Top 12 Art Handler Skills to Put on Your Resume

Crafting a compelling resume as an art handler means showing off a rare mix of technical know-how and people-smart finesse. You’re the guardian, the calm in the chaos, the one who can move, protect, and present artworks without a whisper of harm. Spotlight the top art handler skills on your resume to rise above the stack and signal that you’ve got the precision, care, and judgment to safeguard any collection.

Art Handler Skills

1. Packaging
2. Installation
3. Inventory Management
4. Condition Reporting
5. ArtBase
6. Climate Control
7. Custom Crating
8. Art Handling
9. Preventive Conservation
10. Security Protocols
11. Rigging
12. Fine Art Shipping

1. Packaging

Packaging, in the context of an Art Handler, is the deliberate preparation and securing of artworks for transport or storage using materials and methods that shield them from shocks, vibration, moisture, dust, and rough handling.

Why It's Important

Packaging protects the art from damage, deterioration, and loss during every handoff and mile traveled. Good packaging buys time and safety.

How to Improve Packaging Skills

Improve packaging by leaning into protection, efficiency, and sustainability:

1. Protection: Choose inert, shock-absorbent materials such as acid-free papers, polyethylene foams, bubble wrap with smooth interleaves, and corner/edge guards. Match the method to the medium and fragility.

2. Efficiency: Build reusability into the design. Modular crates, adjustable braces, and labeled components speed installs and cut waste.

3. Sustainability: Use recycled boards, biodegradable wraps, and right-size packing to reduce material use without compromising safety. The American Alliance of Museums offers guidance on greener practices.

Dial these in and you’ll boost safety, curb waste, and make loading docks calmer places.

How to Display Packaging Skills on Your Resume

2. Installation

Installation is the careful placement and securing of artworks in a space so they read as intended—level, safe, and true to the curatorial plan.

Why It's Important

A solid install protects the work and honors the artist’s intent. It also makes the viewing experience sing.

How to Improve Installation Skills

Sharpen installation by prioritizing precision, safety, and clean presentation:

1. Plan Ahead: Review floor plans, elevations, and object lists. Mock up spacing digitally and walk the route.
2. Use the Right Tools: Laser levels, stud finders, torque-limited drivers, anchors rated for substrate. No guesswork.
3. Handling Care: Gloves when appropriate, two-person carries, never lift by frames or projections. Follow medium-specific guidance.
4. Measure Accurately: Measure twice, mark once. Confirm sightlines, centerlines, and hanging heights with a laser and a scale rule.
5. Lighting: Position to avoid glare and hot spots. Control lux and UV exposure for sensitive works.
6. Security: French cleats, security hangers, safety cables, and tested anchors matched to weight and wall type.
7. Condition Reports: Document before and after the install. Archive photos and notes consistently.

How to Display Installation Skills on Your Resume

3. Inventory Management

Inventory management means tracking artworks—locations, movements, conditions, and documentation—so nothing goes missing and everything is where it should be, when it should be.

Why It's Important

It protects against loss, speeds access, and keeps exhibitions, loans, and sales moving without headaches.

How to Improve Inventory Management Skills

1. Adopt a Digital System: Use art-focused platforms to record object data, locations, movement logs, and condition notes. Artlogic and ArtBase are common choices.

2. Audit Regularly: Schedule physical spot checks and full counts. Reconcile discrepancies fast.

3. Label and Document: Stable, legible labels. Complete metadata: artist, title, dimensions, media, crate IDs, photos. Tools like ArtSystems can help standardize records.

4. Just-in-Time Supplies: Keep core materials on hand; order specialty items as needed to save space and cash.

5. Tighten Security: Role-based permissions for systems, secure storage zones, movement logs with sign-offs.

6. Train the Team: Standard operating procedures, checklists, and refresher training to cut errors.

7. Use RFID/Barcodes: Speed inventories and reduce manual entry. Handheld scanners make it painless.

How to Display Inventory Management Skills on Your Resume

4. Condition Reporting

Condition reporting is the careful description—backed by photos—of an artwork’s state before, during, and after handling or travel. No guesswork, no ambiguity.

Why It's Important

It builds accountability and creates a defensible record for conservation, loans, and insurance. If anything changes, you’ll know when and how.

