Inter-museum object loans can complement or refresh fixed displays to great effect, whilst touring exhibitions are an established means of sharing collections and resources. Such activity helps not only to attract new and repeat visitors but to develop relationships between different types of museums and encourage greater understanding of diverse collections and skills.
Museums Association: Effective Collections Programme
SMC is pleased to support the MA during the pilot phase of its Effective Collections programme. The scheme has developed from the central theme of the MA�s 2005 �Collections for the Future� report - that too many museum collections are underused. With a grant of just over �1million from Esm�e Fairbairn Foundation to spend over five years, the main strand of work enables increased numbers of long loans.
Effective Collections aims to enrich displays across UK museums and to give museums that currently do not lend and borrow the skills and confidence that they need. It intends to provide a source of expertise, advice and funding that will encourage uses of collections that would not be possible for museums working on their own. For more details or to read about the pilot projects underway, see the Museums Association website http://www.museumsassociation.org
Exhibitions Guidance and Standards
�Organise Displays and Exhibitions� on Collections Link - http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/organise_exhibitions
Collections Link, the collections management advisory service managed by MDA, provides a range of factsheets and information on organising exhibitions. It has also created a new section on Standards for Exchanging Exhibitions - http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/organise_exhibitions/exchanging_exhibitions
Touring Exhibition Group: An online guide to organising and managing exhibitions
TEG offers a number of on-line resources and publications to assist exhibition organisers and programmers. The new Handbook updates and replaces the 1995 hard-copy 'Touring Exhibitions', and comprises contributions from experts in the field, usually members of TEG themselves, from all parts of Great Britain. It contains practical information on all aspects of organising, touring and hosting exhibitions and complements the revised �Standards for Exchanging Exhibitions� -
http://www.teg.org.uk/index.php?id=4,10
�Exhibitions for All� toolkit: Guidance on NMS website
National Museums Scotland has published its internal guidance on practical and accessible exhibition planning with a particular focus on exhibition design - http://www.nms.ac.uk/exhibitionsforall.aspx
Exhibitions for Hire
Touring Exhibitions Group: TEG members receive a free copy of Exhibitions Exchange (�X�), a six-monthly publication featuring newly-available exhibitions for hire and ideas for collaborative projects.
The Hayward Gallery - http://www.haywardgallery.org.uk/
The Hayward Gallery organises a programme of national touring exhibitions on behalf of Arts Council England. They circulate to museums, galleries and other venues throughout Britain. Around thirty exhibitions are on the road at any one time, ranging in scale and content to include international contemporary group shows, thematic exhibitions bringing together contemporary and historical work, artist-curated shows, collaborations with national and regional museum collections and small-scale 'cased' shows of works on paper and exhibitions drawn from the Arts Council Collection.
To book a touring exhibition, or for further information, contact Alison Maun:
E: [email protected]
T: +44 (0)20 7960 5222
