A travelling exhibition, also referred to as a "travelling exhibit" or a "touring exhibition", is a type of exhibition that is presented at more than one venue. Temporary exhibitions can bring together objects that might be dispersed among several collections, to reconstruct an original context such as an artist’s career or a patron's collection, or to propose connections - perhaps the result of recent research - which give new insights or a different way of understanding items in museum collections. The whole exhibition, usually with associated services, including insurance, shipping, storage, conservation, mounting, set up, etc., can then be loaned to one or more venues to lengthen the life of the exhibition and to allow the widest possible audiences - regionally, nationally or internationally - to experience these objects and the stories they contain. Such collaborations can addinterest to museums where displays of permanent collections might change only slowly, helping to provide fresh interpretations or more complete stories and attract new audiences. They also provide fresh ideas and breathingspace for organisations which have exhibition spaces but lack permanent collections. To have more than one location for the same exhibition can benefit the organiser because it can then share a part of the production costs among the venues, so museums and galleries frequently use touring as a cost-efficient way of promoting access to their collections. For organisers and their venues, touring exhibitions are important for sharing ideas and materials, as well as resources. Touring is a way of sharing with like-minded institutions and of achievingeconomies of scale which allow more ambitious projects to happen. Travelling exhibitions are often supported by governmental organizations to promote access to knowledge and materials that might not be available locally. To acknowledge the importance of travelling exhibitions, in 1983 the International Council of Museums established the International Committee for Exhibition Exchange as a forum to discuss the different aspects of exhibition development, circulation and exchange.
