Remember when museum shops were sleepy little corners where you could purchase postcards of art from the museum’s collection and a catalog or two, usually long on academic analysis and short on color pictures? Those days are long gone.

Museum stores now occupy significant square footage and high-profile display space. They offer a vast array of merchandise, from trinkets to pricey reproductions, jewelry and even original artwork. The items for sale often no longer have a direct connection to the museum’s collections or exhibitions, but are considered an extension of the museum’s “aesthetic” sensibility, curated to appeal to the taste level of the museum’s demographics. Museums now have multiple satellite stores, remote locations, elaborate websites and even exterior entrances to allow shopping when the museum isn’t open.

Museum shops have evolved into important components of a museum’s operations. Gift shops in newer buildings have been planned to be architecturally integrated into museums and to reflect the aesthetic point of view. They’ve been created with marketing techniques in mind, integrated into exhibition spaces and offer targeted merchandise at multiple price points, in addition to the traditional museum-branded merchandise.

CULTURE MEETS COMMERCE
Museums and cultural institutions have their critics, who say these once-august and pure places have been co-opted by high entry prices and the sale of luxury goods. But museums beg to differ. While museums (and other cultural institutions) toe a fine line between art and commerce, they say they have no choice.

“Cultural institutions are under tremendous financial pressure because public funding has decreased, and so they are increasingly challenged to fund themselves,” says Beverly Barsook, executive director of the Museum Store Association. “These revenues go directly to support the institutions, and municipalities also benefit because the museums bring significant tourism and tax dollars.”

The store is on the front lines of the museum’s ability to maintain itself, and museums are becoming more sophisticated retailers, basing their strategies on what they think they can sell.

Selling high-priced items is not necessarily a new trend, contends Barsook. “It depends on the museum’s audience. There are museums that focus on native crafts in the Southwest and Northwest that have been selling rugs, jewelry and other Native American items at prices in the thousands of dollars for many years.”

Still, it may come as a shock to learn that, during a recent show of the work of glass artist Dale Chihouly at the New York Botanical Gardens, the store sold over 150 original Chihouly pieces at prices ranging from $3500 to $7500, according to Ellen Bruzelius, director of special projects.

EASY ACCESS
What is new, Barsook confirms, is the trend of stores positioning themselves as destinations independent of the museum itself. For example, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) shop has a street entrance, allowing walk-in shoppers who may not be visiting the museum at all. “Our new building was a turning point for the store,” says Jana Machin, SFMoMA store director. “It gave us a better platform, with 75 percent more space and street access. We monitor sales trends versus attendance trends, so we know that there are a large number of people who come to the store but not to the museum. Especially during the holidays, we are a destination.

“Our museum director and our board are very supportive of our operations,” says Machin, “because some of our board members come from retail, and they saw the opportunity.”

Although some feel museums are trading on the goodwill and trustworthiness of the museum as a genteel not-for-profit entity, “people want to buy in a museum setting,” says Barsook. “They rely on the reputation of the museum to select good examples of whatever they are offering for sale.”

CREATING FOR THE AESTHETIC
Kim Baker of Gouda Inc., one of the largest design firms specializing in the design and development of products for museums, concurs. “The design process is unique, because the level of sensitivity is different; curators have to sign off on what’s being done. Some curators really enjoy being involved and even suggest products … but it always has to be respectful of the art. Things that are fun are encouraged, but not things that poke fun. It’s a fine line … one of the big challenges for museum retail, especially when the location is away from the art, is how to keep connected to the art. You always want the public to feel as if they are supporting the institution by purchasing there, and also to carry that experience of the museum with their purchases, extending their good feeling about the museum.”

Gouda designs a huge array of products for a long list of museums; products include watches, clocks, stuffed animals, beach towels, scarves, slippers, shawls and, of course, T-shirts, mugs, tote bags and umbrellas emblazoned with logos and artwork from museum collections.

But not every museum allows its art to be used on products: At New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), there is a longstanding prohibition against art appearing in any other form than its original one. “You won’t see any mugs with Van Gogh’s Starry Night,” says Bonnie Mackay, creative and marketing director for the MoMA stores.

