The Blockbuster Boost
How nonprofit museums really make their loot
By Kris Belden
 | Illustration by Trev Kelderman |
It would be difficult to find two more easily recognizable artists who have more widespread appeal than Van Gogh and Gauguin.
At least that's what the Art Institute of Chicago hopes.
Later this month the museum will open its doors to hundreds of thousands of visitors for a show designed to be spectacularly popular and well attended. The Art Institute, like many nonprofit museums across the nation, host periodic blockbuster exhibits like Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South to help bring in income.
Unlike art galleries, which have to sell inventory to make money and stay operational, the success of nonprofit museums depends on finding ways to keep the public interested and people visiting.
"It's a very important show on many levels," said John Hindman, Associate Director of Public Affairs at the Art Institute. "I think the primary need is the aesthetic need. Attendance is also very important. It's what helps keep the doors open and the lights on."
The blockbuster show has been a practiced method of boosting museum revenues in the industry, because most nonprofit museums are largely under funded.
The Art Institute expects about 800,000 to attend the exhibit, which runs from September 22 through January 13, 2002. If the museum were to sell that many tickets at the non-member fee of $20 each, the show would net a $16 million profit. And that's not counting proceeds from exhibit-related books, posters, T-shirts and trinkets sold in the bookstore.
While $16 million may sound like a great amount of money, remember that one painting can be worth several times that sum. And museums operating costs are much greater than that.
According to Hindman, proceeds from the show, which is the last of three sponsored by the Ameritech Exhibition Series, will go toward funding future exhibits.
Adrian Ellis, a management consultant, explained, "Undercapitalization is very simple and lies in elementary museum economics: Museums are a red-ink business and require subsidy in the form of contributed income or grants to survive.
"The percentage of their operating budget raised from government or philanthropic sources depends on their capacity to generate income. This depends in turn on their charging philosophy, their attendance numbers, relevant entrepreneurial skills, and available physical space for ancillary retail, catering and so forth. But whatever the percentage, it is invariably significantly less than 100 percent," said Ellis, who works with cultural institutions in Europe and the United States.
But to do this, a museum can't just appeal to a few people. It must appeal to the masses and make art approachable and appealing to everyone in their community.
"Museum boards and directors have widened their mission progressively from collection and preservation through displays aimed at maximizing visitors to broader public education and entertainment," Ellis said.
The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, for instance, hosted an exhibition of masks, which ranged from African to Egyptian, and included the mask of Darth Vader from Star Wars for a little added appeal and contemporary flair. The challenge curators face is to create an exhibition that will appeal to as many people as possible and still maintain a high aesthetic value. And if you can play off your permanent collection, that's even better.
To keep visitors coming back to the museum after the exhibition has gone curators at the Art Institute carefully select shows that capitalize on pieces of their permanent collection. The Institute has an impressive collection of both Van Gogh and Gauguin's work. Hindman added, "If you have something that appeals to people, they'll come in."
Van Gogh and Gauguin
The Studio of the South
Exhibited through Jan. 13
Tickets $10 on Tuesdays, $20 all other days
Free to SAIC students
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