What Is Art Crating?
Art crating is the practice of building a wooden enclosure around one specific artwork, sized to that object and engineered to take the loading, the road vibration, the air freight, and the unloading so the work does not. Atelier 4 builds five configurations — travel frame, commercial, multiuse, museum, and slat — and all of them are stamped to ISPM-15 for export.
What is art crating, and how is it different from packing?
Packing is what goes around the object. Crating is what goes around the packing.
A crate is a structure. Its job is to absorb the forklift, the dock drop, six hours of road vibration, and the pressure change in an aircraft hold, and to keep all of it from reaching the artwork. The soft material inside does the opposite job: it holds the work still and keeps it from touching anything hard.
Not everything needs a crate. A short local move in a dedicated truck, with a handler riding along, is often better served by a slipcase, a collared soft-pack, or a folio. Crating is what you specify when the work will be stacked, flown, left on a dock overnight, or handled by people who have never seen it before.
How many kinds of art crates are there?
Five, and the differences are not decoration.
Four of them form a ladder. A travel frame is the lightest thing that still counts as a crate: a 1×6 pine frame with battens glued, stapled, and screwed to the back, and battens across the front at 12–16" spacing. The work is held by Oz-Clips screwed to its back and bolted through the rear batten with a wing nut and lock washer. Coroplast sheeting can go on front and back, which does away with poly wrapping. Galleries running work on a shuttle every month specify these, because on a shuttle you are paying for weight and volume, and a travel frame has very little of either.
A commercial crate is the first fully enclosed box. ACX plywood — .75" on the sides, top, and bottom, .5" front and back — over #2 pine battens and end blocks, with a Weather-Ex lined interior, a neoprene gasket at the lid, polyethylene foam bumpers, and a .1875" cardboard tray. Every joint glued, stapled, and screwed. It is the economical enclosed option for domestic transit.
A multiuse crate is the same idea built better. Over-locking top and bottom panels, 1"×4" pine top cleats, Tyvek in place of Weather-Ex, and a foamcore tray in place of cardboard. This is what most interstate shuttle work travels in, and it holds up on international runs where the object does not need insulation.
A museum crate is where the insulation and the closure change. MDO plywood with a Rain Guard exterior and a polyurethane clear coat, an over-locking structural design, Tyvek plus a full 2" of polyurethane insulation, 2" foam runners holding the object off the shell, and a 5" foamcore tray and lid. It closes on bolt plates: 5/16" hex bolts with a serrated flange into a striker plate. That last detail is the one registrars ask about, because screws in plywood lose their purchase after a few cycles, and a crate coming apart and going back together at three venues needs a closure that seals the third time the way it did the first.
The fifth is not on that ladder. A slat crate is an open frame — 1×6 pine slats over an ACX plywood tray base, with all four walls and the lid individually removable — braced with 2×4 cross members and foam or webbing, or a 2×4 with a shackle when the object needs to hang rather than sit. Coroplast can be added to the walls if the work needs shielding as well as air. You specify one when the object is an awkward shape, when it needs ventilation, or when handlers need to see what they are holding before they decide where to grip it.
All five ride on 3.5" structural skids, 1.5" on small crates, so a pallet jack has something to lift that is not the crate itself.
