PACCIN Chats is an online series of short presentations, interviews and discussions on a wide variety of topics ...

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In planning for the 2019 PACCIN Preparators Conference in Amsterdam, we chose to dedicate
more time to two topics ...

Bianca L. Ruthven
Departmental Assistant for the Registrar’s Office and the Art Preparation & Installation Department, Carnegie Museum of Art

This past July we started to gear up for the installation of the 56^th iteration of the Carnegie International exhibition. This exhibition, which reoccurs every four years, is Carnegie Museum of Art’s largest and most visible project, making it a very exciting and complex venture and a very challenging installation for a museum of our modest size.

One of the goals of our newly formed Art Preparation and Installation (API) department was to evaluate the way we manage our projects and tasks to become more efficient and to improve how our team members communicate with one another and with other departments. Outlined below are a few tools we have implemented to help us:
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on right: Mark Slattery

On a recent trip to London I contacted Mark Slattery of the National Gallery to see if he had time for a visit and would be willing to answer a few questions for something I was thinking of putting together for PACCIN. Mark is a Senior Art Handler at the National Gallery and someone who I had met at the PACCIN Conference in Williamstown, MA a few years back. At the conference in Williamstown, Mark gave a presentation on the handling equipment that has been specifically developed by him and his colleagues at the National Gallery. My questions to Mark, however, were more general in nature and were more about structure and responsibility. Mark was kind enough to spend the better part of a day showing me around and talking to me. Between my visit with Mark and spending time with the collection, the day was a fantastic experience that I am grateful to have had. My thanks to both Mark and his supervisor, Patrick O’Sullivan, who is the Head of Art Handling and spent some time talking to me early on in the day.

Dialogue (conducted via email prior to, and post visit)

Do art handling technicians fall under a larger departmental umbrella at the National Gallery and if so can you briefly describe the ...

OK, so this is it - my very favorite PACIN Article ever!
I am not entirely sure what that says about me as an individual but as a result I feel inclined to subject you to a brief (in Ashley terms) intro which you may find is nowhere near brief enough to suit your tastes. Oh well...

The Story-
On the way to the PACIN booth located in the AAM Museum Expo in LA this year, while generally scoping things out - getting the lay of the land (or rippley temporary carpet to be more accurate) ...