Rethinking Touring Exhibitions – a toolkit to reduce environmental impact

At Art Fund, we recognise the cultural sector's responsibility and want to urgently respond to the climate crisis. In museums and galleries, this must extend beyond the stories that they tell to encompass how to plan, design and develop exhibitions too. From the appointment of contractors to sourcing materials to the planning of transportation and travel, our choices have a direct impact on the environmental impact of our projects.

Not sure how to start adopting more sustainable practices when working on exhibitions? For many of us, especially when working in collaboration with stakeholders on a complex touring exhibition, it can feel daunting so we've created a new toolkit to help you.

In partnership with the Design Museum and The Exhibitions Group, we have produced this resource to support museum professionals to ask the right questions at the right time. It signposts a variety of resources to help teams gather data and access further research to make informed decisions. And although this was created for UK institutions developing or co-producing touring exhibitions, it can be adapted for other types of projects too.

Underpinning this tool are the five Ps of Sustainable Development – People, Prosperity, Peace, Partnership and Planet. We hope it will empower cultural professionals to work collaboratively with other organisations and their supply chains to develop a new best practice for the sector.