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Last month, a Wisconsin court ruled De Pere Cultural Foundation filed suit against Exhibits Development Group (EDG), a company that hosts traveling exhibitions. In the lawsuit, the foundation that runs the Mulva Cultural Center claims that EDG has repeatedly violated its agreement to host exhibitions on the Beatles, the Grammy Awards, dinosaurs and Lego. EDG, which is based in St. Paul, Minnesota, also hosts traveling exhibitions on Rembrandt, Picasso, Joan Miró, Edgar Degas and Marc Chagall, to name a few.
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Specifically, the De Pere Cultural Foundation claims that EDG “failed to keep its promises for the shows” and that it failed to acquire pieces for the dinosaur exhibit due to unspecified “terrorist attacks in the Middle East.” The foundation is seeking at least $1.4 million in damages.
The lawsuit, which has not yet been settled, sheds light on the business of traveling exhibition companies, a fast-growing and little-explored part of the art industry. The sector has quickly become indispensable for small, midsize and regional museums, which have small staff and limited programming budgets and often rely on companies like EDG to gain access to exhibitions that would otherwise be too complicated or expensive to produce on their own.
Board of Trusteesone of the oldest traveling exhibition companies in the USA, was founded in 1988 by CEO Graham Howe. The focus is on photography exhibitions because works in this medium can easily move between institutions. Today, the organization has both for-profit and nonprofit arms. The company’s services include organizing the traveling portion of an exhibition initiated by a museum, staging its own traveling exhibitions, and working with artists and estate administrators to develop exhibitions.
“We offer an economic, shared-cost model that is a better deal for them than if they did it themselves,” says Curatorial’s CEO. Philipp Prodgertold ARTnews“Museums, especially small museums with limited resources, have access to collections that they might not have access to on their own.”
“There has always been a fundamental truth about art museums and museums in general: They are always under pressure,” Howe added. “They always have to offer more programs for less money, and we have responded to that reality.”
One industry expert estimates that there are 500 to 600 of the 35,000 museums in the United States that have the ability and budget to host traveling exhibitions. The venues most likely to book one or more traveling exhibitions are midsize science museums and institutions that either have gaps in their collections or have no permanent collection at all, like the Mulva Cultural Center.
“The industry is constantly changing because museum people are constantly changing, and with them their needs, stars, tastes and administrations,” Jeff LandauDirector of Landau Travelling Exhibitionstold ARTnews.
Landau’s “turnkey” art and photography exhibition clients are often mid-sized institutions and university galleries. The company charges flat fees ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 for a three-month term, with costs varying depending on the rarity and importance of the objects featured in a particular exhibition, as well as the size of the exhibition and the number of lenders involved.
“Many of the works we deal with come from either one or a limited number of sources, such as a museum, a private collection or a foundation,” said Landau. Landau has organized numerous types of traveling exhibitions in the 35 years he has worked for the company, including shows on Robert Indiana, Elizabeth Catlett and David Hockney, to name a few.
People visit the exhibition “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” at the church of San Potito during the celebration of the 170th anniversary of Van Gogh’s birth on January 2, 2023 in Naples, Italy.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Exhibition Centera Brussels-based company founded in 2015, has recently focused on producing digital art and immersive exhibitions such as “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience.” It also owns and operates art centers in Chicago, Denver and Atlanta.
John Zallerthe company’s US executive producer, said ARTnews that the exhibitions are very commercial, meaning the shows tend to attract visitors who might not otherwise come to the museum regularly. “But when they do come, they say, ‘Wow, I really like this museum. I think I’ll become a member,'” Zaller said.
According to Prodger of the Curatorial Department, many museums have also seen a shift from internal processing to greater dependence on external expertise.
“There’s a greater interest in interacting with the world on the ground,” he said. “A museum can come to us and basically say, ‘I have a problem. Can you help us solve it?’ And nine times out of 10, we can.”
It helps that traveling exhibition companies can handle everything, including loans, shipping, packaging, signage, catalog production, import arrangements, exchange rates and complicated logistics. But several experts said ARTnews that costs can quickly mount, especially when an exhibition requires loans from multiple sources.
Traveling exhibition companies have also helped fill institutional gaps, such as when demand for exhibitions focusing on underrepresented artists and artists of color suddenly increased following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. American Federation of Arts (AFA), for example, has since hosted exhibitions on Whitfield Lovell, African modernism, the historically black school Tougaloo College, and Romare Bearden. The nonprofit raises funds to help reduce the cost of such exhibitions and has often worked with institutions on payment plans.
“Suddenly the museums said, ‘Wait a minute. We’re not doing enough.'” Pauline ForlenzaDirector and CEO of AFA, said ARTnews“Museums had somehow gotten to a point where they were willing to do these kinds of exhibitions, but they didn’t necessarily do as many of them as they thought they needed to.”
Whitfield Lovell, Deep River2013, fifty-six wooden discs, found objects, earth, video projections, sound, dimensions variable.
Bruce M. White/ Courtesy of the American Federation of Arts, the artist, and DC Moore Gallery, New York.
The AFA’s focus on lesser-known artists helped it weather the Covid-19 pandemic when many institutions were closed or operating at reduced capacity, forcing those museums to ask the AFA to postpone existing contracts for traveling exhibitions. But Forlenza says the AFA still faces many of the same challenges affecting other parts of the arts industry, including rising costs for utilities, raw materials, fuel and insurance, and difficulties recruiting and retaining highly specialized staff.
Although there is little information about the size of the traveling exhibition industry, the AFA provides a useful self-portrait in its 2022 tax returns. Of its $2.8 million in total revenue, $1.5 million was reported as program service revenue for its exhibitions and museum services. (The other $600,000 came from donations and grants.) Expenses, however, totaled $3.5 million, the majority of which was salaries and other benefits. Only about $680,000 went directly to exhibition costs.
“During the pandemic, the estimates we made before have increased three, four or five times in many cases,” said Forlenza. “Transportation costs have increased, packaging costs have increased, everything has increased.”
Landau estimated the transportation costs for one of his exhibitions to Denmark at $25,000 each way. “And that’s not much for an international exhibition,” he said.
Prodger said Curatorial is facing similar difficulties with rising costs. “We operate in a way that requires us to pass on some of those costs, and not all museums are willing to pay those,” he said. “It’s a really difficult situation.”
With immersive exhibitions, there are additional challenges on the technical side, including developing the backdrop as well as the installation staff. “It’s also a delicate balance because the customer is only willing to pay a certain amount for a ticket,” Zaller said. “The higher the ticket price, the higher the expectation. And if you don’t meet that, you’re not going to be open very long.”
Several experts emphasized ARTnews the importance of communicating with venues to set clear goals and manage expectations, especially when changes occur — something EDG has repeatedly failed to do, according to the De Pere Cultural Foundation. In its statement of claim, the foundation alleges that EDG “repeatedly made unilateral changes … without notifying, let alone discussing with, the organization.” (EDG did not respond to a request for comment; De Pere said it could not comment on “ongoing legal matters.”)
As Forlenza said, if the checklist is changed, it is crucial that exhibitors communicate the reason to their partner museums and replace the list with an “equally good” work. This communication is key to successful partnerships.
