Maybe you’ve got an idea for an art exhibition that can travel, your artists all lined up and your ideas fleshed out, and other times it’s an innocent statement from a visitor at the opening of a show you thought would never tour: you should take this on the road. For an independent curator, the touring exhibition can be the dream—what better way to see an idea evolve in different spaces and in different contexts, and to increase the profile of the artists you’re featuring? The logistical challenges are significant but not insurmountable. Let’s dive in!
Finding Your Venue
The first venue is always the hardest to find. When you’re planning a touring exhibition, try to consider how the exhibition might tour (east to west, for example) to ensure that you’re keeping costs down. Once you have a few interested, plan a tentative schedule (ideally with as few gaps as possible between presentations) and start nailing down the expenses. Your exhibition package should include as much information as possible, including:
If the thought of talking money makes you nervous, read on!
The Budget
Start with a realistic assessment of what you need to have, and what would be nice to have. The first and the final iterations of the project will require the most expenses, but these should be shared between venues to reduce barriers to accepting the show. Some things to think about include:
When you’re pitching an exhibition to a gallery, make sure that you’re up-front about what you need early in the conversation to ensure that all goes smoothly in your negotiations. Once you’ve got a rough idea of what the costs and potential revenue might be, that’s the point in time in which you add up the venues and spread the remaining expenses evenly between them. If you haven’t determined what the exact cost might be—there’s always some variability until all the venues are locked down—be honest and clear, and provide the best estimate you can.
Fundraising
Museums are increasingly under pressure to fundraise for exhibitions—and that pressure is now being felt by freelance curators. Coming to a potential site with some funding in place to support the presentation of your show can be helpful.
Your first recourse as a freelance curator should be to look for arts council grants to support your project. Look critically at your budget: where do you see gaps in funding? Often these gaps occur in two places: research and development for a project, and for the publication. These funding priorities are fantastic to look for public support.
Seeking support from individual donors and private foundations is more complicated. Private foundations often have the same funding priorities as public funders, but individual donors generally give money that is more fungible in its use in exchange for predefined incentives—allowing you to offset the nitty-gritty technical costs that are hard to fund with public grants. There are, however, certain sensitivities that you should consider:
Most public granting agencies’ recognition requirements won’t be an issue for your host venue; what you offer as incentives to private donors might be. This is a great place to consider alternative incentives for private donors, including experiences (tours of the artists’ studios, private tours of the exhibitions) or the opportunity to purchase a limited-edition artists’ multiple from an artist (make sure to include both production costs and fees for the artist in your budget!). For private foundations, you will need to negotiate with the host institutions about meeting their recognition requirements—and if the funds offset the costs of the project, most institutions would be happy to have those conversations.
Checklist
In my experience, most logistical issues with travelling exhibitions occur at the beginning of the tour and at the end. Make sure that you:
In conclusion, being clear about what is necessary and what is nice is essential to ensuring that your touring project has the resources it needs to thrive. There are a lot of moving parts to a travelling exhibition, but the rewards of seeing a project evolve as it moves between venues is a rich reward for those who are bold enough to take on this challenge.
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