Working in partnership with Art Fund and The Exhibitions Group, the Design Museum has developed a new touring tool to support museum professionals to ask the right questions at the right time when developing touring exhibitions and displays.
It also signposts a variety of resources to help teams gather data and access further research to make informed decisions. This tool was created for UK institutions developing or co-producing touring exhibitions, but can be adapted for other types of projects. You can download it via the Design Museum webpage.
The Design Museum has also been supporting UK-based charity Gallery Climate Coalition with the museum roll out of the new GCC carbon calculator which launched in autumn 2024. Their new tool is user-friendly and designed for arts and cultural organisations to measure, manage and reduce their carbon emissions.
It’s free to use and can help track energy, travel, materials, or digital emissions. The calculator helps those working in exhibitions to review carbon impacts of their decisions and understand where to focus resources to develop more environmentally responsible exhibitions.
Learn more at calculator.galleryclimatecoalition.org.
About the authors & contributors
Elise Foster Vander Elst is Head of Exhibitions and Environmental Impact Lead at the Design Museum in London. She has over two decades experience of creating cultural impact through exhibitions, events and action research. Most recently, her focus is on reformed museum practice for a green transition. She is a pioneer in the field of low carbon exhibition making, developing industry-leading tools for carbon measurement and evaluation.
