Technical Production for Art Exhibitions: A Guide for Curators

In most art exhibitions that include AV or technical elements, the production company arrives after the artistic decisions have been made. The artist has conceived the work. The curator has agreed the spatial arrangement. The gallery has confirmed the dates. The production company is then handed a brief and asked to make it happen.

This is a workable model for straightforward installations: a single-screen video work, a sound piece with a known speaker configuration, a projection onto a flat surface. For anything more complex, bringing the production company into the conversation earlier changes the quality of what is possible. A technical team who has contributed to the spatial thinking can identify constraints that, discovered late, become expensive problems. They can also suggest approaches the curatorial team may not know exist.

No production company should quote an exhibition installation without visiting the space. Drawings and photographs are useful but they miss things: the pillar that does not appear on the floor plan, the power circuit that is already at capacity, the ceiling cassettes that prevent rigging at the position the artist wants. A site survey is the production company's responsibility and the gallery's investment in not having problems surfaced during installation.

• ✓Power audit — Total available capacity, location of distribution boards, cable route options to the installation areas, and whether 3-phase is available if the work requires it.
• ✓Rigging assessment — What the ceiling structure can carry, where suspension points are, and what access equipment is needed for installation at height. In an operational gallery, cherry pickers need advance booking and floor protection.
• ✓Ambient light measurement — For any projection element, the ambient light level at the projection surface determines the brightness specification of the projector, which is one of the most significant cost variables in a projection-based installation.
• ✓Access and logistics — How large equipment enters the building, whether goods lifts are available, and whether there are dimension restrictions on what can be moved through the gallery without dismantling.

An exhibition install is not the same as a one-day event build. It takes days or sometimes weeks, requires multiple visits from different members of the production team, and happens in a space that is simultaneously being prepared by multiple other contractors. The coordination between the technical installation, scenic construction, object placement, and gallery redecoration needs a clear sequence before any of it starts.

• ✓A single point of contact on each side — The curator or technical coordinator and the production project manager. Not multiple people making separate calls to separate departments. When a question or decision arises on site, it needs one person to call.
• ✓A production schedule issued before install begins — Which elements are installed when, which trades are on site on which days, and what the approval gates are before the next phase begins.
• ✓Artist access managed deliberately — If the artist is attending the install, when and in what capacity. An artist who arrives to review progress mid-install and decides to redirect the technical approach significantly needs to be accommodated through a change management process, not an informal conversation with a crew member.