The training takes place 10:00 – 12:00 on Wednesday 11 February 2026.
In recently commissioned research, 76% of institutions say that they rely on core funds to balance the cost of implementing exhibition programmes, yet 69% of organisations did not include hosting exhibitions within their strategy.
This training will help participants ensure their exhibitions programmes are strategic: delivering for organisational aims, audience development and their own aims as creative programmers.
The training will cover:
- What does being strategic mean?
- Why the exhibition programme needs to be strategic
- Factors to build into your programme
- Audience
- Financial considerations
- Benefits of Touring
- Challenges
- Exhibitions Policy
- Evaluation and Advocacy
This training would benefit anyone already in, or looking to move into, a senior exhibitions manager / venue manager / public programming type of roles, or anyone with responsibility for programming within their organisation.
By the end of this training participants will
- Understand key principles of programming and be able to apply a checklist of considerations when making programming decisions
- Know how to approach exhibitions’ programming to maximise impact, relevance and benefit to your organisation
- Apply strategic thinking to the content of the exhibitions programme
- Use simple approaches to analyse exhibition proposals and plan a coherent programme
- Confidently put together a programme with impact that will demonstrate strategic value.
This virtual, interactive training session is led by Reyahn King, Executive Director at The Exhibitions Group and a cultural consultant specialising in facilitation, public engagement, strategy and practical thinking. Reyahn has extensive experience of developing engaging programming to increase diverse audiences at a range of organisations, including York Museums Trust, National Museums Liverpool, and Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery.
Participants will have the opportunity to work as a whole group and in small groups in breakout rooms, with time for discussions and peer sharing and learning.
The number of participants is limited to facilitate online learning and participation. The session is recorded and made available to participants (unedited and not available to download) for one week after the training finishes. The slides and training materials are sent to participants once week in advance of the training starting.
Automated closed captions are provided as standard on Zoom. Live closed captions and/or BSL can be provided if requested 3 weeks in advance of the first training session.
Please book one place per person, even if colleagues choose to join from the same computer.
We run each of our virtual trainings once a year. After this training in February 2026, we next anticipate running this training in early 2027.
