ONLINE FORUM

Hey All, We're in the middle of a permanent collection reinstallation (early on enough that I'm still sane) and a portion of this will include a large salon wall of export porcelain. I'm getting started on tackling some of the bowls and plates which will need a fairly traditional brass mount. However that's not something anyone on our team has made previously, and looking throughout the museum, there aren't any examples of already made mounts to examine. I've been trying to find some resources as to how these are generally designed and executed but surprisingly coming up short on much other than some blurry images from videos of prior IMF conferences. Would anyone happen to have any source of info that may be helpful, or some shots of assembled (or disassembled) mounts that could shed some light on how I may want to proceed? At the moment I've just gotten started with doing…

Back to Basics, Outside the Box

Call for Abstracts

due May 15, 2026

The IMF Steering Committee is pleased to announce the 10^th biennial International Mountmakers Forum conference to be held in San Francisco on November 3-5, 2026, hosted by the Asian Art Museum.

Our theme for IMF2026 is “Back to Basics, Outside the Box”. We hope it will draw topics fundamental to exhibition mountmaking as well as more creative and innovative solutions and techniques that build on those principles.

The conference program will cover three full days. Specific content organization is dependent on the submissions received. The review committee will favor topics that offer practical tips for the emerging mountmaker as well as those that describe more complex solutions and techniques communicated in an accessible fashion.

Hi All,

I'm working to get my museum to budget for the IMF conference this year but I've never been. Anyone have an idea on how much it actually costs to attend the conference? There's not much info on the site yet.

Thanks!

Established in 1980 by the Airport Commission, SFO Museum’s mission is to delight, engage, and inspire a global audience with programming on a broad range of subjects; to collect, preserve, interpret, and share the history of commercial aviation; and to enrich the public experience at San Francisco International Airport. The Museum has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 1999 and retains the distinction of being the only accredited museum in an airport. The Museum operates more than twenty-five sites throughout the Airport terminals, including fourteen galleries that exhibit a rotating schedule of art, history, photography, science, and cultural exhibitions. Among the sites is the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, which houses a permanent collection of more than 150,000 objects related to the history of commercial aviation. For additional information about SFO Museum, please visit https://www.sfomuseum.org/

For more information and how to…

Hello Fellow Mountmakers!

We are currently working on a project that requires some clear bumpons/bumpers. I have some 3M Bumpons (ITEM# 3MBMPLG) that are about 1/18" thin and 1/2" dia. and will be Oddy tested since the AIC wiki has it listed but it's from 2017 - fingers crossed!

My question is if anyone has a lead on any alternatives besides me making a bunch of sylgard and punching dots? The AIC Wiki reports that it didn't test well by 'BKM' but an alternative was found (and of course not listed). I know that my current research has led me to the following - 3M BUMPON PRODUCTS so I'm looking up the acrylic ones now.

Any help is appreciated,

Hiya all-

I'm teaching in Brooklyn again this January for a long weekend

Thursday, Jan 22 evening is the opening lecture for the "short course" and the "conservator and conservation/museum studies student course".

The "short course" continues on Friday and Saturday.

The "conservator and conservation/museum studies student course" is conducted on Sunday. This course covers working without a workshop and how to work with mountmakers. We will touch on insurance and contracting.

I'm happy to answer any questions that you have about these offerings.

Hi all,

I have a time sensitive question about insurance, and any advice is appreciated!

I’m just starting out in mountmaking, and I’ve taken a few freelance jobs doing acrylic book cradles. I was covered by the last place I worked, but now I’m getting more requests from private clients (which is awesome!) but I don’t really make enough yet to justify a yearly insurance policy of ~$600.

I have some requests for jobs in the next few months, so I need to get coverage fairly quickly.

Does anyone know of a project-based insurance solution for this? I know other types of jobs have event insurance, but obviously mountmaking requires a level of coverage and it’s super specific.

(Right now I’m only doing acrylic, and only working on site, not at my home/studio, so at least that’s not an issue)