Joel Bartsch serves as president and CEO of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where he has led the institution since 2004. Over more than two decades in executive leadership and more than three decades connected to the museum, Joel Bartsch has overseen major facility renovations, a 200,000 square foot expansion, and the introduction of new interactive education centers. He began his museum career at the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum and later held curatorial and directorial roles in California and Hawaii before returning to HMNS as curator and director of earth sciences. Throughout his tenure, he has guided the development of immersive exhibits and educational programming, positioning the museum to reach broader audiences. That institutional experience provides context for understanding how traveling exhibits extend natural history content beyond a central campus and into new communities.
How Traveling Exhibits Bring Natural History to New Audiences
With museums seeking ways to reach people beyond their main buildings, traveling exhibits have become an established way to share collections and stories in more places. A traveling exhibit is a curated, transportable display designed for temporary installation in venues such as local museums, libraries, and community centers rather than in a single permanent gallery. These programs let institutions present interpretive content in places that do not maintain large in-house exhibitions.
Natural history content is one way these touring programs present science stories because museums can use physical specimens, models, and hands-on components in many settings. Exhibits built around fossils, geology, and past environments may use modular stations with hands-on items and activities that fit on tables in shared spaces. Programs such as the Museum of Natural and Cultural History’s Museum Adventures initiative, which sends dinosaur-themed and science-focused exhibit stations to rural libraries and community organizations, show how institutions can deliver natural history learning opportunities directly to communities that may not regularly visit a large museum.
Museum teams design these traveling exhibits with transport and repeated installation in mind. In the Museum Adventures program, four-week loan exhibits are packed into stackable crates and a protective case, and they include exhibit stations and activity components that do not require electricity. The lending museum provides written guides and orientation materials that explain how host staff should unpack, install, maintain, and repack the exhibition at the end of the loan.
Beyond the physical exhibit, many touring programs include educational resources that extend learning. Lending museums and partner organizations may supply lesson plans, family guides, workshop outlines, and take-home materials that local educators and librarians can integrate into school visits, story hours, and public programs.
In the case of Museum Adventures, a programming toolkit accompanies each exhibit. It offers structured activities for different age groups and guidance on how to use them with a range of audiences and program formats.
Once an exhibit arrives, the host site takes responsibility for daily operation. Local museums, historical societies, and libraries manage hours, visitor flow, basic monitoring, and on-site programming, while the museum that created the exhibition remains available for consultation if questions arise about care, interpretation, or logistics. These partnerships allow each organization to contribute its strengths: the lending museum provides curatorial and educational content, and the host provides community access and program delivery.
Accounts of touring exhibitions and library-based museum partnerships show that these programs often attract first-time visitors and encourage collaboration between cultural and educational organizations. In smaller or rural communities, a science or natural history exhibit on tour can give residents a chance to interact with museum-quality displays and hands-on learning activities close to home.
National and regional programs run by large museums and university or state institutions operate on multi-year schedules that rotate exhibitions through networks of partner sites, allowing a single set of objects and interpretive materials to reach multiple communities over time. In this way, traveling exhibits extend the educational impact of collections beyond a central campus.
As these partnerships develop, traveling exhibits become more than temporary installations. They form part of a sustained exchange between lending museums and host communities, supporting repeat visits, shared programming, and continued collaboration. By providing portable displays, practical educational resources, and clear operational guidance, museums use traveling exhibits to make natural history learning available in everyday public spaces and to strengthen connections with audiences who might otherwise have limited access to major museum facilities.
About Joel Bartsch
Joel Bartsch is president and CEO of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, a role he has held since 2004. His museum career includes leadership positions in Colorado, California, and Hawaii, as well as more than three decades associated with HMNS. He has overseen major expansions, exhibit development, and educational initiatives, and has authored a mineral catalog for a major museum exhibition. His background includes curatorial and operational leadership across earth sciences and natural history programming.