How to Improve Condition Reporting Skills

1. Standardize: Use consistent forms, fields, and terminology. Getty’s vocabulary resources are useful references.

2. Photograph Everything: Multiple angles, raking light, and scale references. Close-ups for every anomaly.

3. Details Matter: Note abrasions, craquelure, warping, loose hardware, waviness—however small.

4. Train Regularly: Workshops and peer reviews keep techniques sharp. ARCS offers strong resources.

5. Go Digital: Platforms such as Articheck streamline consistency, time stamps, and media management.

6. Collaborate: Conservators and curators can flag material-specific risks and preferred terminology.

How to Display Condition Reporting Skills on Your Resume

5. ArtBase

ArtBase is collection management software used to catalog, track, and report on artworks and related data. For art handlers, it’s a hub for locations, movement logs, condition notes, and shipping details.

Why It's Important

It centralizes information, reduces errors, and speeds coordination across teams—registrars, handlers, logistics, and sales—so nothing slips.

How to Improve ArtBase Skills

Get more out of ArtBase by improving how you use it:

1. Training: Complete core and advanced modules. Learn batch updates, imports, and custom views.

2. Data Standards: Define field conventions, required fields, and naming rules. Enforce them.

3. Custom Fields & Reports: Tailor to your workflows—crate IDs, mount types, hardware, courier notes. Build saved reports for installs, loans, and condition checks.

4. Integrations: Sync with inventory scanners, shipping calendars, and image libraries where possible. Reduce double entry.

5. Permissions & Security: Use role-based access and multi-factor authentication. Log edits and movements.

6. Data Hygiene: Schedule audits for duplicates, missing fields, and outdated locations. Fix at the source.

7. Documentation: Maintain quick-reference guides and SOPs so every handler enters data the same way.

How to Display ArtBase Skills on Your Resume

6. Climate Control

Climate control is the management of temperature, relative humidity, air quality, and light exposure to minimize deterioration risks to artworks.

Why It's Important

Fluctuations warp wood, crack paint, invite mold, and fade dyes. Stable conditions are preservation’s silent hero.

How to Improve Climate Control Skills

1. Monitor: Use calibrated data loggers, hygrometers, and thermometers. Track trends, not just snapshots.

2. Humidity: Keep RH stable—commonly 40–55% depending on the collection—with minimal daily swings.

3. Temperature: Aim for roughly 18–22°C (64–72°F), avoiding rapid changes. Stability beats perfection.

4. Air Quality: HEPA filtration and pollutant control reduce dust and off-gassing risks.

5. Light Management: Use UV-protective glazing and limit lux for light-sensitive works. Control exposure time.

6. Maintenance: Service HVAC and replace filters on schedule. Log checks to preempt failures.

How to Display Climate Control Skills on Your Resume

7. Custom Crating

Custom crating is designing and building protective enclosures tailored to the artwork’s dimensions, fragility, and travel plan.

Why It's Important

A well-built crate neutralizes vibration, cushions shocks, buffers climate change, and makes every handoff safer.

How to Improve Custom Crating Skills

1. Choose the Right Materials: Sturdy plywood shells, cross-braced where needed; inert foam; acid-free interleaves; vapor barriers when required.

2. Custom Fit: Immobilize the object with adjustable pads, blocks, trays, or cavity cuts. No rattle, no slip.

3. Climate Buffering: Include silica gel or other buffering where RH stability matters. Add ports for checks.

4. Secure Closures: Use hardware that’s strong yet field-serviceable—clearly labeled screws, latches, and torque notes.

5. Clear Instructions: Exterior labels for orientation, center of gravity, and team-lift markers. Interior placards for unpack steps.

6. Keep Learning: Reference museum packing guidelines and attend workshops to stay current with evolving materials and methods.

How to Display Custom Crating Skills on Your Resume

8. Art Handling

Art handling covers safe packing, moving, installing, and storing artworks so their condition and integrity remain intact.

Why It's Important

It protects value and meaning. It’s how cultural heritage makes it to the next audience—and the next generation.

How to Improve Art Handling Skills

1. Get Trained: Seek courses and workshops through professional organizations and museums. Shadow experienced handlers.

2. Master Packing Basics: Match materials to media. Build layers. Float, never force.

3. Safety First: PPE, proper lifts, dollies, ramps, and team communication. Follow OSHA-aligned practices.

4. Use Proper Tools: Archival supplies, non-marring tools, torque-limited drivers, and rated hardware.

5. Keep Current: Read trade publications and attend clinics. New materials and methods appear often.

6. Practice: Repetition under guidance builds instincts you can’t fake.

7. Network: Share tips and lessons learned—problems solved together don’t recur alone.

How to Display Art Handling Skills on Your Resume

9. Preventive Conservation

Preventive conservation is the set of actions that reduce the chance of future damage—environmental control, good handling, clean storage, vigilant monitoring, and smart planning.

