Painting a museum is a big deal for a commercial painting company. Working in a museum and preparing for an exhibit requires a certain responsibility. Ecopainting completed many projects for Toronto museums.
We love doing this type of facility services painting work, and we do it well. It takes experience and “drop everything else” kind, last minute availability. The painters must be good and they must be fast. Display areas must be ready on time for the exhibit. As soon as the exhibit is over, the walls get “un-painted” and prepared for the next exhibit.
Contract to Paint the Design Exchange (DX)
The Design Exchange is a museum dedicated exclusively to the pursuit of design excellence and the preservation of design heritage. In 2007 they contracted our painting company to paint the walls for the Japanese Design Exhibit. This was a big job for us at the time. Most walls were painted with a basic white and the display windows in black. The main challenge, was painting a bright orange stripe 14 feet high, over 100 feet long. This became our first successful project at DX and we went back to paint again. Our success during that project brought us to meet our next important client:
Painters for the Bata Shoe Museum.
We were first contracted to paint at the Bata Shoe Museum in the spring of 2012. The project was to paint in the main exhibit area. It was quite an elaborate space, consisting of many columns, archways, walls, wainscoting and decorative trim. We worked along with Sarah, their Exhibitions and Public Programs Manager, and her chosen colour to paint everything, was Benjamin Moore’s Snowfall White.
We primed most of the columns, where they were two-tone, as well as the inner curves of the arches, some walls, crown moulding and trim, making it easier to get to the full strength of the White. Low VOC paints were used. Regal Select Ultimatte on the walls and Aura eggshell on the trim.
The Bata Shoe Museum is all about footwear and the history of shoes. Striving to tell many stories through shoes, it tells stories about history, stories about people and different cultures, stories about society. With thousands of artifacts to display, from ancient Egyptian sandals, shoes made from human hair, Chinese bound foot shoes to glitz and glamour shoes, including a collection of celebrity shoes, the Snowfall White background for the displays was perfect. We have since painted in their Conservation Lab and other office areas and continue to refresh the main window display panels back to White in preparation for their next colourful window display.
The Bata Shoe Museum is located at 327 Bloor Street West in Downtown Toronto.
The Aga Khan Museum
Painting at the Aga Khan Museum is always exciting for our painters. With an enormous amount of detail with measuring, taping and precision involved in every one of our projects there, our painters are given the opportunity to take their skills up a notch. Along with the vibrant paint colours, our painters are always pleased with the outcome, as is Sarah, the Exhibitions Manager.
“I have had the pleasure of working with the team at Ecopainting on three separate occasions, each time they have exceeded my expectations. Karon and George are so knowledgeable and the teams they send to the site are amazing, professional, tidy and personable. Ecopainting is always to amazing work with my limited budgets and they are always finished early which is great on projects that are under time pressure.”
Sarah Beam-Borg, Exhibitions Manager.
The Aga Khan Museum is located at 77 Wynford Drive in Toronto. It offers visitors an insight into the artistic, intellectual and scientific heritage of Islamic civilizations across centuries. It is also a vibrant educational institution, with lectures, dance performances, music, theatre and film screenings.
With a diverse collection of manuscripts, paintings and drawings, some dating as far back as the 8th century, they are always preparing for their next exhibit.
We mostly paint in what are called Temporary Galleries, spaces that change backgrounds to accommodate an upcoming exhibit. We work from a detailed floor plan which gives us the height, width and placement of each particular colour and we paint it all into the exact vision the Museum’s design team had in mind. Our most recent project there consisted of seven stunning colours.
The Archives of Ontario
The Archives of Ontario is the second largest archives in Canada and “provides a window into the past for all Ontarians, connecting us with our ancestors, our communities and our government.” They display and collect records, hand-written documents, drawings and maps. Some of these documents go back to the 16th century.
The Archives of Ontario is one of our museum clients and we had the opportunity to paint for them twice. Both times the paint job was at their York University location and they were preparing for exhibits. The key to that project was speed and last minute availability (like most exhibit projects). They are located at 134 Ian Macdonald Boulevard right in the heart of the York University campus.
Ecopainting wants to be known as the company that services museums, art galleries and other cultural institutions. If you are in need of our services be sure to contact us and we will become available for your project.