Traveling Exhibitions
Libraries have always known the value of displays and exhibits as a way to capture the interest of their patrons. Putting books and other items of interest on display leads patrons to explore further. This page offers a number of important sources for libraries to contact. Exhibitions come in many sizes and shapes, on a wide range of topics, and have varying requirements for space, security, and length of time. Some are free of charge, many have at least modest rental and shipping fees, but there is something for every size and shape of library.
The ALA Public Programs Office
Through grants, the ALA Public Programs Office offers the essential resources, funding, visibility, and framework needed for libraries to conduct high-quality cultural programs during the project term and beyond. Public Programs Office initiatives bring audiences together to experience diverse and excellent humanities programming across all types of libraries in the United States. Libraries are selected by application.
Blair–Murrah Exhibitions
Blair–Murrah, founded in 1979, offers more than eighty traveling exhibitions in art, science, and history. Multilingual text panels and labels are included free upon request. They are happy to work with libraries to customize exhibits for smaller spaces and budgets; they suggest selecting exhibitions that interest you from their Web site, then contacting them to modify the requirements to fit your needs.
The California Exhibition Resources Alliance
CERA exhibitions explore history, art, natural science, and contemporary issues through photography, artifacts, stunning image and text panels, and hands-on educational materials. CERA provides museums, libraries, and cultural organizations with affordable, high-quality exhibitions that enhance civic engagement and human understanding.
Castellani Museum of Niagara University
The Castellani Museum is currently offering three traveling exhibitions: Jean-Michel Basquiat: An Intimate Portrait (PDF), 25–30 framed photographs accompanied by informative text panels; The Exquisite Corpse in Glass: Contemporary Figurative Flameworkers Play a Surrealist’s Game (PDF), 22 complete figures, each approximately 12 inches tall and with support armatures, along with wall hung photographic/text panels; and Fields of Dreams: North American Baseball Stadiums (PDF), 26 framed panoramic photographs accompanied by an introduction panel and extended labels. The museum’s traveling exhibitions typically rent for $2,000–$3,000 plus return shipping.
Charles M. Schulz Museum
The Charles M. Schulz Museum is the only place dedicated to preserving, displaying, and interpreting the world famous art of Charles Schulz and his Peanuts characters. Bring the story, the art, and the history of the popular Peanuts characters and the man who created them to your community. Now available through 2012 are three exclusive traveling exhibitions that tell the Peanuts story: “Inside Peanuts: The Life and Art of Charles M. Schulz” is an in-depth exploration of Schulz’s creative process spanning his fifty-year career; “Peanuts at Bat” examines the Peanuts Gang’s ill-fated baseball adventures and Schulz’s love of the game; and “To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA” covers the history of the Apollo 10 mission and the Peanuts characters’ role in that flight.
ExhibitsUSA
These traveling exhibitions produced by ExhibitsUSA (EUSA) require at least limited security (an attended, lockable, space), so are best suited to small museums or libraries with separate galleries. More than fifty exhibitions are offered each year in fine art, studio arts, and history and culture. An outgrowth of the Mid–American Arts Alliance regional exhibition touring program, EUSA offers discounted rates to states that are members of the alliance.
Gilderman Lehrman Institute of American History
This New York organization offers traveling panel exhibitions for display at schools, libraries, and historical sites. Exhibits feature graphic reproductions of rare documents, images, and interpretive text, with rental fees ranging from $200–$500.
Herb Block Exhibitions
Four special exhibitions display the work of legendary Washington Post editorial cartoonist Herbert L. Block, famously known as “Herblock.” Produced by The Herb Block Foundation, the goal of these exhibitions is to present Herblock’s effort to preserve American’s rights and freedoms through his political cartoons. The exhibitions are available for display and use in classrooms, museums, libraries, and organizations supporting the spirit of Herblock’s work.
HumanitiesTexas
More than fifty traveling exhibitions are available, and while many topics may be of greater interest in Texas and neighboring states, many are of more universal appeal. Many are bilingual. Shipping costs on the Web site are for venues within Texas, but exhibits can be shipped out of state at additional cost.
Irish American Heritage Museum
Several panel exhibitions on Irish and Irish–American history, typically available to nonprofit organizations at a cost $2,000 for thirty days, are especially suitable for libraries with large Irish service populations (or for the month of March!).
National Library of Medicine
The exhibition program at the National Library of Medicine provides traveling exhibition services to libraries across the United States based on original scholarly research and address a wide range of topics related to the social and cultural history of science, medicine, and technology. Ofered exhibitions include “Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health,” “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians,” “Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature,” “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine,” and “Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Academic Surgeons.
The National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian traveling exhibitions are two–dimensional banner shows that are affordable; easy to transport, install, and uninstall; and specifically designed to accommodate limited environmental and security resources at some venues. The program’s inaugural traveling exhibition, “Native Words, Native Warriors,” developed in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), tells the story of Native American servicemen who used their indigenous languages on behalf of the U.S. military during World Wars I and II.
NYPL’s Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, part of the New York Public Library, is a national research library devoted to collecting, preserving, and providing access to resources documenting the history and experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world. Its traveling exhibitions programs includes major exhibitions, which require a museum–like setting, and panel exhibitions, more suitable for library venues, that include either wall–hung, framed photo–text panels on Masonite or freestanding, framed photo–text panels. Panel exhibitions can be booked for four to eight weeks.
Oklahoma Museums Association
Three traveling exhibitions are currently available from the Oklahoma Museum Association, with monthly rentals ranging from $125 (instate) to $250 (out of state) plus freight.
Smithsonian Insitute Traveling Exhibition Service
The granddaddy of traveling exhibition programs, this is the Smithsonian Institution’s catalog of exhibitions available for rent. Some include objects and may require greater security than typical library exhibition areas afford, but others are panel exhibitions with limited security needs. Exhibition fees range from $1,500 on up, depending on number of artifacts, size, and so on. There is also a community grant program that can provide up to $5,000 per library for supplementary programming.
U.S. Holcaust Memorial Museum
Traveling exhibitions available from the U.S. Holcaust Memorial Museum that are especially suitable for libraries include “Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and Nazi Book Burnings,” as well as exhibitions on Oskar Schindler and “Varian Fry: Assignment Rescue, 1940–1941.” The book burning exhibition is being hosted by Garland County Public Library in Hot Springs, Ark., the Park City (Utah) Library, and the Loudon County Public Library in Leesburg, Va., in late 2008 and 2009. The site includes extensive support material for related programming, promotion, and marketing.
Visual Studies Workshop
Traveling photography exhibits with rental fees ranging from $2,000–$6,000, plus shipping. Rentals are typically for six–week periods and often include free catalogs and posters.
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