jeff: A million years ago when I was still in art school, one of my roommates was working for Wallspace and he got me into it. The small and medium galleries don’t need full-time preparators or installers. Back then, Chelsea had relatively the same schedule it does now. You would go there about monthly. Or, they would need something pulled out of storage and hung in the backroom for some collector. Or, they would need to move inventory in and out.

I work mainly for private and corporate clients. I’ve also worked for big galleries like Kreps or Marlboro. The museum world is another universe, where preparators and conservators are generally salaried and full-time. Another thing to think about auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s, which is it’s own huge industry of preparators and handlers who are sometimes union and sometimes not.

andy: I’ve done a lot of work with museums, galleries, artists and private clients. Museums are a lot more culturally focused in terms of both purpose and execution. Of course, there are a lot of people behind the scenes who use the museum as a platform for getting more exposure for art they’re trying to sell, but that’s somewhat secondary. The gallery is pretty much a capitalist endeavor on every front. Although they may have some sort of obvious interest in cultural programming from a basic standpoint, the main focus is selling artwork.

This reflects on art handling. In a museum you’re dealing with other people’s stuff so you have to be extremely careful. In a gallery typically they either own it or represent it so you can be less careful but you’re also doing things more quickly and haphazardly because you’re working against time. There’s much less regulation in a gallery environment than in the museum world. The stakes for error are a lot lower. If something were to break or be damaged, generally you’re so closely connected to the artist that it’s easily fixable. It’s still not a good thing, but in a museum it’s a much more intensive and regulated process.

Damien: I’ve built up a client network. When I first started freelancing, I would look at NYFA and Craigslist. It could get pretty consuming just chasing down the jobs but after a while I developed a routine. In the meantime, I was also doing some music and other stuff in the arts. A lot of art handlers come to the job through being a musician not an artist.