{"id":65551,"date":"2025-10-08T13:08:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T13:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/65551\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T13:08:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T13:08:06","slug":"philadelphia-museum-of-art-rebrands-itself-with-a-new-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/65551\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Museum of Art rebrands itself with a new name"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 87 years, it\u2019s not the Philadelphia Museum of Art<\/a> anymore. <\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, the city\u2019s largest visual arts institution has a new, slimmed down name: Philadelphia Art Museum.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the museum is now sometimes referring to itself under an even shorter sub-brand: PhAM. A new website url, visitpham.org<\/a>, signals that, in the words of the museum\u2019s head marketer, Paul Dien, the place today \u201cis not your grandfather\u2019s art museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new monikers are part of a larger rebranding of Philadelphia\u2019s encyclopedic art museum a year-and-a-half in the making. Typography on signage and other materials has been modernized and made bold, language in ads and other materials rendered less formal and even irreverent.<\/p>\n

\u201cSTOP IN THE NAME OF ART\u201d says a boldface sign outside of the museum\u2019s cafe and restaurant, reminding visitors \u2014 firmly but playfully \u2014 not to take food or drink into the galleries. <\/p>\n

Museum guards are getting a fashion makeover to make them appear less \u201cintimidating\u201d and more \u201cinviting.\u201d Concerts and other events are being planned, geared to a hip crowd.<\/p>\n

All of this, museum leaders hope, will broadcast a more accessible vibe that will revive weak attendance numbers and stanch a series of operating deficits that have bedeviled the organization for several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at the end of the day, what we\u2019re trying to do is drive attendance \u2014 you know, keep the doors open,\u201d said Dien, the museum\u2019s chief marketing officer. \u201cWe have so much research that shows there is this brand perception that we\u2019re the castle on the hill. And so my job right now is [to ask], \u2018How do we come down the steps and meet people where they\u2019re at?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to bring people in and help put us more clearly on the map,\u201d said museum director and CEO Sasha Suda<\/a> of the rebranding.<\/p>\n

Embracing sports, hip hop, and… Sylvester Stallone<\/p>\n

The changes go beyond style and into substance.<\/p>\n

Like other arts groups, the museum is increasingly dabbling in sports and pop culture \u2014 with a distinct Philadelphia flavor. It has formed partnerships with sports figures like Saquon Barkley<\/a> and Malcolm Jenkins<\/a>, and discussions are underway with the Roots for the hip hop band to become artist-in-residence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so part of their mystique as a band, the Philly love,\u201d said Dien. <\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s Friday night performance series \u2014 the only day of the week the doors are open past 5 p.m. \u2014 will soon launch a DJ-in-residence program using playlists inspired by the art collection.<\/p>\n

The nearly 150-year-old art museum is also embracing a part of its image that it never sought, and has sometimes rejected. It is organizing a show encompassing sports, which includes the Rocky statue<\/a>. The show is being curated by Paul M. Farber, who is host, creator, and executive producer of the podcast The Statue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really inspired by Paul\u2019s podcast,\u201d said Suda, \u201cwhich to me is a nod to how galvanizing that sculpture is in bringing people together in their hardships. It\u2019s about that grittiness. It\u2019s about that resilience that people have, which is embodied by the sculpture of Rocky. And of course, in many ways, it\u2019s Sylvester Stallone\u2019s story, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum hopes that some of the millions<\/a> who make the pilgrimage to have their picture taken with the statue will not only run up the steps, but also come inside.<\/p>\n

The show \u2014 which may include a painting by Stallone himself \u2014 is expected to open in 2026 and is part of an embrace between Stallone and the museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing relationship that we\u2019ve been cultivating because for me, as a marketer, I see it as someone who will reach new audiences, someone who has a massive platform,\u201d said Dien. \u201cI think what we\u2019re trying to do is say, \u2018Hey, this is part of our DNA and it\u2019s also part of the DNA of Philly,\u2019 and why do we want to shy away from that, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

An elusive pandemic recovery<\/p>\n

Leveraging relevance is seen as key to bringing back visitors. <\/p>\n

A decade ago, then-PMA director and CEO Timothy Rub outlined a \u201ccritical goal\u201d to increase annual attendance to an average of a million visitors<\/a> within five years. The museum is still far from that number. <\/p>\n

