BOTTOM? HERE’S A PAINTING TIP FOR QUICK AND QUALITY COVERAGE.   Whether you like it or not sometimes we all have to paint walls. If you are lucky e...

Crate Arrives Broken, What’s Left Inside? Has This Happened to You?

FBI Recovers Stolen Terracotta Digit, A Cautionary Tale

Embellishing with Lichtenberg Wood Burning for Natural Plant-like Formations

Also know as Lichtenberg Figures this process dates back quite a while. I think it would be a nice technique in a natural history museum, children’s museum, or science museum not only for its sc...

Three Experiments for Kids: Water is Water

We came across Playfullearning.net the other day and want to share them with you, they have a plethora of resources for all museum types. We’ve organized and curated their content into areas of ...

Science Museum Tips: On Creating Sustainable Exhibits

Fitness Tracking for Elephant Welfare

Here’s an interesting take on wildlife welfare. It demonstrates promising results and may have implications for other animal habitats.     Fitness tracking is all the rage right now. I...

The Head of a Bolt Could Make a Difference When Hanging on D-Rings

This is a short but sweet article on the little things one can do to make one’s life a little easier. There are just a ton of things that take very little time to do, but can mean the difference...

Tijana Cvetkovic Conserving Petrus van der Velden’s Marken Funeral Barge for Exhibition at Nga Toi Arts Te Papa

Here’s a short video published on Dec 12, 2013 depicting painting conservator Tijana Cvetkovic, she describes the conservation treatment required to prepare Petrus van der Velden’s Marken ...

The National Museum of Denmark Gives Insight into their Conservation Process with Nice Before and After Shots

Here’s a video published on May 6, 2013, this film offers insight into the conservators’ working process as they treat the paintings. See how the artworks are analyzed and cleaned, how fla...

Effective and Funny Zoo Signage, Send Me Yours

In the study The Effect of Humor on Advertising Comprehension they find that “Prior investigations of the impact of humor on advertising message comprehension have generally found humorous comme...

How to Paint a Sun Mural for a Solar Focused Exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Richmond

Here’s a quick time-lapse about how to paint a large sun on the wall dating back to 2009. This is a very basic presentation of information, but somewhere, out there, among ALL the museums there ...

AAagh! Too Many Visitors! Don’t You Wish You Could Close to Clean Up, They Did.

Not much to see here, I just thought it sounded dreamy, having the luxury of closing for 6 months. [youtube id=”5sKKc88Hwvo” align=”center” mode=”lazyload-lightbox”...

How to Make Paintable Wall Terminals for Stanchion Cord

Hi Everyone, Here’s a two-part series on stanchions. In this segment I’ll show you how we make wall terminals for stanchion cord, the next will be a review of Line Logic’s stanchion ...

Easy Museum Interactive Using Custom Plastic Puzzle

Hello MT Community, Here’s a very basic interactive for your museum: a plastic puzzle using a custom image of the artwork.What we’ve provided for our visitors is an opportunity to sit and ...

Rigging and Installing Richard Serra’s Delineator at MOMA

This story was covered by MOMA’s website, but I think Museum Trade is a great place to land all the stories from around the net, we’d like to be a one stop shop, so please let us know if y...

Painting Walls without Streaks Using a Latex Extender Solution

We’ve had issues with streaking in out paint jobs.  It’s not always obvious, sometimes it depends on the light, sometimes you need to be an installer to see it, but none the less it’...

Moving Several Dollies of Blue Blankets by Yourself

In our profession, time is often of the essence. If one person can do the same job as two or three others, you go for it (object safety being paramount of course). I was faced with getting a lot of bl...

Painting a Large Field of Cases in a Tight Space

Hello Everyone, Have you ever had to paint just a massive field of peds or cases? Do it all the time you say? Yeah it happens and here’s a picture of it. This is more of a Preparator Culture typ...

Testing AWS upload to S3 – AQ resize not working?

This is the copy for this fake post. This is a test, only eat of the emergency broadcast system, this is only a test, BeeeeeP.  

One Way to Display an Exhibit Catalog without Bolting it Down

It’s always nice to display the exhibit catalog if it’s available. It helps further contextualize the works and helps promote a product available in the store. Usually we use four pan head...