At The Metropolitan Museum of New York, however, just the opposite approach prevails. Jody Malordy, general manager of marketing and publicity, describes the Met’s expanded product offerings as beyond simple reproductions. “We have designers who develop jewelry based on a necklace in a painting, for example, or jewelry and other objects using details of carved furniture in our collection.” During the museum’s Byzantine exhibition, the shop offered jewelry selling for up to $60,000.

With the public more educated about the value of sophisticated design, museums have taken advantage of their reputations as arbiters of taste to reap the benefits of consumer trust.

MOVING UPSCALE
Although most museum-shop offerings do not approach those figures, many shops are now carrying more expensive items. For example, the Denver Art Museum now sells fine jewelry by Colorado- based designer John Atencio at prices up to $4500, says sales coordinator Greg McKay.

At the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), a pair of bronze bookends modeled after the lions at the building’s entrance go for $1500. Liz Grainer, vice president of auxiliary operations at AIC, confirms that “retail contributes a healthy amount to the bottom line” of the museum. “We are building a whole new wing, adding 260,000 square feet of space, and at least two new shops will be included,” she reports. The new wing will be completed in summer 2009, and the retail spaces will add to the 7400-sq.-ft. shop in the main building.

Jewelry, artwork and limited-edition posters are not the only luxury items at New York’s MoMA: The selection of products includes actual design icons from MoMA’s collection. You can buy an Eames lounge chair ($4695) or a Bauhaus table lamp ($850), for example. The stores also include thousands of products curated and developed by a staff of six who travel to find and develop products sold not only at MoMa’s stores but also wholesaled to other museums and retail outlets, including gift shops.

“Our wholesale operations generate a substantial amount of business, including the Christmas cards that were the foundation of the wholesale department,” says Mackay. “We like fun and good design. Sometimes we find things and ‘MoMA-ize’ them. Our stores are supermarkets of design … that’s what makes us unique—our originality. We don’t just accept what people give us; we probe and demand more.”

GROWING FOOTPRINTS
MoMA’s retail spaces in its main building and in the design store across the street total 11,200 sq. ft., and its remote location (in Soho) adds another 5300 sq. ft. A new store will open in Tokyo later this year, says Mackay.

But the behemoth of museum retailing is The Metropolitan Museum, with 10 permanent remote stores in addition to its main shop, its Great Hall Luxury Boutique and a newly opened shop in the Greek and Roman galleries. Additional remote stores travel with special exhibitions. A second airport shop at JFK will be open by press time. Jody Malordy, general manager of marketing and publicity for merchandising activities, says the airport stores are smaller and therefore more restricted than mall stores, but “we have something in every category at almost every price point.”

MAKING THE CUT
Most Metropolitan Museum products are developed internally and are based on objects in the museum’s vast collection or those of collaborating institutions. Malordy says the Met’s jewelry designer, Joanne Lyman, has been there for over 30 years. “Every product is approved by a curator over all stages,” she says, “and there are some products that don’t pass muster.”

Though their curatorial vetting and selection process may be more rigorous than that of most retail outlets, there’s no mistaking that museum shops are participating in a general trend for more upscale shopping opportunities. With a public that is more educated about the value of sophisticated design, museums have taken advantage of their reputations as arbiters of taste to reap the benefits of consumer trust. Especially in the arena of luxury goods, museums have profited handsomely from their retail outlets, wholesaling, online sales and catalogs.

But we all reap a kind of bonus. In their efforts to ensure their sponsoring institutions’ survival, museum gift shops give us something in return: the chance to relive our moments in their hallowed halls and to hold that experience in our hands.

www.nybgshopinthegarden.org
www.sfmoma.org/museumstore/shop_categories.html
www.momastore.org
www.metmuseum.org/store
www.denverartmuseum.org
www.artinstituteshop.org

TOP: A DETAIL FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM’S MAIN STORE. THE MET HAS 23 STORES (COUNTING THE MUSEUM AND ITS VARIOUS SHOPS AS ONE), INCLUDING A NEW AIRPORT SATELLITE STORE (THE SECOND AT NYC’S JFK AIRPORT) AND THE STORES THAT ACCOMPANY ITS TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS.