How to get your art into museums

Navigating the muddy world of museum placement

Museums acquire artworks through a variety of methods, including purchases, bequests, gifts, donations, and exchange programs.

Larger museums often have entire departments dedicated to acquisitions, involving board members, advisory committees, collectors, and other stakeholders. MET has a committee of 37 members overseeing acquisitions, including several trustees. Their acquisition budget was $36.4M for 2020-21, and they acquired 1623 artworks, 262 purchases, and 1361 were bequests.¹

Museums like MET are working to diversify their collection and one of their initiative is to create an endowment with a total value of $10M to increase works by BIPOC artists.²

Displaying an artwork, however, is a collaborative process that requires input from multiple departments within the museum.

The process of acquiring a work typically begins when someone from the museum first encounters an artist’s work. This initial spark can lead to further exploration by the curatorial department, which is primarily responsible for sourcing new acquisitions. Curators may come across artwork at biennials, exhibitions, or other art events, and if the work aligns with the museum's mission, it may lead to a potential acquisition.

Mission Alignment

It’s important to note that acquisitions are not based on personal taste but rather on the museum's mission. For instance, MoMA’s mission is to connect people globally to the art of our time, fostering experimentation, learning, and creativity. This means that artists hoping to have their work acquired by MoMA must create pieces that push boundaries and inspire new perspectives. Without this alignment, their chances are slim.

The Museum of Modern Art connects people from around the world to the art of our time. We aspire to be a catalyst for experimentation, learning, and creativity, a gathering place for all, and a home for artists and their ideas.³

Sarah Sze, Timekeeper, 2016, © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

A good example of this is the Guggenheim’s acquisition of Sarah Sze’s multimedia installation, Timekeeper, which explores sensory overload. The piece resonated with the Guggenheim’s mission to collect and interpret modern and contemporary art that explores cross-cultural ideas. This mission-driven approach can lead to long-term relationships between artists and museums, including studio visits and contact with galleries.⁴

Guggenheim curator, Katherine Brinson came across the artwork at Rose Art Museum. Curators often discover artists in various settings—degree shows, exhibitions, open studios, and events—and being visible in these spaces can increase an artist’s chances of getting noticed. Artists who align their work with a curator’s specific focus may find it beneficial to target that niche.

Museum expansions and budgets

Museums looking to grow their collections are often more open to acquiring works from emerging artists. Understanding a museum’s financial resources and expansion plans can help artists identify opportunities. For example, the New Museum in New York and the Studio Museum in Harlem both have expansions planned for 2025, which could mean more room for new collections, programming, and artist residencies.⁵

New Museum Expansion Courtesy newmuseum.org

Some museums also have specific acquisition guidelines, like the Baltimore Museum’s 2020 focus on acquiring works by women artists. Other institutions, like the New Museum, have specialized programs such as its art and technology incubator, while the Studio Museum offers an acclaimed residency program for African and Afro-Latinx artists.

Certain museums also receive endowments for specific acquisitions. For example, The Heckscher Museum uses an endowed fund to acquire American art, while LACMA has a small photography endowment and a collectors group, Art Here and Now, which focuses on emerging Los Angeles-based artists. Tate London, meanwhile, is focused on acquiring works by women, LGBTQ+, and minority artists, as well as experiential and digital media pieces. Similarly, The Met is working on an initiative to endow acquisitions of BIPOC artists’ works.

The Role of Networks

Art fairs play a key role in how museums discover and acquire emerging artists. Although these fairs typically cater to galleries and established art collectives rather than individual artists, a gallery that’s invested in an artist’s long-term growth can be an invaluable bridge to museum acquisition. Galleries, especially those connected to the local art scene, are instrumental in introducing regional, unconventional, and niche artists to curators.

Certain galleries prioritize institutional placement for their artists. Jack Barrett, a gallery in NYC is one of them. Their strategy is to understand a curator’s focus and align it with its artist’s work. One of their emerging artist Amy Brener, had a solo show at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum because they were able to match the artists work to the interests of curator and their institution⁶.

Here is what Jack Barrett says about finding the right fit.

“Museum curators have a limit to what they can pay attention to, and institutional collections are highly selective. The flip side of this is that there are a lot of museums. Just as an artist’s practice is unique to the individual, there are museums that have specific interests and focus on their programming and collections. Sometimes, it is finding the right fit between practice and collection.”

Artists should remember that curators, collectors, and critics are often just a few degrees of separation away. Reducing these degrees by actively engaging with the art community is crucial. Participating in group shows at alternative spaces or solo exhibitions at commercial galleries, attending art events, and networking with industry professionals can help artists increase their visibility.

Ultimately, creating and showing art requires dedication, discipline, and courage, while discussing one’s work demands openness and humility. Building connections and staying engaged with the art world can significantly reduce the distance between an artist and institutions. In this small, interconnected world, word gets around fast, and opportunities can arise from unexpected places.

1. https://news.artnet.com/market/museum-acquisitions-committees-2115991#:~:text=Who%20oversees%20acquisitions?:%20A%20committee,acquisitions%20committee%20procedures?:%20No.

2. https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/the-mets-plans-for-anti-racism

3. https://www.moma.org/about/mission-statement/

4. https://www.guggenheim.org/articles/checklist/how-the-guggenheim-collects-art

5. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/09/17/inside-new-yorks-museum-building-boom

6. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-small-galleries-artists-work-museum-collections