Cy Twombly’s Very Large TREATISE ON THE VEIL Being Installed in Time-Lapse

The time-lapse format is always fun, but I think we can gain insight as well.  If you have an installation for an artists and you can prepare yourself by looking at a time-lapse of the or a typical pi...

Founding of Industrial Scale Fabrication of Art, Donald Lippincott was a True Pioneer

Large Scale: Lippincott Inc. by Jonathan Lippincott Before Lippincott, Inc. was founded in 1966, artists had no natural industrial partner and no capacity to produce sculpture on an industrial scale. ...

One Prototyping Form for an Art Museum Interactive and its Result

I thought I’d take a moment to share the tool we used to develop two interactives in our galleries. The attached document was used by four groups of (three people per group) and the result was s...

Andy Goldsworth’s BURNT PATCH time-lapse installation at the San Jose Museum of Art

If you’re a fan of Andy Goldsworthy you will love this video.  Notice how the install crew has to work their way out of the space and at the very last second has to drop the final sticks from th...

How to Hang a Consistent Centerline with an Uneven Floor, Lasers of Course!

It doesn’t matter how new your building is, the floor will be uneven from one side of the room to the other. Those of us who work with historic homes or building really understand this issue. In...

DIY Tool When Dealing with OZ Clips in Tight Spaces

Hello Everyone, Have you ever had a painting where the space between the painting and its crate or travel frame was so tight that you had to use either your middle and first fingers or god forbid need...

How to Print Labels in the Field with No Wi-fi and Just an iPhone or iPad

These directions will let you wirelessly print four images to a page of Avery 5168 WITHOUT the use of wi-fi or cords. This was necessary when we went on a four-day trip to pack an entire offsite locat...

Roger Murray Discussing Helmet Mount – 2015 International Mountmakers Forum in London

This is a nice video regarding the difficulty and solutions involved in making a mount strong enough to hold up a helmet, but simple and gentle enough to support its delicate liner at the same time.  ...

Issues and Solutions for Peripheral Strip Lighting Inside a Case.

Hello Trade Community, Here’s part one of a two part series. We’ve been given a budget to solve this peripheral strip lighting inside our eight tall cases this fiscal year. It’s very...

How Do You Do Not Touch? Here’s One Way of Making Labels and Signage to Help Visitors Understand

If you’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it a thousand times; Visitors molesting the objects without a care in the world.  I’m sorry for the strong language here, but I can’t seem t...

How to Install Wall Mounted Shelves with a Semi-Hidden Metal Mount for Ceramic Pots

Insert copy here:           These “Design Resources” are a series of short articles intended to provide designers with evidence-based information to address issues currently not covered in...

The Dinosaurs Arrive and Unload at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

This is a fun little video and demonstrates how these creatures are wrapped and rigged.  Not as much about final placement, but there are a couple jacks and lifts I haven’t used before.  Enjoy. ...

Live Dinosaurs Creep Through the Crowd. A Good Idea or Not?

Having a little one at home changes you in so many ways.  Our son is 18 months and the fear that crosses his face when he sees one of us go under water in the pool is terrible to see and is like nothi...

Mad for Math: The Museum of Science and Industry Chicago uses digital technology and nature’s own graphic language to teach visitors about math.

We came across this article on the SEGD.org website about this neat exhibition.  I thought all of you might be able to gleam some inspiration from it.  Enjoy. -MT- When the Museum of Science and Indus...

ZooLex is a Robust Resource for the Zoo Professional

It looks like the site was designed in the 90s, the site could use some major updating, but the content is there.  Particularly fun is the gallery of zoos.  They break each Zoo down to size, maps, ani...

Make your own Digital Picasso Head

I came across this today and the concept could be applied to other artists physically in the gallery.  Additionally if your institution owns a Picasso, then you could install an iPad with this site ru...

Framing Hardware Production Line

Here’s a quick image set of us getting through dozens of frames that we had to refinish.  The original frame finish was an unattractive crackled silver and gold.  Unusable for the museums curren...

Building a Faux Cabaret for the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Exhibition

Here’s a quick behind the scenes look at assembling a faux cabaret for the exhibition. Much of it was built and painted off-site and what you see here are the steps to assemble. It’s amazi...

