Museums are often tasked with presenting contemporary art installations that don’t fit the mold of our traditional policies and procedures. How can we engage with contemporary artists without misunderstandings, conflicts, or frustrations so that we can fully present their visions while still adhering to best practices for risk management, ethics, and registration methods?

1. “You Want to Do What? !” The Challenges of
Presenting Contemporary Art Installations
Western Museums Association Conference, Boise, October 6, 2019
Rebecca Engelhardt, Museum of Glass, Presenter
Cory Gooch, Frye Art Museum, Moderator
Nicole Herden, Boise Art Museum, Presenter
Andrew Walsh, Bellevue Arts Museum, Presenter

2. Roles, Responsibilities, Expectations
and Relationships

3. Museum of Glass
The mission of Museum of Glass is to ignite creativity, fuel
discovery, and enrich lives through glass and glassmaking.
Martin Blank (American, born 1962). Fluent Steps, 2009. Collection of Museum of Glass

4. • Is there appropriate time and budget for technical review by
appropriate specialists?
• Have you made sure that there are clear expectations of duties of all
persons on the team(s)?
• Are you clear within the museum what the roles and responsibilities
of the staff are related to exhibitions?

5. Martin Blank (American, born 1962). Fluent Steps, 2009.
Collection of Museum of Glass

6. • What are the project boundaries, timetable, and components of the
exhibition, and financial resources of the museum?
• What will you do when artist instructions are not right, or elements
they have provided need to be reworked?
• What are the limitations and rules within your museum that are not
negotiable?
• What is your plan for conflict resolution? Who in your museum is the
voice of authority?

7. Look See? The Colors and Letters of Jen Elek and Jeremy Bert

8. Joseph Gregory Rossano: Mirrored Murrelets/Vanity

9. Bellevue Arts Museum
Bellevue Arts Museum provides a public forum for the
community to contemplate, appreciate, and discuss visual
culture. We work with audiences, artists, makers, and
designers to understand our shared experience of the world.

10. Simon Hanselmann: Bad Gateway

12. BAM Letter of Agreement with artist Ann Gardner

13. Installation Issues
Installation of Li Chen: Eternity and Commoner
at Frye Art Museum, 2012

14. Walter McConnell -- Itinerant Edens: A Measure of Disorder

15. Walter McConnell -- Itinerant Edens: A Measure of Disorder

16. Simon Hanselmann: Bad Gateway

18. (Posted on Emerging
Museum Professionals
FaceBook page)

19. artist-provided touch samples for exhibitions

21. Sarah Sense: Cowgirls and Indians
unexpected costs not covered in
prior contract

22. • Do you have a contingency plan if the artist or other parties is
unavailable?
• When working with artist partnerships – what is the museum’s role,
especially in terms of disagreements?
• Consider what cultural or other assumptions you may be making
when communicating with artists.
• Do you have documentation that is clear to all members of the team?

23. Glimmering Gone: Ingalena Klenell and Beth Lipman

24. • Do you have clear expectations about fiscal responsibilities of artists
vs. museum? And do you have flexibility in how these costs are
covered?
• What are the artist’s expectations for museum vs. artist regarding
long-term maintenance and care of the artwork?
• Have you been clear to the artist about museum staff’s available time
for their project vs. other museum projects?

25. Foraging the Hive: Sara Young and Tyler Budge

26. • Understand all the elements the artist envisions; consider using a
questionnaire to gather them:
• Artwork description – weight, size, orientation
• Method of display – floor, ceiling, riser, etc.
• Furniture needed and/or provided
• Technology needed and/or provided
• Lighting requirements
• Types of signage needed and who creates them

27. Contractual Issues

28. including object safety / touching
in contract Laura Heit: Two Ways Down

29. including object safety / touching in contract

30. • When an artist brings along third party consultants where does
the responsibility for these people start and end? Who pays? And
who contracts with them?
• What are the industry standards for these third party consultants,
and how do you define museum protocol to them? How does the
museum learn from these individuals?
• What is the plan if the artist’s wishes put the museum at risk?

31. Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight

32. • Take time to consider what the artist needs defined; they may not be
familiar with how museums work
• A clear contract is your best tool (“an ounce of prevention”– define
the following:
• Financial arrangements for artist fees and cost of materials
• Insurance
• Crating and shipping
• Photography and copyright
• Traveling and/or catalog plans
• Governing Laws
• Loan conditions
• Timetable to including planning, design, and implementation
deadline

33. Simon Hanselmann: Bad Gateway

35. Andrew Walsh, Registrar
Bellevue Arts Museum | Bellevue, Washington
AndrewW@BellevueArts.org
All images in this presentation are courtesy of Bellevue Arts Museum, Boise Art Museum, Frye Art Museum, or Museum of Glass.
Nicole Herden, Curator of Art
Boise Art Museum | Boise, Idaho
nicole@boiseartmuseum.org
SPEAKERS CAN BE CONTACTED FOR SAMPLE DOCUMENTS:
Rebecca Engelhardt, Collections/Exhibitions Manager
Museum of Glass | Tacoma, Washington
rengelhardt@museumofglass.org