To ensure quality and safety in hanging your art, I use assistants in the following circumstances:
- When items may be too large or too heavy for one installer to safely handle. This is not for lifting the item off the ground–that’s usually easy enough. It’s for lifting it several feet high and maneuvering it onto the wall hangers.
- When I am going to be working on a ladder to hang multiple items. Even with smaller or medium-sized items, an installer should whenever practicable stay on the ladder and have the art handed up to him. This is for the safety of the art and of the installer.
- When I expect to be hanging more than about 20 pieces, or multiple challenging pieces.
- When scheduling demands it.
An assistant does not add to your bill. He or she is either absolutely necessary (as in 1, above) or simply makes the job go faster by doing some of the more tedious tasks though working at a significantly lower hourly rate than an installer. My assistants are trained to be as close to 100% productive as possible.