Public Art Services
Effectively manage the preservation of your public art collection through the active monitoring of collection condition, preventive planning, and conservation management.
Strategic Collection Care
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A collection survey is necessary to determine the conservation needs of a public art collection, to begin planning future treatments, and to triage artworks for repair and deaccesssion. SG Art Services’ Founder and Principal, Sarah Giffin, has performed and managed large-scale public art collection surveys for the following municipalities/public organizations:
- City of West Hollywood
- County of Los Angeles
- City of Berkeley
- City of Tucson
- City of Tampa
- Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) -
The first step in ensuring public art longevity is a pre-fabrication review. Pre-fabrication reviews can indicate expected areas of material instability or damage before the artwork is made, thereby mitigating future damage and asset loss. SG Art Services works with artists and commissioning agencies in the review of artwork materials, designs, and siting, and formulates a report with potential damaging agents, proposed areas of improvement, and expected future maintenance costs.
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Are there artworks within your collection that require significant amounts of repair, including: repainting, welding, and/or high-level conservation intervention? With its extensive network of conservators and art-experienced sub-contractors, SG Art Services can manage logistically complicated art repair projects, including material recommendations and ordering, sub-contractor oversight, and quality control*.
*Note: SG Art Services is not a licensed general contractor. -
One way to help maintain a public art collection is through facilities staff buy-in. Site-specific staff, landscapers, and facilities maintenance employees have the most on-the-ground contact with artworks, and are often the first to notice soiling, surface damage or deterioration. Training staff on how to appropriately mitigate soiling, what landscaping equipment is safe to use around artworks, and how to spot and report more significant damage is essential to the long-term care of a public art collection. SG Art Services provides training presentations and demonstrations to members of staff to facilitate staff engagement with the art collection.
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Creating outdoor stable artworks starts by educating artists about the materials they use for outdoor artworks. Not all paints and metals are created the same, and creating an outdoor artwork using the most stable materials can be the difference between an artwork surviving outdoors for decades and an artwork being decommissioned after 5 years due to excessive repair costs. SG Art Services can provide presentations to advanced art classes, guilds, and collectives on outdoor stable materials and expected deterioration of commonly used public art materials.
Virginia Court Motel Diver, replica, 2006. City of West Hollywood
Our Process
Client Communication
Together we discuss the needs of your collection, goals for its future preservation, and scope of the project.
On-Site Assessment
An in-person artwork/collection assessment will provide the necessary information about current condition that will inform further steps.
Artist Collaboration
We make every effort to communicate and collaborate with artists or their estates to check acceptable levels of deterioration and use, and to ensure that artist-approved materials are used in the artwork’s preservation.
Detailed Report Writing
We provide a detailed written report at the end of the project including an outline of project scope, condition assessment, maintenance recommendations, and expected future conservation costs. Detailed photographs taken during assessments are included in the report and provided to the client in digital format files.