Iceland and the Universal Museum

Iceland. By design, many of the hinderances that would keep one from making it all of the way to Iceland have been removed. Instead of relying on native travelers or those headed specifically into Ice...

TEST POST – Visitor Signage at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Here are a couple of pictures I took at the museum to help those with young visitors understand the museum’s expectation and how they advertise the FREE for those under 25 program. I’ve al...

Gallery Interactive Game Encouraging Longer Looking and Use of Words

This is part of our Game On Series, a series of interactives throughout the museum spaces; this one is called Arts and Letters. The interactive consists of a colorful pouch, a few pencils, a few pads ...

Wrapping Ornate Frame for Short Distance Transport

We had to find a way to quickly wrap an old painting with its ornate frame for a 4 hour road trip. The frame extends beyond the main body of the frame and this was our challenge- how do we wrap the wo...

Installing Raw Canvas Painting Using Hook and Loop

As you can see from the pictures below, we were faced with a difficult installation.  This piece is meant to float up a bit on one of its legs.  This is and makes it very graceful, but what about defe...

Adaptable shipping box for 2D painting

I can’t find a manufacturer name on this box! Anyone have a source for boxes like this? In the pictures below, you’ll notice white straps were used to bind the wrapped work to the cardboar...

Simple Security Mount for 3D Art Object

Nothing groundbreaking to see here, but sometimes simplicity can be revelatory. We wanted to make this rolling table by the artist Barbara Spring a little *less* rolling. Some monofilament and pan hea...

Your Opinion: Do You prefer the Painted or Unpainted Baseboards on Pedestals and Cases

What do all of you think?  Originally we went with things painted all the same, through and through.  I think it was both an aesthetic decision as well as pragmatic. We had $750,000 worth of case work...

Review: 4 in1 Spackle in a Tube

This was a very promising product. Was.   MMMOOOORORRREEE here… Put your comments below if you have tried this or want to second the vote for 3M to package this into something usable for all of ...

Picking Wall Colors: One Way to Determine Wall Colors

A quick post illustrating one method for choosing wall colors. For this gallery we will be picking three of these colors. We set an assortment of the typical works to be featured in the show. It helps...

Arakawa, Beautiful Cable Hanging System for Glass Shelves

This cable system can be used in any type of museum.  It’s elegant and strong.  Next time I might go for a solid rod style system, which Arakawa may indeed have, as the cable can sway a bit.  Pr...

Mashup Definition of “What is an Art Handler?’

What did you think? Did that capture you and what you do day to day and week to week? It captured a lot for me, but at the same time there was a whole lot missing that’s hard to put into words o...

Mount for Pierre-Auguste Renoir Terracotta Tiles

Here’s a very quick post; something to reflect on, something to riff on.  I may or may not do it the same way in the future, but I adopted this mount.  Give it a look.  Send us yours.  Oh, by th...

Pitfalls of Using Printable Adhesive Vinyl

Hello Tradefolk, Here’s a story about a product that I love very much, but it can be fussy. I’ll do a full article about the love I have for this material later, but for now know that I ca...

Options for Installing a Label on a Pedestal or Case

Here are a few option for installing labels on pedestals.  It can be difficult to read a label when there is a lot of extended text.  So we put them on a plexiglass slant.  In one case the gallery get...

Ikea Couches Look Nice in a Gallery

Hi Everyone, No, I don’t work for Ikea, but hey do donate a certain amount to our education programs every year.  I wanted to take a moment to show how nice these work in an art museum as well a...

Simple Museum Mount for Hanging Kimono

Hello Again, I’ve brought you some pictures of a simple mount for hanging our kimonos. It’s a 2″ round, 53″ long piece of clear plexiglass. On either end you see a single small...

Tools of the Trade

Here are our heavy guns, the aircraft carriers of the art installer world.  We bring these suckers with us when we go into battle.  Yeah, it’s a war analogy because as the years go by I remember...

Mount Making for a Flowing Ceramic Sculpture

As you can see from the pictures below, we were faced with a difficult installation. This piece is meant to float up a bit on one of its legs and this is what makes it very graceful, but what about de...

Tip for Painting Baseboards on Pedestals or Cases

When we opened the building all pedestals had the body color as its baseboard color.  We’ve been moving away from this for both aesthetic and practical purposes.  Using a semi-gloss on the baseb...