In the last four weeks articles, we’ve been talking about how to protect your fine art photography from some form of hazard it may encounter in your home.  So this week, we’re concluding our discussion of these dangers your fine art might face.  We’ve covered acid, sunlight, UV, and falls.  Each is its own problem to prevent.  Finally, this week, we’re covering how to protect fine art against the dangers of dirt and grime.  That’s it: protection from grime.

5. Protection From Grime

Let’s face it.  Life happens.  Things get dirty.  They get dirty just from sitting there and having dust settle on them.  This is why we have to clean things from time to time.  Our wall art is sadly no different.  We must take some time and clean off the tops of our wall art occasionally.  However, this is usually the worst of the grime you will have to deal with when it comes to your fine art but there are exceptions.

Since your fine art giclée photo is probably framed behind some glass, it should be much easier to keep the paper of the photo itself clean.  This is part of the reason for framing fine art.  However, the glass and the frame will require some cleaning from time to time.  Your bigger worries for protecting your fine art from grime come from mold and mildew (mostly a concern in wet climates only), unframed works of art, or even little children.

For really high end fine art in wet climates, you will need to look into some form of climate control for protecting your artwork.  That particular topic is beyond the scope of this article.  Perhaps we’ll discuss that topic at some point in a future article.

If you’re using fine art giclée prints, and you probably are if you’re reading this article, you won’t likely be displaying them on the wall unframed.  That’s just how we work in this society.  Fine art photography goes in a picture frame.  Exceptions would be if it was printed on canvas, metal, acrylic, or wood.  Each has it’s place and its own cleaning requirements.

Finally, your last source of grime is from children.  Even older children can contribute to the problem.  You simply cannot control what little children will decide to throw at what and where it will land.  It could easily be on your fine art.  For that, you will need to clean up the mess as quickly as possible so that any liquid the mess has will not drip down into the frame and stain things.  If you went with an acrylic protective front, please make sure to not scratch it if you can.

For some tips on how to do regular cleaning of your fine art, check out this article here.

Conclusion

In conclusion, protecting your fine art from grime is more about preventive measures than anything else.  A proper frame with glass will do most of the work for you.  Your biggest cleaning worries are everyday dusting most of the time.  If you do have other sources, such as climate or children, you will need to take the necessary steps to proactively prevent grime from ever being a problem with your fine art.  Protection from grime is important.

So, thanks for checking out our series on protecting your fine art from lots of different hazards.  If you have an experience keeping fine art clean or found something we missed, please share in the comments section.  We hope you have beautiful fine art for years to come thanks to your prevention work.