Creating attendance-driving temporary and traveling exhibits!
We’re big advocates of changing exhibitions as way for museums to drive attendance and offer fresh experiences for visitors. John recently participated at the Association of Children’s Museums InterActivity 2024 with a session panel “Interactivity Incubators: Temporary Exhibits for Your Empty Spaces” to share tips and best practices for creating compelling temporary exhibitions for children’s museums. We recognize that many museums may not have the resources to rent traveling exhibits and may choose to create their own temporary experiences. The session team compiled and presented examples of temporary exhibits from museums across North America and discussed various approaches to developing temporary exhibits—including community partnerships, re-useable structures, durable off-the-shelf components, and seasonal installations. In small group discussions, participants shared their ideas about creating impactful experiences and received advice and insight from peers.
We finished the session with a checklist of things to consider when creating your own temporary experience. You can view our presentation materials below. Please share with museum friends who might find it useful!
Download Presentation Download Exhibit Checklist
Thank you to our fellow presenters for helping to put together this session and for sharing their experience!
- Beth Housewert, Inspired Impact (and frequent Museum EXP collaborator)
- Erik Smith, National Children’s Museum
- Langley Lease, National Children’s Museum
- Melissa Saye, Northeast Louisiana Children’s Museum
GOOD QUESTION! What’s the difference between a temporary and traveling exhibition?
We get this question frequently. We define traveling exhibitions as an collection of experiences that are built with the intention to tour amongst several museums over a period of time. A traveling exhibition is designed to be assembled and disassembled multiple times and fit into the galleries of other museums, whereas a temporary exhibition is created for one museum for a set duration of time. These temporary experiences are intended to be used for a short period of time—and typically fabricated for limited use. We’ve seen temporary exhibits sometimes later turned into traveling exhibits, but we don’t usually recommend this route for a myriad of reasons. As a bonus category, Beth Housewert of Inspired Impact has coined the term transitional exhibits to refer to exhibit spaces that continually evolve with a rotation of new experiences. A great example of this type of experience is the Build It exhibit at the Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples. The individual activities within the space change regularly to encourage repeat visitation, but the overarching theme stays the same.
New Children’s Museum Traveling Exhibit Report
Speaking of traveling exhibits and children’s museums, Museum EXP just released a new Traveling Exhibit Report for this market. Download it below to see trends in traveling exhibits and what ACM member children’s museums across North America have on-view in their galleries.
Download Children’s Museum Traveling Exhibit Report