When it comes to the impact of the epidemic on the industry, the film industry and the aviation industry are always discussed, but the museum industry has not received enough attention.
Similarly, "group activities in confined spaces", museums and most cultural venues that "sell tickets" have been forced to close several times, but it is difficult to usher in "retaliatory consumption" after reopening. And when the new Deltacron variant had just been discovered in Cyprus, in a corner where no one was paying attention, museum practitioners sighed again – the epidemic was in its third year, and the only thing that was certain was that nothing was certain.
The blow of the epidemic on the museum industry is huge and irrefutable. In many countries, museums and galleries are the lowest priority places to open. In the British government's plan to lift the lockdown, museums are juxtaposed with saunas, five weeks later than non-essential retail trade, including commercial galleries.
After all, according to Maslow's theory of needs, appreciation of art comes far behind supermarket purchases, dine-in restaurants, and offline classes, not to mention health and survival at the front.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was closed during the pandemic
Inside the British Museum, only staff are disinfecting the handrails
For museums that rely mainly on ticket revenue to maintain their operations, the epidemic is even more insoluble.
In 2021, the Louvre welcomed only 2.8 million visitors, the lowest number since 1986 and less than 30% of the pre-pandemic visitors. Because of international travel restrictions, more than 60% of tourists come from around Paris, and American and German tourists account for only a pitiful 6%, not to mention Asian tourists who have almost completely disappeared.
The Louvre of Mencroches
During these breathless two years, the museum has closed its doors, but the staff has not sat still: they have their own tricks, some have opened the "side business" of vaccination, some have entered the ocean of e-commerce and NFT, and some surprising new museums have quietly opened in this "full of impossibilities".
The use of a museum as a vaccination center is not because "idle is idle": after all, it comes with a smooth and reasonable movement line, enough space, not to mention the tight security measures – in fact, many museums in history have also functioned as hospitals.
The Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, UK, is the first museum in the UK to help promote COVID-19 vaccines. Before the pandemic, it had undergone a year-and-a-half-long multimillion-pound reconstruction and was waiting to reopen in the summer of 2020, but the first new guests it welcomed were anxiously waiting in line not for the new exhibition, but for vaccines.
Vaccination center at the Thackeray Medical Museum
Curator Nat Edwards did his best to support the project: "Our museum documents the history of humanity over the centuries of trying to understand and overcome disease, and now we are part of history. ”
The Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea is the first museum in Italy to become a vaccination centre. Originally part of the Royal Palace, the castle was occupied by Napoleon and forced to serve as a German military camp during World War II, only to settle down in the 1980s and become the most famous museum in Italy.
At "Art Helps!" At the urging of the museum, the museum turned one of its own galleries into a local vaccination center. The good news is that when you get a needle, you can also be distracted by staring at the murals of Swiss artist Claudia Comte.
Vaccination poster by Castello di Rivoli
Vaccination site at Castello di Rivoli
Castello di Rivoli's waiting area for vaccination
"Art has always helped and healed people." This is an alternative interpretation made by the museum's director, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. Letting people walk into a Baroque palace to get vaccinated is undoubtedly an encouragement to those who were hesitant in the first place. She said that even after the epidemic, she hopes that the ill-fated building will continue to serve the community and fulfill the purpose of "arte cura".
The American Museum of Natural History also became a vaccination center in April 2021. That means New Yorkers can be vaccinated under the nearly thirty-meter-long whale, and Mayor Bill de Blasio says the natural history museum's vaccine collaboration has become "a warm whale of our time."
Vaccination site at the Natural History Museum
The good news isn't just the whales: the Natural History Museum announces that anyone who comes to get a vaccine will receive a free ticket for a four-person companion. For some, this may be more appealing than free eggs, milk, and rice. The "Big Whale" quickly became the hottest vaccination site in New York, and the appointment for vaccination was several times more popular than the original visit reservation.
Some museums do not forget their old professions in addition to "part-time". The London Science Museum, which just joined the vaccine hub at the end of 2021, has placed a set of vaccine-related exhibits in its Wellcome Gallery, where you can see the empty bottles used during the world's first mass vaccination of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as a timeline on the history of vaccination.
Vaccination Centre at The London Science Museum,
Both Prince William and Princess Kate received booster injections here
Compared with these museums with serious "side hustles", most of the world's museums are still stretched out by the sharp decline in visitors. For example, once one of the most visited museums in the world, the Louvre has lost nearly 90 million euros in revenue over the past two years. Even when it reopened in May 2021, it still didn't wait for many international travelers.
However, thanks to a prescient, the Louvre still has money in the accounts on the days of closure: starting in 2019, the Louvre has been actively working with brands around the world, such as Swatch, Airbnb and Ladurée. During the pandemic, it has negotiated several new big deals, including UNIQLO's UT and Hong Kong-based brand Casetify's mobile phone accessories.
Uniqlo's Louvre collaboration series, with samoshrace on and behind the model
The Winged Victory of Samothrace
The Louvre and Casetify collaborate on a series title for electronic accessories
These items can all be purchased at the Louvre's own electronics store. A Louvre spokesman said the online store's plans actually preceded the pandemic, and this unfortunate crisis just happened to justify the decision: "E-stores are borderless, and they allow us to stay connected to international audiences during times of travel restrictions." ”
Although the British Museum did not disclose the revenue of Tmall stores during the epidemic, these sales from distant China may have also helped them survive a bad life. After all, it made about $51 million in 2018 by selling licensed products at Tmall stores.
