AFA ArtViews—“Art Museum Funding at the Crossroads” Part I of II

Moderator Maxwell L. Anderson, the Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art and an AFA trustee, led panelists in a discussion of the means by which art museums will support themselves in the coming years. Since the advent of the blockbuster exhibition in the 1970s, art museums have turned increasingly to earned revenue to bolster their conventional reliance on contributed revenue and endowment. This shift has led to venture philanthropy, cultural tourism, entrepreneurial business plans, licensing, corporate collaboration, and other innovative strategies.

Panelists:

James L. Bildner: Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, and Senior Research Fellow at Harvard’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations

Thomas P. Campbell: Director and CEO, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Melissa Chiu: Director, Asia Society Museum in New York, and Senior Vice President for Global Arts and Cultural Programs, Asia Society

Mariët Westermann: Vice President, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Ari Wiseman: Deputy Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

“Art Museum Funding at the Crossroads” is organized by the American Federation of Arts in association with the Arts & Business Council of New York and the Association of Art Museum Directors with funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation and the Hazen Polsky Foundation, Inc.