A few years ago, I tried to do something about the lack of professional standards in our industry. I began developing the foundations of an Art Technical Standards Committee, with the aim of creating documented, shared professional standards that training and development could sit behind. A reference point for the sector. Something that would give meaning to phrases like "best practice" and "professional baseline" rather than leaving them open to individual interpretation.

There was genuine interest, people were willing, and the conversations were really good. But the scale of the task became clear very quickly to me. Mapping competencies across different role types, defining terminology that works across institutions of vastly different sizes and collection types, aligning approaches to handling, installation, packing, storage, documentation and condition reporting, building governance structures, managing consultation and administration across siloed organisations and businesses and freelancer workers — this is not a spare-time project.

It stalled. Not because the need wasn't there — the need was absolutely there — but because doing it properly requires time, infrastructure, administrative support and resources that simply weren't available at that time. That in itself tells you something important about how seriously we resource solutions to problems we all agree exist.

But here's what makes it more frustrating. Standards do exist in this sector. Large, well-funded institutions — the Tates, the national museums, the major international organisations — have developed their own internal standards, with documented procedures, competency frameworks, and training programmes built around them. And those standards are often excellent. But they stay inside those institutions. They are not shared, they are not made available to the wider sector, and they are not used as the foundation for something that could benefit everyone — the regional museum with a small technical team, the freelancer working across multiple organisations, the emerging technician trying to understand what good looks like.

We are working in silos and the sector as a whole is poorer for it.

The institutions that have developed strong internal standards should be asking themselves how that knowledge could be shared more broadly — not giving away competitive advantage, but contributing to a sector that everyone, including them, depends on being functional and skilled. A conversation between a major institution's technical standards team and a regional organisation trying to develop their own procedures could be genuinely transformative, but those conversations aren't happening consistently or systematically.

And it's not just institutions that need to be part of this conversation. Organisations like BECTU Art Technician, CVAN, the Museums Association, and training providers who work across multiple institutions and regions all see patterns across the sector that no single institution can see from the inside. That collective knowledge is exactly what a standards development process needs, and it's currently sitting untapped in conversations, surveys, training rooms and years of accumulated professional experience.

At ArtTechSpace, the training we deliver is grounded in that cross-sector perspective. We work with organisations of different sizes, in different regions, with different collection types, and we see where standards are strong and where they are absent. We understand what skills are consistently lacking and where inconsistency creates the most risk. And we want to do something about it.

We are looking for organisations, institutions and individuals who want to help build a universal standard for the art technical industry — whether that's contributing staff time, sharing existing internal standards and frameworks, offering administrative support, or simply being part of the conversation. This doesn't have to wait for funding to get started. It has to be prioritised. If your organisation has documented technical standards and would be willing to share them as a foundation for something sector-wide, we want to hear from you. If you have time, expertise or resource to contribute to this work, we want to hear from you. And if you are a funder or professional body who believes this sector deserves proper investment in its professional infrastructure, we really want to hear from you.

Because the alternative is what we have now — excellent standards locked inside well-funded institutions, a wider sector making it up as it goes, and a standards committee that couldn't get off the ground because nobody could resource it properly. We can do better than this, but it requires institutions, training providers, professional bodies and funders to stop working in isolation and start building something together. The knowledge exists in this sector to create genuinely world-class technical standards. We just haven't decided to share it yet.

Get in touch: contact@arttechspace.com or respond to this article.

Does your organisation have documented technical standards — and if so, are they shared beyond your walls? And would you be willing to contribute to building something that works for the whole sector — not just the best resourced?

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