{"id":159888,"date":"2025-11-29T23:33:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/159888\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T23:33:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:33:16","slug":"museums-are-no-longer-afraid-of-selling-out-but-have-they-forgotten-about-the-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/159888\/","title":{"rendered":"Museums are no longer afraid of \u2018selling out\u2019. But have they forgotten about the art?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s impossible to miss. Overlooking a highway that connects Miami Beach to downtown Miami is a 1,800-square-foot digital billboard. With a larger footprint than a typical two-bedroom apartment, the screen advertises brands like Yves Saint Laurent and Tiffany & Co. Some passers-by might be surprised to learn the identity of its owner: the neighbouring modern and contemporary art museum, the P\u00e9rez Art Museum Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A new generation is more comfortable than its predecessors with blurred lines between the non-profit and the commercial spheres<\/p>\n

The billboard, which is estimated to generate at least $1.2mn each year for PAMM\u2019s operations, is indicative of a broader change under way at American museums. As they face mounting financial challenges, many art institutions are becoming increasingly entrepreneurial, experimenting with everything from art sales to tech innovation to real estate development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe typical store and caf\u00e9 lose money for museums,\u201d says Stephen Reily, the director of Remuseum, a think-tank housed by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art that promotes innovation in art institutions. He notes that US institutions often focus on the revenue such businesses generate without examining the high cost of operating and staffing them. \u201cIt serves them better to consider the kinds of businesses they could operate profitably.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnArtworks from Refik Anadol\u2019s \u2018Unsupervised \u2014 Machine Hallucinations \u2014 MoMA Dreams\u2019 series \u00a9 The artist and Feral File\"AnWorks from the series were made available to collectors as NFTs \u00a9 The artist and Feral File<\/p>\n

Some advocates say they have no choice but to experiment. Historically, museums have relied largely on donations from businesses, individuals, and government. Earned income accounts for, on average, less than a third of US museum revenue overall. Today, attendance remains lower than it was before the pandemic. Meanwhile, corporate sponsorship is dwindling, public arts funding under the Trump Administration has dropped, and a generation of donors that museums relied on for decades is ageing out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To fill the gap, museums are looking to convert the expertise and assets they already have into sustainable income. In 2022, the Museum of Modern Art in New York began commissioning NFTs and digital art, taking up to a 20 per cent cut of every purchase made on the blockchain and up to 5 per cent on resales. That same year, the Georgia O\u2019Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe patented a high-tech crate designed to better protect artworks in transit; it intends to license the technology to other businesses and non-profits in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA high-tech crate for protecting artworks in transit was developed and patented by the Georgia O\u2019Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico \u00a9 Courtesy of the Georgia O\u2019Keeffe Museum<\/p>\n

For old-school museum leaders, these kinds of moneymaking initiatives can provoke a knee-jerk shudder. Jessica Morgan, director of the Dia Art Foundation, initially felt uneasy about partnering with the company Avant Arte to produce and sell prints for \u20ac6,000 each because such commercialisation might \u201clessen an artist\u2019s work\u201d. Once she saw the quality of the prints, however, her fears dissipated. Since 2024, Dia has generated more than $5mn from editions by George Condo and Lee Ufan, with another due to launch in January. The foundation also recently entered into a three-year agreement to advise Netflix founder Reed Hastings on a public art park in Utah in exchange for an undisclosed fee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Colourful\u2018Portrait and Head\u2019 (2024), one of the George Condo works that have been turned into high-end prints being sold for $6,000 \u00a9 Courtesy of Avant Arte\"A\u2018Fashion Model\u2019 (2025), another George Condo work being sold as a print by the Dia Art Foundation in association with Avant Arte \u00a9 Courtesy of Avant Arte<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery organisation is having this conversation right now, given the lack of certainty around federal funding,\u201d says William Cary, the chief operating officer of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. The Barnes has increased its earned revenue from $6mn in 2022 (20 per cent of its operating budget) to $8.1mn in 2025 (28 per cent of its operating budget). Its initiatives include consulting work for other organisations like the Museum Store Association; licensing its Visual Experience Platform, an online learning tool that allows students to zoom in on objects during a class; and taking on administrative tasks for two neighbouring institutions \u2014 Calder Gardens and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage \u2014 through operating partnerships.<\/p>\n

There is a danger of pushing this kind of entrepreneurial thinking too far, warns Natasha Degen, chair of art market studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Under US law, nonprofits must pay additional taxes on revenue from any business deemed unrelated to their missions. Problems can arise when activities are \u201cfar outside the core competency of museums\u201d and \u201cdirect resources away from the core mission\u201d, Degen says.<\/p>\n