Why It's Important

It stretches the lifespan of artworks by cutting risks before they bite. Quiet work with big impact.

How to Improve Preventive Conservation Skills

1. Environmental Control: Stabilize temperature and RH; minimize swings. Reference guidance from conservation institutes.

2. Light Management: Control lux, block UV, and limit exposure duration, especially for sensitive media.

3. Handling & Transport: Use best practices for movement, packing, and mounting. Follow medium-specific cautions.

4. Pest Management: Implement integrated pest management: monitoring, exclusion, cleaning, and safe treatment protocols.

5. Emergency Preparedness: Maintain an updated plan, with salvage priorities, contacts, and supplies ready to deploy.

How to Display Preventive Conservation Skills on Your Resume

10. Security Protocols

Security protocols are the procedures that guard artworks from theft, tampering, mishandling, and environmental threats—on the floor, in storage, and on the road.

Why It's Important

Artworks are irreplaceable. Good security closes gaps before they’re exploited and documents what happens when something goes wrong.

How to Improve Security Protocols Skills

1. Risk Assessments: Identify vulnerabilities across facilities, transport, and digital systems. Tools from art loss and museum security groups can guide you.

2. Physical Security: Controlled access, alarms, cameras, tamper-evident seals, and secure mounts. Layer defenses.

3. Data Security: Strong passwords, MFA, role-based access, encrypted backups, and regular audits following cybersecurity guidance.

4. Secure Transport: Vetted couriers, GPS tracking, sealed crates, and discreet routing.

5. Staff Training: Drills, sign-off procedures, and escalation paths. Refresh frequently.

6. Incident Response: Clear reporting lines, documentation templates, and coordination with law enforcement.

7. Collaboration: Build relationships with security networks and registries to aid prevention and recovery.

How to Display Security Protocols Skills on Your Resume

11. Rigging

Rigging is the controlled lifting, moving, and positioning of large or heavy artworks using hoists, slings, gantries, and related gear.

Why It's Important

It prevents catastrophic drops and hidden stresses. Safe rigging keeps both people and artworks out of danger.

How to Improve Rigging Skills

1. Learn the Fundamentals: Load calculations, sling angles, center of gravity, working load limits, and hardware selection.

2. Hands-On Training: Practice under supervision with real equipment. Rehearse lifts before the real lift.

3. Safety Culture: Pre-lift meetings, clear commands, spotters, and stop-work authority for everyone on the team.

4. Right Tools: Rated slings, spreader bars, softeners, non-marring contact points, and redundant safety where feasible.

5. Certifications: Pursue rigging certifications recognized in your region to validate competence.

6. Keep Current: Track updates to standards and hardware. Inspect gear before every use; retire anything suspect.

How to Display Rigging Skills on Your Resume

12. Fine Art Shipping

Fine art shipping covers professional packing, routing, transport, customs coordination, and delivery—while maintaining climate, security, and documentation standards from door to door.

Why It's Important

Transit is risky. Specialized planning and handling preserve condition, provenance, and value through every transfer.

How to Improve Fine Art Shipping Skills

1. Packaging: Use custom crates, interior cushioning, and stable, inert materials tailored to the work’s medium and vulnerability.

2. Climate Control: Specify climate-controlled vehicles and staging areas. Monitor and log conditions.

3. Insurance: Confirm wall-to-wall coverage with accurate values and clear terms. Document conditions meticulously.

4. Documentation: Movement orders, condition reports, photos, customs paperwork, and chain-of-custody logs—complete and consistent.

5. Trained Personnel: Couriers and drivers briefed on handling protocols, security, and emergency procedures.

6. Security: Discreet routing, GPS tracking, sealed crates, and limited stops. Need-to-know itinerary sharing.

7. Direct Routes: Fewer transfers mean fewer risks. Choose the most direct path practical.

8. Regulatory Compliance: Know import/export restrictions, CITES, cultural property laws, and customs requirements well before ship dates.

How to Display Fine Art Shipping Skills on Your Resume