Art for The People

While I'm on this topic, I wanted to add one more thing. Recently, at a conference, I saw a University of New Mexico, American Studies grad student, Elizabeth Swift present a paper entitled, "Class, consumption, and cultural authority: museum shop merchandising at national museums.”

Swift discussed the proliferation of art museum gift shops during the early to mid-20th century. Aside from wanting to add another revenue source, many of the rich, industrialist families who owned the art in the museums (e.g., Vanderbilts, Mellons, Rockefellers) believed in selling prints of the famous works of art because it would allow ordinary people to appreciate them on a regular basis. Others in the art world, particularly people at the National Gallery, viewed the reproduction of art as crass and long resisted developing a gift shop.

Regardless of the intentions, today, the top sellers are not reprints of Van Gogh paintings, but Rothko-inspired silk scarves and Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired necklaces sold primarily to middle-class aspirational buyers. And the top revenue source at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the parking garage.