Tour exhibitions
culture knocking on your door
Have you heard about the Smithsonian Controversy?
Recently this year the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of Washington DC has been in the news for having an upcoming show cancelled by the artist themselves.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime is a touring exhibition that brings together paintings done by Amy Sherald (b. 1973). The exhibit was expected to arrive in Washington DC in September 2025 after a stop at the Whitney Museum and a start at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. According to the New York Times, her show was cancelled as a consequence of being told her painting of a transgender Statue of Liberty might be removed over fears of offending Donald Trump.1
The piece made the cover of the August 11 issue of The New Yorker, and the touring exhibit resolved its course, landing at the BMA.
“Washington, D.C.’s loss is now Baltimore’s gain.” writes Wesley Case for The Baltimore Banner.
I did not know that when having a touring exhibit, you could change the artworks at every location, as I thought it was a “closed package”.
So, what exactly is a touring exhibition, and which steps are needed to plan one?
The first touring exhibition that comes to my mind is the Guernica one.
The famous Picasso painting was first shown at the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exposition before traveling extensively around Europe and the Americas. The touring exhibition was used to raise funds for Spanish war relief. Picasso gave the painting to New York’s Museum of Modern Art on an extended loan and decreed that it not be returned to Spain until democratic liberties were restored in the country. It was sent to Spain in 1981 and, from 1992, has been housed in the Museo Reina Sofía.2
As a consequence of the curiosity the Smithsonian Controversy stirred in me, I explored this subject and arrived at the conclusion that tour exhibitions appear to be one of two categories: provided by an important institution for a short period of time or organized from start to finish by a curator.
For the first category, not every institution handles the transition themselves. Some leave the matter of logistics and rearranging to an external team.3
Outside institutional points of view, planning a tour exhibition is basically planning on an exponential level. Dealing with movings, spaces, visitors, etc., more than once regarding the same concept could be stressful, if not a burnout reason itself, even with all the dreamy factors at hand.
It is important - for yourself and other people part of the project - to plan things with care.
Emily McKibbon highlights in her Art.art piece a list of “to haves” to start this massive project.4 Her Survival Kit contains :
List of works; Technical requirements; Brief Curatorial Statement; Biographies of contributors; Related Programs; Fees; Insurance.
To cross-analyse the next steps, I would advise taking a look at “Standards for Touring Exhibitions”, a comprehensive overview of recommended practices for touring exhibitions by the Museums & Galleries Commission (1995). The publication is part of the "Standards in the Museum Care of Collections" series and can be downloaded for free from the Collections Trust.
ArtFund, on the other hand, created a Toolkit in 2024 to help reduce the environmental impact of touring exhibition.
The toolkit is divided into six sections, each related to a different aspect of the project, which can be used depending on the stage of progress:
Partnerships & Procurement; People; Objects; Transport: Content & Advocacy; Design, Build & Display.
It signposts a variety of resources to help teams gather data and access further research to make informed decisions. Although this was created for UK institutions developing or co-producing touring exhibitions, it can be adapted for other types of projects too.5
Having now (almost) all the information to start, would you be interested in planning a touring exhibition?
I cannot wait to read your thoughts.
Let’s continue talking in the comments :)
If you liked this piece of writing please consider reading the others I published here on Substack, other than subscribing.
If you did not, please tell me your point of view.
Until next time,
A
Links and resources