Here's a confession: some of my favorite exhibit moments have not come from clever interpretive frameworks or brilliant visitor research, but from wandering the aisles of a restaurant supply store, a theatrical prop house, or a salvage yard, and thinking, "Wait. What if I used THAT?"
Materials make or break museum exhibits. Not just visually, but functionally, monetarily, and (increasingly) ethically. So let's talk about how to find better materials in smarter ways.
Look Everywhere Except the "Usual" Places
The best exhibit materials often aren't in the exhibit supply catalog. Here are some sourcing categories that don't get enough love:
Theatrical and film suppliers. Places like Rose Brand stock an astonishing range of fabrics, rigging hardware, specialty foams, and surface treatments that withstand heavy use because they're designed for stage abuse. They're also frequently cheaper than "museum-grade" equivalents.
Industrial and restaurant supply houses. Stainless steel surfaces, heavy-duty casters, food-safe containers, rubberized mats — if you need something that will survive 300 sticky-fingered visitors a day, it helps to source from industries built around that kind of punishment.
Hardware stores (go deeper than aisle 3!) Most exhibit builders know their way around Home Depot. But have you spent time in the plumbing fittings section? The electrical conduit aisle? The concrete additives shelf? Unexpected textures, forms, and structural possibilities are hiding in plain sight.
Makers and fabricators outside the museum world. Sign shops, boat builders, auto body suppliers, and custom furniture makers all work with materials and finishing techniques that translate beautifully into exhibit applications — and they often have scrap or surplus material available cheaply or for free.
Sample libraries. Material sample collections like Material ConneXion (now part of Fashionary) catalog thousands of innovative materials from around the world — including bio-based, recycled, and engineered composites that might spark a whole new exhibit direction.
Know What You're Choosing (and Why)
Before you spec any material, ask three questions:
1. Can it survive real visitor contact? Test it. Scratch it. Get it wet. Drop it.
2. Will it off-gas anything harmful? Especially important for enclosed or artifact-adjacent cases. The Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts has useful guidance here.
3. What happens to it at the end of the exhibit's life?
That last question matters more than ever right now.
Going Green (For Real)
Sustainability in exhibit design has moved well past "we used recycled paper in our labels."
Ditch the foam core. Foam core takes up to 500 years to decompose, creates microplastics, and releases harmful chemicals — including styrene, identified as a carcinogen. Alternatives like Falconboard (made primarily from renewable forest products and fully recyclable) are increasingly accessible. Ask your printer what they can actually source locally before you spec anything.
Watch your wood. Composite woods like standard plywood are often bonded with formaldehyde adhesives that emit toxic fumes that are damaging to artifacts and people alike. Formaldehyde-free options are increasingly available; even Home Depot now carries FSC-certified birch plywood. Products like Medite FR (formaldehyde-free MDF with a fire rating) thread the needle between green credentials and code compliance.
Modular = sustainable. MoMA has reduced exhibition construction waste by 82% through practices such as refurbishing and reusing display cases across exhibitions and carefully dismantling bespoke installations for donation or reuse elsewhere. Designing for disassembly isn't just an environmental win; it's a budget win for future projects.
Source locally. Looking for materials and fabrication services locally reduces transportation emissions and supports the local economy. A fabricator 20 minutes away beats one across the country, in terms of carbon footprint, communication, and the ability to do a quick site visit when things go sideways.
Resource Toolkits The Sustainable Exhibition Design & Construction Toolkit from the American Alliance of Museums is worth bookmarking. The Museum of Vancouver's SAGE Project has also developed an impressive toolkit for the selection, construction, and deconstruction of exhibitions, including a materials exchange hub concept.
New Materials Worth Knowing
A few materials on my radar right now:
Ecoresin panels are co-polyester panels with recycled content that can embed textiles, natural objects, and textures.
Xorel is a woven textile wall covering that's eco-friendly, highly durable, and available in a wide range of patterns and textures. Great for sensory surfaces.
FLOR carpet tiles are made with renewable, recycled, and recyclable content, with the company taking back old tiles for recycling and reconstitution into new materials.
The direct-to-substrate process uses inkjet printing directly onto substrates up to 2 inches thick, allowing you to reuse the same physical panel across multiple exhibit iterations. A big sustainability upside that's increasingly cost-effective.
The Bottom Line
Smart material sourcing isn't about finding the fanciest new product; it's about building the habit of looking in unexpected places, asking better questions before you buy, and thinking beyond the current project to what happens next.
The best material for your exhibit may be sitting in a salvage yard, a theatrical supply house, or a restaurant supply store, waiting for someone curious enough to wander in and ask, "What could this become?"
As always, I'd love to hear what unexpected materials YOU'VE found useful in your exhibit work. Let us know in the "Comments Section" below!
Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!
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