Cleaning Hygiene Today Cleaning Hygiene Magazine
By Wesley Smith, Sales & Marketing Manager, The Clean Space
Museums and galleries are celebrated for their beautiful exhibits, rare artefacts, and inspiring artworks. Yet behind the scenes, there’s a busy group of cleaning professionals who play a crucial role in preserving these special spaces for future generations. Maintaining cultural institutions on a daily basis isn’t just about sweeping floors and dusting, it’s a highly specialised task that requires dedication and expertise.
According to Arts Professional, visitor numbers across 30 museums and art galleries sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, showed a year-on-year rise, but still remain more than 10 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. With museums facing rising costs and a constant pressure to entice visitors, efficient maintenance is crucial.
With over 20 years of experience, The Clean Space understands the unique challenges of maintaining museums, galleries and heritage centres, from conserving delicate artefacts to working around sensitive exhibits. Wesley Smith, Sales and Marketing Director at The Clean Space discusses the specialist techniques they use to ensure a spotless finish.
Our sweet spot
To deliver an effective cleaning solution for cultural venues we need to be flexible in terms of service delivery and in our approach to working with stakeholders across organisations. As the cost-of-living crisis affects school trips and footfall, and budgets are under constant scrutiny, commercial cleaners need to be able to adapt their service to meet economic requirements.
It’s crucial that we understand the unique requirements of each facility and that we’re agile and flexible in our approach, accommodating new exhibitions, sometimes on a weekly basis. By building great working relationships with our clients we can work with them to plan for future events, at the same time as delivering a consistent daily service, ensuring that both long-term objectives and immediate needs are met with efficiency and attention to detail.
The unique challenges
Museums and galleries are not like typical commercial spaces. They present a range of challenges including managing infection control with high visitor footfall; ancient, delicate and valuable objects to protect; limitations on the cleaning solutions we can use; extra security and access challenges; short closure times between exhibits and the ever-changing, dynamic mixed-use spaces with varying cleaning needs. Our cleaning operatives are not only trained in standard maintenance techniques but also on how to handle fragile items and maintain environmental conditions such as temperature and air quality.
From routine cleaning to periodic deep cleans and centralised services for washrooms, cafes, window and hard floor cleaning we help our clients to ensure their site remains clean, safe and inviting.
IKON Gallery
We’ve worked with Ikon Gallery, the internationally acclaimed contemporary art venue located in Birmingham, for over 14 years. Ikon was set up to encourage the public to engage in contemporary art and as such they change their exhibitions on a regular basis.
We look after their site 365 days a year, delivering 30 hours of specialised gallery cleaning every week. Our dedicated team ensures that this iconic cultural venue remains immaculate, preserving its valuable collections and providing visitors with a safe and clean environment.
Andy Rowen, our Regional Contract Manager for Birmingham has been responsible for overseeing the Ikon Gallery contract since mobilisation. He and his team have seen a number of changes at the site, from building closures during the Covid pandemic, to a number of budget cuts and funding increases.
“We clean the common parts and office space at Ikon, and their gallery space. They hold a new show once a quarter, from human installations to ancient artefacts which means we have to deliver a varied range of services. The gallery is also frequently used for private hire events where they entertain patrons. At the beginning of the year we’re given a schedule of events so we can plan our resources accordingly.”
Green Cleaning Practices
In recent years, museums and galleries have begun to prioritise sustainability in their operations. We work in partnership with our clients to understand their environmental commitments and to deliver eco-friendly cleaning solutions that reduce impact while maintaining high standards of cleanliness.
By using non-toxic, biodegradable products and energy-efficient cleaning equipment, we’re able to minimise carbon footprint while safeguarding the health of visitors, staff, and the exhibits. Our innovative probiotic cleaners are eco-friendly, non-toxic, and chemical-free. They utilise live beneficial microbes to naturally clean surfaces and ensure the artefacts stay spotless for longer. We also partner with a number of sustainable suppliers to manage waste in an eco-friendlier manner. This also includes shredding sensitive documents and recycling.
Conclusion
In the ever evolving world of art and culture, where conservation is just as important as curation, we play a crucial role in ensuring that museums and galleries remain clean, safe spaces for both visitors and the exhibitions. Through specialised cleaning techniques, sustainable practices and a commitment to excellence, we help to create places that instil trust, ensuring that every visit is a truly exceptional experience.
