Installation & Support
STANDARD: Support host venues in the presentation of touring exhibitions, with collaborative approaches to skills-sharing.
Minimum Practice
Host venues are provided with a comprehensive exhibition information package that enables safe, accurate, and respectful installation, display, and deinstallation of the exhibition, with respect to the moral rights of creatives, as outlined within the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Minimum practice ensures host venues have the information and support required to meet safety, conservation, and presentation standards, including the welfare of staff and volunteers as outlined in the model Work Health and Safety Act (2011) and Victorian equivalent Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) and any contractual obligations.
Best Practice
Building on compliance obligations, best practice treats exhibition documentation and installation support as collaborative tools for capacity-building and shared care. Wherever possible, skills-sharing opportunities, such as installation assistance, training, or mentored approaches, are built into the tour to strengthen local capacity and presentation outcomes. Conservation and incident procedures are proactively built into contracts and agreements.
Guidance
Creating an extensive exhibition information package is an integral part of preparing a project for tour. The level of detail and extent of inclusions will depend on what type of exhibition you are creating. The most important thing is to ensure that your package equips host venues with the step-by-step information they need to safely install the exhibition with respect to artistic integrity and curatorial intention.
Installation manual
Depending on the size of your exhibition, this could become a very large document. Making sure to set up the document with a table of contents can help during the busyness of install. Each artwork should be given its own section, with explicit instructions on the installation process; from opening the crate/packaging to any lighting requirements. Including instructions for steps that may seem obvious to you is important, as venues may have different expectations and areas of knowledge. For example, you may need to stipulate that you require installers to wear nitrile gloves, outline the amount of people needed to lift a heavy work, or ensure all packaging materials are kept intact and stored safely for the deinstallation. Including instructional images, detailed illustrations, and even demonstration videos are advisable, which can be supplied via QR codes. This often means that the creation of the installation manual occurs at the first venue. Considerations of curatorial guidelines, artistic objectives, or thematic relationships can also be included in the installation manual, or as a separate guide. Having a printed copy (or multiple) of the installation manual on tour with the exhibition is ideal for installation staff to have ready access during install.
At a minimum, the installation manual should include:
- Contents page
- Contact information for tour organiser
- Tour itinerary
- Crate list (including crate number, dimensions of individual crates, and list of contents for each crate)
- List of works
- Install workplace health and safety considerations
- Instructions for unpacking and repacking crates
- Instructions for installing and deinstalling each artwork
- Instructions for installing and deinstalling any tech/media, exhibition display furniture (if included)
- Lighting requirements
Installation assistance
All touring exhibitions should provide a level of installation assistance. This may be in-person or from a distance.
Ensuring that the installation manual is clear and informative is important, but so is making sure that the host venues are supported in installing it safely. A good way to achieve this is to schedule in a production/logistics meeting well before each presentation where you methodically go through the installation manual together and discuss the installation and deinstallation of each artwork. This will allow you to identify works that may be difficult to install or maintain for a specific venue, as well as find out about skills within the teams of host venues that could enhance their presentation. Any cultural or copyright considerations can be navigated collectively as well. A production/logistics meeting will allow time for discussions on wall treatments, exhibition furniture, tech, freight delivery, and storage. In these meetings you may also be speaking with venues about specialist installers or artists you are sending along to assist with the installation or to deliver public programs, along with explaining how to best support them.
If you require installers to wear cotton or nitrile gloves or other PPE, provide them in the materials travelling with the exhibition. This may also include spare drill bits and bolts for opening and closing the crates, perspex or glass cleanser, soft brushes or microfibre cloths for cleaning objects, or museum wax or other fixtures for securing or installing objects.
You may wish to think about installer support strategically to help control the quality and look of the install.
Sending a dedicated installer with the exhibition across the lifespan of the tour builds familiarity with the objects in one person and ensures visual standards. This approach supports the practical management of tricky-to- install artworks and enables practical professional development for host venue staff, as well as for the installer who becomes the expert in delivering the tour. It also enables you to monitor the condition of the works across the course of the tour.
