Fine Art Movement and Storage: Project Management for the Visual Arts - Softcover

Agro, Chuck

Softcover

ISBN 10: 153811559X ISBN 13: 9781538115596

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019

Synopsis

A successfully managed project is a carefully planned and organized effort.

A critical and essential skill for any art service manager is project management—the ability to organize resources--labor, budgets, materials-- and handle constraints so that a project’s goals are successfully accomplished.

Fine Art Movement and Storage: Project Management for the Visual Arts is a practical handbook for developing and managing multi-faceted projects from the project manager’s point of view, including estate moves, exhibition planning for preparators, storage setup, planning and maintenance, storage movement and planning, collection relocations, traveling exhibitions, art fairs, and the prioritizing of overlapping projects.

It covers complex and advanced project management issues such as:

• Identifying your stake holders and foreseeing potential stake holder conflicts,
• Identifying the project’s goals and parameters,
• Outlining goals for initial and follow-up site visits,
• Guidelines for conducting a site visit,
• Planning for art and material staging,
• Estimating and quoting time, labor, and materials,
• Understanding and estimating hard and soft costs in your budget,
• Planning for contingencies,
• Developing budgets and timelines,
• Scheduling overlapping tasks,
• Creating daily goal sheets and project punch lists,
• Training and staffing your crew,
• Assigning crew leaders,
• Delegating project responsibilities,
• Managing quality control and industry standards,
• Understanding project completion, post completion, and follow up, and
• Managing multiple projects.

Over 50 graphics help to make this a book you’ll use every day. Every art institution, art service company and individual that manages projects or anticipates a project will need and want to have access to this book as a resource, as a reference and as a training tool.

About this title

About the Author

Chuck Agro has held several management positions in the art service industry. He has been a head preparator and operations manager for major commercial galleries and artist run non-profits. He has been the director of a university gallery as well as the general manager of a major art shipping company. Chuck has also taught, managed and trained staff outside of the art service industry and he was familiar with a workflow that also included managed projects in addition to daily activity. While working in NYC for a national art shipping company Chuck realized there was a need for project management skills in the industry. By using a cost analysis of the untapped project market, he convinced the company to allow him to work as their NYC project representative managing quotes and project design for agents throughout the country. As requests for his services multiplied Chuck began to train others to work with him. Chuck developed a system of quoting, estimating and service management and with the company’s encouragement began to train several other art handlers to become project managers. The team and training that Chuck developed were exceptionally successful and the attention they received led to larger and more complex projects. Chuck has been the project manager for several major Museum, Corporate and Private Collection relocations training new staff for each new relocation. Chuck is currently the Packing and Art Services Manager for the Metropolitan Museum of Art where he is responsible for the Museum’s packing room and crate shop as well as project management for art movement and storage. He is responsible for all art project related quotes and project supervision and manages all internal and contractor bids including all quote guidelines and all on-site and off-site project management and vendor relations. He is responsible for vetting and managing all existing and potential off-site storage facilities. For several years Chuck has taught a popular class in project management and object care for NYU and he also has a blog, “Project Management for the Arts” where he writes to share his knowledge with others

Chuck has served in Art Management positions for Marian Goodman Gallery and Ronald Feldman Gallery and has been the New York Special Projects and General Manager for Fine Arts Express, a national art services/transportation company. Chuck has held positions as the Director of The University of Buffalo’s Bethune Gallery and the Preparator for HALLWALLS an artist run alternative gallery.

Chuck is also an exhibiting artist and curator and has a BFA and an MFA in painting. As an Instructor for NYU’s School of Professional Studies Chuck teaches “Object Care and Display for Collections Managers”. In 2014 he received an NYU Teaching Excellence Award for this class.

Review

A critical resource volume written by the Master of Art Service Project Management. In clearly organized sections, written in lucid and confidence-inspiring prose, Chuck Agro distills his years of experience in art handing, movement, and management into an essential field guide that ranges from the practical—budgets, materials, space allocation, schedules—to the inevitable—people, contingency plans, pivots—and sets up any project for success. A must-read for museum, gallery, and private work. (Carrie Rebora Barratt, CEO and President, The New York Botanical Garden)

In my many years of working with Chuck Agro, he has taught me everything I could possibly need to know about project management in the art world. In the time it takes you to read this book, you will learn all of the lessons that took me years. From simple collections movement to more complicated storage planning, Chuck’s strategies will give you everything you need to successfully plan your project and ensure the safety of your collection. (Sarah Ann Boyd, Senior Registrar, Museum of Isalmic Art)

Understanding the nuanced and interwoven relationship between client and contractor is crucial. In 2002 Chuck was with a commercial art service working with our curators, conservators and registrars on the temporary relocation of our museum collection storage. He expertly coordinated packing and transporting thousands of challenging works of art over many months. Not only were we on time and on budget, the long-term stewardship for the art was strengthened. Fine Art Movement and Storage: Project Management for the Visual Arts (A Handbook for Estimating, Quoting, Budgeting and Managing Projects for the Visual Arts) is a much-needed resource in the industry. (Ramona Bronkar Bannayan, Senior Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Collections, The Museum of Modern Art)

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 153811559X
• ISBN 13: 9781538115596
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 220