Do Museums Pay Artists?

Dan Steinhilber at Brigham Young University Museum of Art

Valerie Atkisson / ArtBistro

Artists generally don’t see a cent from exhibits in a museum. However, the museum or art center show is typically a boon to an artist’s career in non-direct ways. The opportunity of showing in a museum brings a level of professional context to your work that you may not have experienced before. It can be inspiring and energizing to create work for a museum show. It turns out, in many cases museums and art centers do give artists money for showing their work. For example, Installation artists are typically given an artist’s fee for creating a temporary installation.

Why Do Artists Want to Show Their Work in Museums?

It is prestigious to show in a museum so it is reward enough for your exhibition record.

Galleries like to represent artists that have shown in museums.

You work may be purchased by a private collector while the show is up.

Installations

If it is an installation or if the artist must travel there for the installation. The fee would cover materials costs and a daily per diem that can be negotiated, as well as an additional artist’s fee if required.

A museum may pay you a fee to give a lecture about your work as well. In this case they would pay for travel expenses as well and possibly a per diem.

Insights from a Museum Curator

Jeff Lambson, Contemporary Art Curator at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art has the following insight. “I have a unique perspective as one who has worked for a large museum as well as from a mid-size museum. I worked at the Hirshhorn for the last six years and they typically did not pay an artist’s fee. The opportunity to exhibit in a major museum is often more valuable than an exhibition fee. Also keep in mind the museum is still spending quite a bit of money to install the exhibition.

Now that I’ve recently come to the BYU Museum of Art, which is a mid-size museum that is not as well known as the Hirshhorn, we sometimes pay artist’s fees. If it’s a young emerging artist who is just getting established, then we would not typically pay them a fee since this is a great opportunity for the artist and to some degree the museum is “taking a chance” on them. However, if we are trying to exhibit a well-known artist who has already had significant exhibitions, then we sometimes pay a fee.”

Think Out of the Box

Other ways that artists can make money through an art museum or art center are to teach community classes through their education program.

Have you thought of the gift shop? Perhaps you make something that they would sell there. You would need to contact the gift shop manager to find out and present your portfolio.