| Configuration | Shell | Closure | Interior | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travel FrameLightest option | 1×6 pine frame · battens glued, stapled, and screwed to the back · front battens at 12–16″ void spacing | Epoxy-coated dual-bit flange head screws on the front battens | Oz-Clips screwed to the artwork back, bolted through the rear batten with wing nut and lock washer · optional Coroplast front and back, which replaces poly wrapping · foam runner blocking available instead of Oz-Clips · custom-depth frames for works with build-up | Framed paintings and works on panel · high-volume shuttle routes · museum and gallery loans · cost-sensitive domestic transports |
| CommercialEconomical enclosed | ACX plywood — .75″ sides, top, and bottom; .5″ front and back · reinforced #2 pine battens and end blocks · 3.5″ skids · all joints glued, stapled, and screwed | Economical screw closure · epoxy-coated dual-bit (Phillips & Robertson) flange head screws | Moisture-impermeable Weather-Ex lined panels · neoprene gasket at the lid · polyethylene foam bumpers · .1875″ cardboard tray and lid · object labeling and packing-list integration | Domestic transports · interstate shuttle routes · museum and gallery exhibitions · private collector relocations |
| MultiuseMost shuttle work | ACX plywood panels · over-locking top and bottom · reinforced #2 pine battens and end blocks · 3.5″ skids · 1″×4″ pine top cleats | Economical screw closure · epoxy-coated dual-bit flange head screws · serviceable in domestic handling environments | Moisture-impermeable Tyvek-lined panels · neoprene gasket at the lid · polyethylene foam bumpers · .1875″ foamcore tray and lid · object labeling integration | Interstate shuttle routes · museum and gallery exhibitions · private collector relocations · domestic and international transports |
| MuseumHighest grade | MDO plywood panels · over-locking structural design · reinforced #2 pine battens and end blocks · 3.5″ skids · Rain Guard exterior · polyurethane clear coat | Bolt plates · 5/16″ hex bolt with serrated flange into a striker plate · built for repeatable institutional use | Moisture-impermeable Tyvek lining · neoprene gasket seal · fully lined with 2″ polyurethane insulation foam · 2″ polyurethane foam runners · 5″ foamcore tray and lid | Museum loans · international freight · multi-country exhibitions · climate-sensitive works · high-value institutional collections |
| SlatOpen frame | 1×6 pine vertical and cross slats, glued and stapled · ACX plywood tray base, glued and screwed · 3.5″ skids · fully breakaway: all four walls and the lid removable | Epoxy-coated dual-bit flange head screws on all four sides and the lid | Interior directed by the object · 2×4 cross bracing with foam and/or webbing · 2×4 bracing with shackle for suspended objects · optional Coroplast sheeting on the wall panels | Works needing ventilation or visual access in transit · complex or irregular profiles · domestic and regional transports · museum and gallery exhibitions |
All five ride on 3.5″ structural skids, 1.5″ on small crates. All timber is pre-screened to ISPM-15 so crates are not held at the border.
Which one does your work need?
Value and fragility come first. A panel painting, an unstable surface, anything glazed, and anything with a condition history already on file all argue upward.
Then the route. Air freight and multi-leg international transit argue for museum grade. One climate-controlled truck leg on a scheduled route usually does not, and a framed painting making that trip every month probably wants a travel frame.
Then how many times the crate opens. A work going to three venues needs a closure built for three venues, and that is the entire argument for bolt plates.
Climate exposure comes last, and it is about the hours the work spends in a cargo hold or sitting on a dock, not the hours it spends driving.
A crate shop that asks about all four is doing its job. One that quotes from dimensions alone is guessing, and you find out which when the crate arrives.
What are fine art crates made of?
Six things, and none of them are exotic.
The shell is exterior-grade plywood — MDO on a museum crate, ACX on the others — over a structure of solid pine: battens stiffening the panels, end blocks at the corners, skids underneath. Inside, a moisture barrier lines the panels, Tyvek on most configurations and Weather-Ex on the commercial. A neoprene gasket compresses at the lid, because without one the lid is just a seam, and a seam admits dust and humidity. Foam does the cushioning: 2" of polyurethane in a museum crate, doing thermal work as much as shock work, or polyethylene bumpers elsewhere, doing shock work only. And the tray at the bottom — foamcore, or cardboard on a commercial crate — is cut to the work, which is also why a crate is not a container you reuse for the next thing that comes along. It fits one object.
One of those six decides whether the shipment clears customs, and it is not the one most people expect. The plywood shell is exempt from ISPM-15, the international standard for wood packaging, because plywood is manufactured under heat and carries no pest risk. The solid pine gets no such exemption: battens, end blocks, skids, and cleats all have to be debarked, heat-treated, and stamped, and wood that is not can be held at the border, treated at your cost, or turned away. Atelier 4 pre-screens all timber to ISPM-15 rather than sourcing it per job, so a crate built for a domestic run can go international later without being taken apart first.
