How To Become An Art Preparator: What It Is and Career Path

What is an art preparator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an art preparator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.78 an hour? That's $59,856 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 4,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreArt PreparatorUS Average

Salary

4.7

Avg. Salary $59,856

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.6

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.42%

Asian 3.55%

Black or African American 5.36%

Hispanic or Latino 7.50%

Unknown 4.65%

White 77.53%

Gender

female 21.67%

male 78.33%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

4.6

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

8.7

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an art preparator

Explore art preparator education requirements

Most common art preparator degrees

Bachelor's

71.2 %

Master's

13.6 %

Associate

13.6 %

Start to develop specific art preparator skills

Skills	Percentages
Art Exhibitions	34.43%
Art Installation	21.30%
Art Preparation	21.00%
Museum Standards	14.60%
Condition Reports	8.67%

Complete relevant art preparator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New art preparators learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an art preparator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real art preparator resumes.

Research art preparator duties and responsibilities

Manage graphic arts department and camera and typesetting departments.
Work on set design and advance photo editing including color swapping and color correcting for commercial photography studio.
Generate quotes for custom screen print and embroidery projects that require art time and or outside service bureau charges.

Prepare your art preparator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your art preparator resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an art preparator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable art preparator resume templates

Build a professional art preparator resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your art preparator resume.