Exhibition Makers’ Toolkit

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Insurance is something that anyone organising or receiving a touring exhibition needs to understand and be aware of, most particularly establishing who is responsible for insurance at each stage in the exhibition?s life.

Taking part in an international tour, whether you are an organiser or a receiving venue, can be exciting and rewarding. Apart from extending the life of an exhibition and giving it an international audience, an overseas tour may increase the profile and reputation of an organisation and its collection, and the extra income generated may allow a larger project to be realised.

Interpretation is not just a presentation of the facts. It is a means of delivering stories and messages in an interesting, meaningful and relevant way to your audience; layering information to take account of differing learning styles, access requirements and audience types; this takes practice, planning and time.

This chapter provides guidance to tour originators and receiving venues in developing bespoke learning and education programmes, in conjunction with exhibition and tour planning.

Many exhibitions include loans from external sources to augment the organising venue’s collection and to explore the narrative or subject in full. Touring exhibitions are no exception to this rule.

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.

The marketing of an exhibition may be sophisticated or simple, but the main objective remains the same – to generate publicity in order to attract visitors.

There are lots of different ways that video, audio and other electronic media can be used within exhibitions. This chapter is a brief introduction to some of the technical considerations that you will need to make when including these types of works and displays in an exhibition.