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, paid and nonpaid attendance was 672,484 \u2014 well short of the 773,511 it was the last full year before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The attendance forecast for this year calls for a slight increase, to 731,000, as well as a deficit that follows other recent ones \u2014 this time around $2 million on a budget of $62 million, said Suda. <\/p>\n

Other ambitions await an improved financial picture, like the question of what to do with the Perelman annex across the street, an impressive Art Deco structure that the museum closed to the public during the pandemic and never reopened.<\/p>\n

Suda would like it to host both research programs and the general public, but, she said, \u201cthat\u2019s a bit of a dream. It\u2019s on the horizon line until we\u2019ve tackled this deficit and really feel like we have the plan in place for the next five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other big projects must also be prioritized, such as deferred maintenance on the main building, and raising an endowment more in line with an institution of the museum\u2019s size. \u201cWe\u2019re not currently in a campaign, but we are always fundraising for endowment and capital needs,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Next up, Suda says, is a new Frank Gehry-designed educational center just inside the museum\u2019s north entrance. The campaign for that is $50 million, according to the museum\u2019s strategic plan of a year ago, but the spokesperson said the museum was not \u201cfar enough along in the project to comment on cost or specific plans\u201d for the center.<\/p>\n

The museum isn\u2019t alone in its attendance woes. Slightly more than half (55%) of U.S museums have not recouped their pre-pandemic attendance numbers, according to a forthcoming survey by the American Alliance of Museums that drew data from 511 museums (of which 98 were art museums).<\/p>\n

Part of what\u2019s going on in Philadelphia, said Dien, is that \u201ctourism numbers have been down this year in ways that we weren\u2019t anticipating.\u201d Visitorship from New York has not rebounded, said Suda, adding: \u201cThat is a code I would love to crack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boldfacing Philadelphia <\/p>\n

The museum is, therefore, focusing on the local market. A billboard campaign namechecks Fishtown<\/a> and South Philadelphia<\/a>. Fonts for signs in the museum were inspired by old Philadelphia signage. Emphasizing Philadelphia extends to the new logo, which brings back the griffin image taken from the sculptural element adorning the museum\u2019s roofline.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s name was formerly rendered in thin, elegant type with Art written larger than the other words. The new logo looks almost like a coin, with the new name circling around the edge and the griffin in the middle. It was designed with social media, video, and motion graphics in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the media landscape and kind of the avalanche of content, as a marketer, I have three seconds to capture someone\u2019s attention. And so the current systems were just not made for the digital age,\u201d said Dien. <\/p>\n

(The new website includes a couple of \u201cEaster eggs,\u201d including a version of the logo whose words spin when you place the cursor over it.)<\/p>\n

As for the brand change, PhAM was thought to echo the words Philadelphia or family, and the streamlined Philadelphia Art Museum name was simply an acknowledgment of the reality on the ground, said Luis Bravo, the museum\u2019s design director.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a lot of testing around the name and felt that \u2018the Philadelphia Museum of Art\u2019 felt a little bit formal and maybe a little bit out of step with the colloquial way that people speak about us,\u201d said Bravo. <\/p>\n

The museum isn\u2019t changing its name legally, which it took in 1938 \u2014 just its \u201cconsumer-facing\u201d name.<\/p>\n

The new look will be phased in over the coming months. The first show to be marketed under the rebrand is \u201cDreamworld: Surrealism at 100,\u201d<\/a> which opens Nov. 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that \u2018Surrealism\u2019 should be a big boon for us,\u201d said Suda.<\/p>\n

The show opened in Europe, but, like a lot of the rebranding, it will come infused with a distinct Philadelphia flavor. Nearly 40% of works in this iteration of the show are from the museum\u2019s own collection.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another indicator, said Suda, that the Philadelphia Art Museum is \u201cof Philadelphia, of this place. But we\u2019re playing for the world, and we\u2019re of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 87 years, it\u2019s not the Philadelphia Museum of Art anymore. As of Wednesday, the city\u2019s largest visual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69,53104],"class_list":["post-65551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-philadelphia-art-museum-modern-rebrand-name"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}