What is the toolkit?
Created in collaboration with the 12 partner organisations that make up the Museums and Galleries Network for Exhibition Touring (MAGNET), who received funding from Arts Council England and Art Fund to co-curate three collections-based touring exhibitions.
They have shared their knowledge and experience in a guide covering the core elements of developing joint exhibitions – from partnership agreements to collaborative content planning and interpretation, and shared approaches to community engagement and environmental responsibility.
Who is it for?
The toolkit is for practitioners within the arts and heritage sector. It can be adapted for a variety of contexts but is most applicable to those who are planning to work in partnership with other museums and galleries.
Download the toolkit
The toolkit is made up of seven documents, which have been published as guidance for templates and will need to be adapted and made accessible based on your specific context.
Downloads
Network Partnership Agreement
This overarching agreement helps you to formalise the relationship between a group of museums. It ensures all partners are aware and supportive of the project, its outputs, modes of delivery and management of change.
Touring Exhibition Partnership – Memorandum of Understanding
You can use this working document to outline the arrangements for the production and tour of an exhibition. It includes a detailed breakdown of roles and responsibilities and should be updated on an ongoing basis.
Interpretation Plan
This template helps you to plan and agree interpretative approaches for collaborative exhibitions. It establishes the collective context, target audiences, objectives, content and external partnerships.
Crafting the Big Idea
This document outlines a guided session that you can use to define an exhibition’s content and give partners clarity on the subsequent steps of development. It was developed by North East Museums.
Community Engagement
This checklist helps you to decide whether to undertake community engagement activities and determine what form they might take. Every project is different and the checklist can be adapted to meet your specific needs.
Design and Build Brief for Touring Exhibition
This template helps you to set out your tender for a single design contract when working in partnership. It covers 3D exhibition design and build, 2D creative direction and title treatment but can be adapted to different approaches. It is particularly helpful for organisations interested in promoting reuse.
Environmental Responsibility Guiding Principles
This template helps you to ensure alignment between partners on the approach to environmental responsibility when working on a collaborative temporary exhibition. It can also be used as an appendix to procurement documents such as an Invitation to Tender Design and Build Brief and to engage other suppliers. The principles were drafted by the Design Museum, who were the environmental responsibility consultant on the project.