Exhibition Makers’ Toolkit

It is vital that the installation and deinstallation of a touring exhibition are well managed, and carefully scheduled.

There is a wide range of reasons why a touring exhibition may benefit a temporary exhibitions programme and an organisation more broadly, conceptually and pragmatically.

Touring/tourability should be considered from the initial stages of any exhibition planning, in order to consider viability and will save time and energy at a later stage.

Evaluation is empowering, because it informs and improves future practice. Successful evaluation should make an organisation think critically and yet positively about its work, by motivating staff and by encouraging fresh and innovative thinking and approaches.

A key consideration in the development of a touring exhibition is whether or not the display furniture and/or display cases will travel with the exhibition.

All exhibitions are now likely to involve copyright and reproduction in some way.

In times of reduced funding and austerity for the heritage sector, collaboration and partnership working is a means of helping resources go further, sharing time and expertise, and opening up eligibility for funding that supports partnership.

Careful budgeting and financial planning are key to the success of a touring exhibition, particularly because expenditure and income are likely to straddle a number of financial years.

Market research and marketing go hand in hand. As exhibition galleries develop closer relationships with their visitors, through audience development work, then the role of marketing develops in significance, and market research becomes an important tool to understand the market and to discover how better to communicate with it.

There is a wide range of private sector companies and agents who offer transport, packing and other technical services to museums, galleries and exhibition organisers.

Access means different things to different people; this section looks at the institutional barriers that may inhibit or prevent access to exhibitions.