The second Sustainable Exhibition Design Workshop was held in Sydney on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 April 2010. The workshop allowed museum exhibition and graphic designers to share sustainable design solutions with an emphasis on practical advice and case studies and including a focus on lighting innovations.

This years workshop follows on from the successful inaugural workshop held in Melbourne last year. The workshop again coincided with Design Ex 22-24 April which was held at Darling harbour convention centre.

The workshops were held at the Historic Houses Trust, The Mint and Powerhouse Museum with a dinner hosted by the Australian Museum in the Skeleton gallery, with site visits to the Australian National Maritime Museum, State library of New South Wales and Museum of Sydney. 50 participants from around Australia and New Zealand attended the workshop with 11 Australian museum staff attending the two day event.

Key note speakers:

  • Kirsty Maté, senior lecturer, Faculty of Built Environments, University of New South Wales - Life cycle thinking of construction of exhibitions.
  • Jonas Bengtssan, Edge environmental – Life cycle assessment of 6 commonly used materials within exhibitions. (interesting point ply wood turned out to be less sustainable than MDF)
  • Carole Hammond, Exhibitions Manager, Museum Victoria – case study on commonly used materials in exhibitions.
  • Joe Coleman, Manager Digital Media Systems, Museum Victoria – presentation of the MVCOL tool to calculate energy use in exhibitions.
  • Paul Betterworth, ERCO lighting –sustainable exhibition lighting.
  • Tanguy Le Moing and Catherine Cooper, Exhibition 3D Designer and Exhibition Project Coordinator , Australian Museum – Case study of the Climate Change exhibition.

The Workshops:

  • Sustainability solutions – Mariea Fisher (which produced the rather dashing Captain Sustainability)
  • Exhibition Design – Johanna Nettleton

Exhibition viewings:

  • Museum of Sydney – Skint! Making do in the great depression.
  • State Library of New South Wales – 100 exhibition
  • Australian National Maritime Museum – Mythic Creatures, dragons, unicorns & mermaids

Visit the GEX blog - to share ideas about green exhibition development with other exhibition professionals across Australasia and globally.

Next years workshop will be hosted in Melbourne to coincide with DesignEx.