Pre-tour Engagement

STANDARD: Engage and consult with creatives and communities to create meaningful connections with local places and peoples.

Minimum Practice

Engagement is appropriate to the context of the exhibition and acknowledges local knowledge, lived experience, and cultural authority. Participation is clearly communicated and fairly remunerated to the NAVA Code of Practice for Visual Arts, Craft and Design Payment Standards.

Best Practice

Best practice engagement prioritises relationships over transactions, embedding collaboration with creatives and communities throughout the lifecycle of the touring exhibition.

Engagement is led by cultural respect, reciprocity, and care, with sufficient time and resources allocated to enable meaningful participation. Host venues consider the impact of the themes of the touring exhibition within the context of their communities, completing a Risk Assessment and Management for Exhibition Content plan for their iteration.

Guidance

Artists and curators

A touring exhibition is part of an artist’s and curator’s professional practice, and every creative will want a different level of involvement during the tour, and this is ideal to establish before the tour begins. This will help with managing the expectations of host venues wishing to work directly with creatives. It will also be useful for seeing how much of the budget needs to be dedicated to the fees, travel, per diems, accommodation, and consultation needs of the artist/s and curator/s and required access support and services. Determine a budget that covers both artist access requirements and audience-facing accessibility elements (e.g. audio description, assistive listening systems). Creatives may want to meet with local community groups before their work is displayed, such as First Nations representatives or socio/cultural groups being represented in the exhibition. It may be necessary to include the creatives in practical conversations with venues, in the development of learning and participatory resources, as well as the design elements of the tour. Factoring in remuneration for this dedicated time should be considered, particularly if funding is being sought that could cover this communication.

Venue

Engaging each host venue in an appropriate and involved way is essential for a touring exhibition to be integrated into the program, education activities, and outreach of an organisation. It is advisable to speak with venues about their demographics, reasons for wanting to host the exhibition, and what staff or volunteer training might be needed to communicate the exhibition to audiences. In these conversations, you should identify whether the venue has the capacity to protect the moral rights, intellectual property, and cultural safety of the creatives and community groups represented in the work, as well as the security of the exhibition.

Opportunities for providing help, upskilling, or knowledge-sharing may arise. There may also be practical concerns that need to be thought through with venue installation teams, particularly if works need to be suspended, special environmental conditions are required, or certain tech knowledge is necessary. Consultation with venue engineers, discussions on in-house practical skills, offsite possibilities, and integrating the unique features of a building, are early conversation points to have as they may rule out some venues from being able to accommodate the needs of your exhibition, for example, drilling directly into walls. For many host venues, a touring exhibition is a low-cost way to present an interesting exhibition and is often scheduled as a ‘rest’ period to allow the organisation to focus on other priorities. Thinking about the demands of your exhibition on a host venue who may have reduced capacity at the time your exhibition is being presented is a feasibility consideration.

Community

Community engagement in a touring exhibition operates across two related but distinct dimensions: the communities whose lives, stories, or cultural material are represented in the exhibition itself; and the local communities at each venue the tour visits. Both require genuine, early, and ongoing engagement.

For every exhibition, this includes a considered understanding of the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples and stories represented in the exhibition, the First Nations Country the works were produced on, and the First Nations Country or Countries the exhibition will be presented on, ensuring the touring exhibition maintains its integrity across multiple venues and communities over time. Work with host venues to identify local First Nations peoples, organisations, and community groups who should be part of the conversation for each presentation. Cultural protocol documents accompanying the exhibition and consultation plans developed collaboratively with host venues can help structure this process. Wherever possible, look for opportunities to move beyond consultation toward collaboration, co-creation, or employment.

Recognising and respecting diversity is essential to creating inclusive and equitable outcomes for touring exhibitions. First Nations communities encompass diverse nations, cultures, languages, and knowledge systems that shape deep connections to Country and community. The disability sector is made up of multiple communities with their own identities, practices, and ways of engaging with the world. Gender diverse communities encompass a wide range of identities, experiences, and ways of understanding and expressing gender. Culturally and linguistically diverse communities comprise a broad range of cultural backgrounds, languages, and traditions that shape connection and engagement. Together, these communities highlight the importance of inclusive approaches that value different perspectives and lived experiences. Authentic engagement includes recognition of the diversity of experience and expression present within any community.