Why does it matter where the crate is built?
Because a crate shop that is not in the building is one more company in the chain, and every handoff is somewhere the schedule slips.
Atelier 4 has run its own crate shops in all four markets — New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Charlotte — for 35 years, staffed by full-time, benefited technicians rather than contract labor, with technique kept current through PACCIN, the professional network for preparators and art handlers that runs the workshops and publishes the standards this part of the trade works to. Fabrication is entirely in-house.
The practical version is that the work is handled less and travels less before it ships. Nobody trucks a painting across town to a third party's shop and back before the actual trip starts, and the people building the crate know what it is going into — so a crate headed for an interstate shuttle gets sized to the truck rather than to a catalogue, which matters when you are paying for the space it takes up. The air freight department is in the same building, which is why crate dimensions and flight bookings tend to agree with each other.
Two things at the end of a crate's life are worth asking any shipper about, because most have no answer. Atelier 4 runs crate disposal and return-packing programs, and Island of Misfit Crates, which resells sound used crates — Tyvek or another vapor barrier, gaskets, battens, skids, some with MDO — to small and mid-size museums and nonprofits at secondhand prices. A crate that fits your object and already exists is cheaper than one that has to be built, and it is one fewer tree.
That is the difference between hiring a crate shop and hiring a shipper who has one.
What does a crate shop need from you?
Five things, and a quote without them is a range, not a price:
Dimensions of the work, framed or unframed — height, width, and depth.
Medium and construction — canvas, panel, works on paper, sculpture, mixed media — and whether it is glazed.
Weight, or enough detail to estimate it.
The route and the mode — domestic truck, scheduled shuttle, or air freight — and how many stops.
Whether anyone needs to open it along the way, and who.
Send those and a crate shop can tell you which configuration the work calls for and what it costs. Send dimensions alone and you get a number built on assumptions you never saw.
Atelier 4 builds all five in-house at every location. Compare the Museum Crate and the Multiuse Crate, or start with custom fine art crating.
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Atelier 4 builds five configurations. A travel frame is a pine frame that holds a framed work on Oz-Clips, the lightest option for shuttle runs. A commercial crate is the economical enclosed box for domestic transit. A multiuse crate is the same box built better, with Tyvek lining and a foamcore tray, and is what most interstate shuttle work moves in. A museum crate adds 2" polyurethane insulation and a bolt-plate closure for loans and international freight. A slat crate is an open breakaway frame for irregular objects and works that need ventilation or visual access.
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A museum crate is the highest-grade custom crate a shop builds, made to one object's dimensions for museum loans, international freight, multi-country exhibitions, and climate-sensitive work. It combines an MDO plywood shell with a Rain Guard exterior, an interior lined with Tyvek and a full 2" of polyurethane insulation, a neoprene gasket seal, a 5" foamcore tray, and a bolt-plate closure using 5/16" hex bolts into a striker plate, so it can be opened and resealed at venue after venue without loosening.
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Exterior-grade plywood for the shell — MDO on a museum crate, ACX on the others — over a solid pine structure of battens, end blocks, and 3.5" skids that lets a forklift or pallet jack lift the crate without touching the shell. Inside: a moisture barrier, usually Tyvek, a neoprene gasket at the lid, polyurethane insulation or polyethylene foam bumpers, and a tray cut to the object in foamcore or cardboard depending on grade.
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Packing is the soft material immediately around the work — slipcases, soft-pack, folios — which holds it still and keeps it from touching anything hard. Crating is the structural wooden shell around that packing, which absorbs loading, vibration, and freight. A short local move in a dedicated truck may need packing only. Anything stacked, flown, or handled by people who have not seen the work before needs a crate.
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The solid wood does. Plywood is exempt from ISPM-15, the international standard for wood packaging, because it is manufactured under heat. The pine in a crate — battens, end blocks, skids, and cleats — has to be debarked, heat-treated, and stamped, and wood that is not can be held at the border, treated at the shipper's cost, or refused entry. Atelier 4 pre-screens all timber to ISPM-15, so a crate built for a domestic move can travel internationally without being rebuilt.