Touring work is a good way to extend the life of your exhibition project and allow a larger range of people to see the work. Touring also helps elevate the profile of the project by showing at a wider range of venues. But touring is also costly and presents a different range of logistical and curatiorial problems. The main difference in touring a programme as opposed to doing a single screening is that the programme will be exposed to a wide variety of contexts that you cannot have the same control over. To make a strong touring programme you need to ensure your decisions and rationale are robust and will make sense and be accessible in a variety of contexts.

Research & Precedents

Before deciding on a tour explore and research the previous tours of a similar nature to see what sort of work has travelled before and to what sort of venues. The types of venues a tour travels to are dependent on how it is managed and the work that you include. Think about which sort of venues you are interested in touring the work to and how likely they are to be interested and how your project will fit with their exhibition programme. Contact prospective venues early on to talk about the project and gauge their interest. Talking to other venues about your programme allows the project to be influenced by and invested in by the potential touring partners.

Preparing and packaging a tour

With a good idea of the feasibility of your tour and with a few precendents you will need to prepare and package the project so it can travel. The scale of the tour, the amount of work and number of venues affect the complexibity and cost of the tour. When estimating the number of venues make sure you are realistic about how many venues you can expect and what they might be able to contribute, and what else you may be competing against for time in their programme.

When preparing a tour the key questions you need to ask are:

• Will the artists/distributor give you permission to tour their work?
• Will the other venues be able to effectively present the work you wish to tour?
• Will your programme fit into other venues schedules? Is it too much work?
• Who will cover the additional expenses and fees for the tour?
• Will the programme make sense in a variety of contexts?

When packaging the tour be sure to figure out the practical details of how much it will cost each venue and how much each venue will be able to contribute. Most tours require some form of subsidy to make them affordable to other venues. If you are not able to cover additional costs then the best way to make a tour work is to reduce the number of venues and seek project partners who will be able to contribute more to the project.

When exploring potential venues make note of the following things:

• What experience do they have with artists' film and video?
• What type of work do they regularly show?
• What formats can they handle (16mm, DVD, DVtape, BetaSP, DigiBeta, etc.)?
• How much time and money will they be able to allocate to the project?

With this information and a realistic idea of the scale and complexity of the tour and agreements with potential venues and the artists, you will be able to package together the tour and information to supply to each venue.

Creating a Robust Context

When touring work in the cinema it's important to create a robust framework as the work is being shown within a context usually designated for feature films. The nature of the venue where the work is shown will influence your potential audience and their experience of the work. Having an explicit concept and distinct perspective on the work that is being shown can help define the programme within a cinema context and prepare audiences for the different experience that it presents. A clear concept or argument will engage and intrigue people more than an unknown artist's name.

Providing Information

When approaching venues be clear about your project and its components. Programmers will want to know what it is you plan to show, how it will fit in with their programme/audience, how you will fund the screening (any rental costs of works etc.), what sort of publicity you will provide and what you expect from them. When writing about your programme you are seeking to appeal to and intrigue not only the audience but also the cinema or venue programmers. An effective tour will inspire the venue as well as the potential audience. Be clear and precise about why this work, why now and why this venue. Remember venues are looking for something that will appeal to their audience so avoid being overly dry or long-winded. As the project will be out of your hands when it tours an excited and committed venue will help the screening run smoothly.