Case Study — Galleries

Case Study: Dust Control for an Oxford Street Gallery in Paddington

A contemporary commercial gallery on the Oxford Street end of Paddington, NSW 2021, came to us in autumn 2026 with a problem that had been quietly costing it credibility. Fine dust was settling on hung works and framed glazing within days of an install, and the director had taken to cleaning the glass herself the morning of every opening. The gallery is anonymised at her request; the scope, timeline and results below are as delivered.

Diagnosis: the method was making the dust

The incumbent cleaner was not skipping the site. He was there three times a week and working hard. The problem was that every technique in his routine put particulate back into the air of a room full of unglazed works:

Dry sweeping the original boards, which aerosolises fine grit rather than collecting it
Feather dusting plinths and rails — the classic gallery mistake, moving dust rather than removing it
A domestic upright vacuum with no HEPA stage, exhausting fines straight back into the space
No high-dusting cycle at all, so lighting tracks and picture rails shed onto the works below
Visits scheduled mid-week regardless of the hang calendar, so deep work never happened while walls were bare

The rebuilt scope

We threw the old routine out rather than adding to it. The replacement program was written around two principles: never put dust into the air, and do the reachable work when the walls are empty.

HEPA-filtered vacuuming on a slow, deliberate pass — no sweeping anywhere in the building
Damp microfibre only on plinths, benches, rails, sills and the viewing room furniture
Low-moisture, pH-neutral floor care on the original boards, no saturation and no alkaline stripper
Written no-touch zone of 400mm around any work, agreed with the director and briefed to every crew member
High dusting of lighting tracks, rails, cornices and the mezzanine underside between hangs only
Pre-opening detail visit 24 hours before each launch: glazing, floors, courtyard and amenities
Packing area and courtyard managed separately so crate dust never migrates into the hanging spaces

Working to an exhibition calendar

The gallery handed over its hang schedule for the year and we built the roster around it instead of the working week. Between exhibitions, while the walls are bare and there is nothing to protect, we run a deep visit that covers everything above head height. During a show, service drops to three light-touch visits a week plus the pre-opening detail. That inversion is the whole trick: most of the heavy cleaning a gallery needs is impossible to do safely while work is hanging, so it has to be scheduled for the gap.

Access followed the same logic. Oxford Street has no rear loading here, so the crew arrives before 7am, unloads once, and works through before the street fills. Bins are presented to the Woollahra Council cycle rather than left on the footpath in front of the window.

Results

Weekly cost moved from roughly $130 to $195, plus a fixed-quoted deep visit between each hang
The director stopped hand-cleaning framed glazing before openings within two exhibition cycles
No dust-related complaint from a consigning artist since the change
Original boards have held their finish through a full year with no re-coat required
The gallery has since added its off-site storage and packing space to the same agreement

Questions we were asked along the way

What kind of gallery was this?

A contemporary commercial gallery of roughly 180 square metres at the Oxford Street end of Paddington 2021, occupying the ground floor and rear courtyard of a converted terrace. Two hanging spaces, a small viewing room, an office mezzanine and a packing area. The gallery is anonymised at the request of the director; the scope, timeline and outcomes are as delivered.

What was going wrong before?

Fine particulate was settling on works and frames within days of a hang. The incumbent cleaner was dry-sweeping the timber floor and feather-dusting, which lifts dust into the air rather than removing it, and running a domestic upright vacuum with no filtration. The director was hand-cleaning glazing on framed works herself before every opening.

What changed in the new scope?

Dry sweeping and feather dusting were removed entirely. We moved to HEPA-filtered vacuuming on a slow pass, damp microfibre on all horizontal surfaces, low-moisture pH-neutral care for the original boards, and a pre-opening detail visit timed 24 hours before each launch. Lighting track and rail high-dusting moved to a fixed cycle between hangs rather than being skipped.

How was the exhibition calendar handled?

The gallery gave us its hang schedule for the year. Between hangs we run a deep visit while walls are bare, which is when the ceiling, tracks and rails can actually be reached. During a show we run three light-touch visits per week with a strict no-touch zone within 400mm of any work, agreed in writing with the director.

What did it cost and what was the result?

Weekly spend rose from about $130 to $195 at the standard $30 to $45 per hour band, plus a fixed-quoted deep visit between hangs. Within two exhibition cycles the director stopped hand-cleaning glazing before openings, and the gallery has had no dust-related complaint from a consigning artist since the change.