“Art Handling & Soft Packing: Assessment, Training & Professional Practices” received acceptance for the American Association of Museums (AAM) annual meeting “A Defining Moment, Museums at the Crossroads.”

The 2005 AAM Annual Meeting will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, May 1 – 5, 2005. The scheduled day and time for your workshop is:

Thursday, May 5, 2005
9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

"This hands-on workshop covers art handling, packing and crating practices in museum and commercial settings and presents techniques, methods and training programs currently in use. Covers techniques, materials, specific applications and projects. Museum and industry professionals will also cover risk assessment, current training methods and follow-up procedures.

The primary focus of this workshop is to provide attendees with the opportunity to review the practices used in their institutions to assure that they are based on the proper assessment of risk and to provide them more information on further minimizing that risk while handling, soft packing and ultimately shipping their art and artifacts.

Attendees will receive up-to-date information on professional art handling and soft packing practices, from theories to materials to actual practices in the field. Will help define what approaches work best in a successful training program. Hands-on demonstrations of products and methods.

Audience is geared to Registrarial and Preparatorial level museum employees, employees of professional art service providers, members of the insurance industry, and all other museum professionals who are interested in knowing more about the intricacies and details that must be covered when handling art and artifacts.

The importance of professional practices within the Preparations areas cannot be underscored. It is the key to enabling policy, loans, insurance coverage and proper care. It will continue to be an issue for each of us in years to come."