Condition Reports
Condition reports are key documents that need to be produced with great care and in substantial detail at the start of the tour. It is worth having a dedicated person to complete this task, either as the works are being prepared for tour, or upon arrival to the first venue (depending on how the tour will begin). These reports need to be in a format accessible to every venue on the tour. Having digital condition reports only works if the host venues have the ability and capacity to complete them in a digital format. Creating paper condition reports that travel with the exhibition and are scanned as each iteration is installed, alongside an end of exhibition condition check that is scanned and emailed to the tour organiser at the close of each iteration, may be more feasible.
Keeping copies of all the condition reports, as well as photographs of the condition of each work at the start of the tour, on an online storage platform is advised. Including a QR code to this storage platform for quick reference is useful to ensure that the evolving condition of each work can be viewed during the tour with ease.
Incidents & Conservation
When touring exhibitions, it is possible that at some point an artwork or object might be damaged or require conservation. Sometimes conservation may be built into the itinerary if works are fragile, or mechanisms need to be checked by the artist/maker. Sometimes extra items with replacement instructions or a patch kit with directions may be sent along with the tour with an understanding that elements are fragile and may need to be touched up or completely replaced. Most of the time, however, when incidents happen either during transportation, installation, or by a member of the public, it requires swift and careful reporting to be done and a level of conservation to take place. Supplying an incident report with a set of questions for the host venue to complete, as well as a prompt to include photography or video footage from security cameras, is an essential inclusion in the exhibition information package. The tour organiser will then be required to report the incident to the originating venue and artwork/object owner to collaboratively decide on a pathway forward to repair the work or object. If the damage occurs in transit, it is essential to retain and document all packaging materials.
It is also important to remember that these communications require sensitivity and transparency. A great deal of trust goes into allowing a work or object to go on tour and when an incident has occurred there can be a sense of anger, frustration, or sadness that is felt. Explaining to the owner that you are deeply sorry and aware of the unfortunate nature of the circumstances, a suggested pathway forward, as well as reminding the owner that what has happened was not due to a lack of care for them or their work, but rather an unforeseen accident, is important. The incident report explaining how the damage occurred can help demonstrate that this is the case. Whether you can cover the cost of conservation, or if insurance needs to be utilised, will depend on the level of damage and whose care the work was under when the incident occurred. Having a pathway for incidents in relation to insurance in all contracts is therefore a suggested precaution and an essential risk management strategy.
Conservation will look different for every work. Sometimes the artist or lender can perform the conservation and you will need to send the work back to them and then collectively decide whether returning the work to tour is a good idea. Sometimes contracting a conservator is the best solution. Deciding on an appropriate conservator with the owner/artist is the best route. This is where having a conservation plan embedded in your contracts or agreements with artists, lenders, or collections is useful.
Ready To Use Support
NETS Australia – Installation Manual Template
A word document installation guide template. The manual includes space for unpacking/packing instructions, step-by-step install guide, and curatorial notes.
NETS Australia – Condition Report & Condition Check Template
A simple condition report factsheet with condition check templates for during the tour.
NETS Australia – Incident Report
A simple incident report template asking the appropriate questions and indicating useful information.
Useful Resources & Further Reading
M&G NSW – Condition Reports
A guide prepared by Museums & Galleries of NSW (M&G NSW) looking at how to identify and describe damage and listing language to use within condition reporting.
M&G NSW – Condition Reports: The Essentials
A guide prepared by Museums & Galleries of NSW (M&G NSW) outlining the essentials of creating a thorough and accurate condition report.
AICCM – Visual Glossary
Learn how to identify damage and deterioration with the correct conservation terminology by comparing it to the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM) Visual Glossary’s images and descriptions.
Further questions or
broken links?
Contact your State
or Territory NETS Australia agency