\"Detail\u2018From Line\u2019 (1978) by Lee Ufan, another painting being reproduced as a high-end print by Avant Arte \u00a9 Lee Ufan\/Adagp, Paris<\/p>\n

PAMM\u2019s mammoth billboard has sparked two lawsuits and put it at odds with some of its neighbours. In September, the museum agreed to pay a $500,000 annual fee to the city and limit the billboard\u2019s operating hours as part of a settlement. The following month, the neighbouring Frost Museum of Science sued the Florida Department of Transportation, arguing that PAMM\u2019s digital sign violates state law, advertises products unrelated to its business, and contributes to light pollution in the area. Frost Science\u2019s CEO Douglas Roberts says his institution declined a similar billboard proposal; he considers hosting liquor, car and luxury ads \u201cinconsistent with the mission of an art or science museum\u201d.\u00a0A spokesperson for PAMM notes that the billboard was \u201cmeticulously reviewed\u201d by all relevant authorities and fully complied with state and local regulations.<\/p>\n

Which is more nefarious: a programme that can fund only the most prominent artists, or a museum that has creative freedom because they\u2019ve developed a business model that allows them to support it independently?<\/p>\n

Pete Scantland<\/p>\n

Some entrepreneurial schemes don\u2019t outlast the leaders who conceived them. Under its former director Hesse McGraw, the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston began offering \u201ccuratorial services\u201d in 2020 to organisations across the US that sought to integrate public art into their facilities, with clients as far-flung as the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and a water recycling facility in California. Moving forward, CAMH plans to prioritise projects closer to home. \u201cThese are good initiatives to explore in an effort to diversify revenue, but utilising existing museum resources to support these endeavours can create real challenges to sustaining and growing them long-term,\u201d says Melissa Luj\u00e1n, who took over as CAMH\u2019s chief operating officer and co-director last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PhotographImage of the glass wall of New York\u2019s MoMA at its opening in 1939 \u00a9 Bettmann Archive\/Getty Images\"PhotographThe Museum Tower condominium that resulted from MoMA\u2019s sale of air rights \u00a9 Getty Images<\/p>\n

Efforts to make museums more self-sustaining are not new. In 1979, after its endowment contracted, MoMA sold the air rights above its museum for $17mn, clearing the way for the construction of a luxury residential tower next door. \u201cIn the years that followed, lots of New York City institutions copied them,\u201d Degen says. MoMA also operated an art advisory service for corporations until 1996.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But several factors make this current moment distinct, experts say. First, the cost of operating a museum \u2014 from shipping to staffing to insurance \u2014 has never been higher, according to several museum leaders. Second, a new generation is more comfortable than its predecessors with blurred lines between the non-profit and the commercial spheres. \u201cThat\u2019s a generational shift that goes beyond the art world,\u201d Degen says. \u201cThe whole idea of \u2018selling out\u2019 is no longer a thing.\u201d Third, the public perception of museum philanthropy as purely altruistic has changed amid the growing backlash to donors such as BP and the Sackler family, as well as recent scrutiny of the role that commercial galleries play in supporting museum exhibitions of the artists they represent<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ViewThe P\u00e9rez Art Museum Miami argues that, as well as hosting high-end advertisements, its giant billboard is used to promote museum activities and art commissions \u00a9 Orange Barrel Media<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is more nefarious?\u201d asks Pete Scantland, the chair of the board at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio and the founder of Orange Barrel Media, the company that operates the billboard on PAMM\u2019s property. \u201cA programme that is dictated by galleries and collectors who can fund only the most prominent artists, or a museum that has creative freedom because they\u2019ve developed a business model that allows them to support it independently?\u201d Orange Barrel Media is developing similar billboard projects for approximately 10 other high-profile art institutions across the US.<\/p>\n

Speaking before Frost Science filed its lawsuit, PAMM\u2019s director Franklin Sirmans said that he couldn\u2019t \u201coverstate\u201d the importance of the institution\u2019s new revenue stream \u201cas we confront the challenges that most museums are confronting in this moment\u201d. In addition to hosting ads, he noted, the billboard also promotes the museum\u2019s activities and hosts art commissions. He considers this marketing \u2014 which takes up around 20 per cent of the screen\u2019s allotted time \u2014 as important as the revenue generated by advertisers.<\/p>\n

The rise of entrepreneurship in American museums stands in contrast with the state of play in the UK, where institutions are increasingly reliant on private donors. Still, it\u2019s not out of the question that the likes of Tate and the National Portrait Gallery could host a giant billboard or spin off a consultancy business in the years to come. As Degen says, the US is often \u201ca window into the future for museums\u201d.<\/p>\n

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