Between 1978 and 2009, the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation shared its collection of Rodin sculpture with museums throughout the United States and Canada and made loans in Singapore, Venezuela, Australia, and Japan.  At times, loans from the Foundation meant lending a few pieces to a special exhibition organized by a museum.  Most often, the Foundation loaned an entire exhibition that it had organized itself.

"The people of Arcadiana [Louisiana] still talk and reminisce about the [1994] exhibit...and count it as one of the most importance events – cultural or otherwise – to have occured in this area in recent years. You would be amazed at what a difference that exhibit has made. Since the Rodin exhibit public demand for the arts has increased enormously. I would wager that what you have...accomplished here, in this largely rural area of a half-million people, has affected more individuals, in more ways, than perhaps anything else that you have ever done. You have awakened more appetites, enlarged more lives, and opened more eyes (and doors) than you could ever imagine. Years from now, people may very well look back on the Rodin exhibit, and count it as one of the greatest influences in who and what our people eventually become."

At any one time, there were two exhibitions – one larger and the other smaller – traveling simultaneously.  The larger shows usually consisted of approximately seventy pieces and provided a comprehensive retrospective of Rodin’s work.   The smaller shows were thematic, sized to be appropriate for smaller college, university, and community museums and galleries.  Each show traveled with extensive educational materials, including family guides, brochures, text panels, and object labels.  The Foundation also provided host institutions with packets of information for teachers to use to prepare classes for museum visits.

In 31 years of touring, these exhibitions attracted nearly ten million visitors and went to more than two hundred venues in forty-three states. As Rachael Blackburn points out in her Foreword to the Foundation’s 2001 book, Rodin; A Magnificent Obsession: “Except for the necessary shipping containers, darkened storage areas were never a part of Mr. Cantor’s plan.”