Education & Learning

Engaging appropriate educators or practitioners in the initial stages of a tour to develop educational materials, professional development opportunities, and cultural mediation resources is critical to the success of a touring exhibition. Early commissioning allows time to align content with curriculum requirements, foster relationships with host venues, and prepare staff and communities for engagement. It also supports deeper interpretation, skills development, and inclusive access. Planning ahead ensures resources are thoughtfully integrated, enabling richer audience experiences and stronger connections between the exhibition, its themes, and diverse communities. For more information on resources fostering these types of engagement, see the Learning & Participation section.

If applying for funding for your tour, building in costs to support venues to deliver audience engagement programs is an important way of enhancing the legacy of the tour, building local capacity, and promoting lifelong learning. This may include artist travel, accommodation, workshop fees, and materials.

Industry

Involving industry connections into touring exhibitions is a great way to strengthen their impact. It is always a good idea to consult with specialists about elements of your tour, including your local State or Territory NETS Australia agency, Regional Arts Australia, NAVA, Accessible Arts, Arts & Disability Network Australia, the Arts Law Centre of Australia, and/or Diversity Arts. Forming partnerships with educational facilities or arts and cultural organisations adds meaningful and strategic value to a tour, as can fostering relationships with local eateries, interest groups, or suppliers.

Standards In Action

M&G QLD – Reasonable & Necessary — prints and artist books by Artel artists

[TO BE DESIGNED] A case study looking at the background, development, inclusions, results, and impact of Museums & Galleries QLD exhibition Reasonable & Necessary — prints and artist books by Artel artists.

Ready To Use Support

Arts Law & M&G NSW – Guide for Museums and Galleries Hosting Exhibitions that include (ICIP)

This guidebook written by Arts Law in consultation with Museums & Galleries of NSW (MGNSW) contains information of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) within a touring context, as well as questions for organisations to consider when presenting a touring exhibition that contains ICIP.

NETS Australia – First Nations Engagement Guidance

A consultation guide to encourage First Nations-led cultural safety, collaboration, co-creation, and employment connected to touring exhibitions.

NETS Victoria & M&G NSW – Risk Assessment and Management for Exhibition Content

This resource, prepared by M&G NSW and NETS Victoria, has been produced to assist you in developing a risk management strategy for exhibitions that may contain content that could be perceived to be controversial, provocative or have the potential to offend certain members of your community, audience or stakeholder groups. It can be a useful resource to engage with when proposing an exhibition to council, managing stakeholder expectations, and preparing staff and volunteers to communicate an exhibition to your community.

NETS Australia – Cultural Safety & Inclusion Prompts

This resource includes cultural safety and inclusion prompts for touring exhibitions. These prompts aim to create opportunities for the experiences, needs, ideas, and requirements of people to be purposefully included in all the stages, materials, and experiences tied to a touring project.

Useful Resources & Further Reading

Regional Arts Australia – Collaborating with regional communities

These guidelines and tools developed by Regional Arts Australia will assist those working in regional communities to achieve a more rewarding level of involvement in cultural activities.

Precarious Movements – Diversity, Equity, & Cultural Guidelines

Precarious Movements is a best practice resource for presenting choreographic works in the museum. This section of their online platform discusses the responsibility of museums to ensure that all individuals interfacing with the institution feel represented, culturally safe and have their needs met.

NETS Victoria – A Guide for Venues: Engaging with First Nations Curators, Artists, & Audiences This Guide is designed for venues working with NETS Victoria to host exhibitions, in particular, exhibitions that include the work of First Nations artists. This is a resource guide for the venues to provide practical guidance on engagement with First Nations people and communities. This Guide was developed through consultation with Terri Janke and Company and NETS Victoria’s Board and First Nations Advisory Committee.

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