ONLINE FORUM

This is the week.

We know you’ve been meaning to get that submission together, and now is the time!

We are looking forward to hearing about all your Back to Basics, Outside the Box ideas, projects, materials, solutions, stories, and tools – so please get them to us by this Friday, May 15^th! Remember – the conference is only as good as what our community chooses to share, so help make this conference as good as San Francisco sourdough!

In case you haven’t already heard - The 10^th biennial International Mountmakers Forum conference will be held in San Francisco on November 3-5, 2026, hosted by the Asian Art Museum.

Is anyone interested in participating in a panel discussion at the next IMF conference to talk about their experience with covering their freelance work? Are you an LLC, an S Corp, a sole proprietor, under another entity's insurance umbella, etc ? I'm considering building out an abstract on this topic if other mountmakers can participate and share. The abstract deadline is soon and this would be for a 30 min panel discussion. If interested, please email me jodyhanson@verizon.net

Thanks,

Jody

Hello everyone! I’m currently working on a museum project where the designer has decided the little numbers are going to go on 5/8 diameter brass pieces they are calling pucks. We are trying to see if these exist anywhere that we could purchase them instead of fabricating ourselves. In the past, we’ve CNC cut small brass tabs that we’ve either called tabs, chips, or chads - approx 1/2”W x 3/8”H x 1/16”D that the number is then affixed to. We do not have a choice about it being a circle or not, nor in the size. I cannot find anything for number labels inside a case except for the acrylic triangles and cubes with numbers on them like this: https://www.universityproducts.com/acrylic-number-blocks.html or this https://www.preservationequipment.com/display-identification-cubes. I checked all the museum supply sites I know of and could find. I don’t think this exists, but someone else thinks they do, hence …

Koestler Arts is looking for a temporary Arts Handling and Documentation Assistant and we'd be grateful if you could share the post with your networks if of interest. I've copied below the advert and attached is the job pack and the application form. The closing date is next Wednesday 6 May and more info is here: https://koestlerarts.org.uk/about-us/jobs-volunteering/jobs/

We are looking for someone with great attention to detail and art handling experience to join the busy Koestler Arts Team for 3 months as we process thousands of artworks from prisons and secure units that have been entered into the annual Koestler Awards. This role will assist with art handling and collection management to help process over 7,000 artworks ready for judging in July and August.

You will unwrap, handle and label multiple artworks every day, some of which are made from unusual materials such as matchsticks, bread and soap, as well…

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!