Our fourth key objective is to develop ways to produce travelling exhibitions that will share our expertise with the world outside of our local community. The easiest and simplest way to do this without taking away from our students, faculty and local community is to develop original exhibitions that can first be presented in Edmonton but conceived to be expanded and travelled after a period of rest. Numerous museums have purchased “turn-key” exhibitions on costumes and textiles as they are extremely popular with the public and few such collections exist in museums. Those that do have such artifacts often lack the curatorial expertise and the conservation skills to address this category of objects.
A fund set for specific proposals that meet the needs of such travelling exhibitions would enable the development of this product. The fund could be used to purchase key artifacts not included in the collection that would play a crucial part in the organization of an exhibition. It could also be used to sub-contract with an exhibition designer to create a more polished product that would increase the exhibition’s visual appeal. This fund could serve to cover some of the costs of conservation, packing and shipping that can incur if an exhibition is extended to fit a larger gallery space.