The British Museum's Tmall store is a product for sale at JING DAILY
However, not all museums have such small vaults. The Hermitage branch in Amsterdam can only recover the deficit through crowdfunding. It is a separate branch of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the two work together in the form of an Amsterdam branch that borrows exhibits from the main hall and provides funds for repatriation. Due to various regulations, it cannot seek financial help from the "parent company".
Hermitage Amsterdam
Annabelle Birnie, director of the branch, sounded the alarm in the museum.
Launch an urgent crowdfunding appeal
To keep it afloat, the Hermitage Amsterdam launched a crowdfunding campaign in March 2021: "Keep the Hermitage Open" (Keep the Hermitage Open). Initially, they pinned their hopes on large donors who donated more than 2,500 euros in one go, but unexpectedly, the general attention of the media and the spontaneous publicity of the Dutch people led to tens of thousands of "small gifts" of 10 to 100 euros, as well as many in-kind donations sent to the museum. In the end, within seven weeks, they had reached their fundraising goal of 1 million euros.
These benefits will be used to operate the Russian Avant-Garde Art Exhibition, which opens in January 2022. Although the Hermitage in Amsterdam will still have to cut back in the next year, at least this crowdfunding will give them a little sense of security and start preparing for the Matisse-Picasso exhibition in 2023.
NFT is the most discussed and confusing term in the art world over the past year. But in any case, as an outlet, it has allowed many museums to see business opportunities: if our masterpieces can only be hung on the wall, and there is no audience to watch, then try the new world of play!
In September 2021, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg took its first step in the field of NFTs, selling five digital replicas of masterpieces (including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh, Monet and Kandinsky). The sale raised nearly $450,000.
The Madonna and Child NFT at auction at the Hermitage Museum
This test not only allowed the Winter Palace to obtain book income, but also began to become "a conservative innovator". Curators at Hermitage's contemporary art department say they care more about how this new technology will affect and shape our future than about how much NFT is worth. So, in November 2021, it launched a fully digital exhibition, "The Ethereal Aether," which digitally reconstructs 38 NFTs. Unlike the "Physical Hermitage", visitors can interact with these works in the virtual exhibition.
Online exhibition The Ethereal Aether
The British Museum has also entered this new wave. In September 2021, with the help of French company LaCollection, the British Museum sold a series of NFT works by Katsushika Hokusai, including the most famous one, "Surf lane in Kanagawa".
These NFTs are divided into different categories, ranging from "unique" (a single image of a famous work), to "ultra rare" (two), "limited" (1000 sheets) and "ordinary" (10,000 sheets). The British Museum does not announce how much money they have made with NFTs, saying only that they have "basically paid off", but for reference, a "regular" category of NFTs sells for about $500.
The "rarest" lot in the NFT deal, "Kanagawa Surf"
Beaucamps, founder of LaCollection, said NFTs are not only a way for museums to make money, but also a "potential education in art history," a technology that helps democratize art, but also attracts a younger, more diverse and international audience to museums.
The Ufizzi Gallery, one of Florence's oldest and most famous art museums, also began a new venture, with an NFT version of Michelangelo's Sacred Family painting Doni Tondo being auctioned for $170,000. This is undoubtedly a blessing in disguise for the Uffizi Gallery, which plunged 3 million visitors last year.
CEO of digital art company Cinello and curator of the Uffizi Gallery
Group photo in front of "Doni Tondo"
However, there are also people who are on the road to monetization with NFTs — the Miami's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICAM) has a CryptoPunk 5293, one of the first NFT series to offer exchanges on the Ethereum blockchain, and the first NFT to enter the collection of a large art museum.
CyrptoPunk 5293 in ICAM's collection
Alex Gartenfeld, ART DIRECTOR OF ICAM, says it represents the most avant-garde art and ideas of the moment and is an interesting experiment in collecting.
If the pandemic in early 2020 suddenly disrupted everyone's position, in the past 2021, people have had to start thinking about how to continue to fight for the world we love when "exceptional states" have become the "norm". The answers to the art are written about these new museums that open in 2021 – some of them have been in preparation for a long time, but because the epidemic has delayed the opening time, and some are completely born out of this "extraordinary era".
If the Hunboldt Forum isn't the most anticipated new museum, it's at least one of the best. The new museum, which has been in the making for nearly two decades, covers an area of more than 40,000 square meters and cost $800 million, is housed in the reconstructed Berlin Palace on Museum Island, with the goal of being on a par with the British Museum. At present, it has only opened the first stage, and its "complete body" is expected to host about a thousand events and exhibitions.
Opening ceremony of Humboldt Square in July 2021
And in Oslo, the newly opened "MUNCH" was built specifically for Norway's most famous artist, Edward Munch. There is no doubt that its name is "MUNCH", not "Museum". Opened in October 2021, it became one of the largest museums in the world centered on a single artist. In addition to The Scream, there are more than 40,000 paintings, manuscripts and photographs donated to the city of Oslo before Munch's death.
MUNCH
Across the ocean, the Academy Museum for Motion Pictures will be a new pilgrimage site for all fans. The museum houses 13 million film-related objects – costumes, props, scripts, sketches – all beautifully placed in the building space by Renzo Piano. Here you'll find the stereotypes in The Ten Commandments, the typewriter Hitchcock used to write Horrors, and the yellow dress Mia wore in Philharmonic City.
Academy Museum for Motion Pictures
Of course, there is also a new surprise on the doorstep, the Pudong Art Museum on the Bund
（Museum of Art Pudong）
It has become cai Guoqiang's "Shanghai must punch the internet celebrity art museum". It took four years of preparation before finally opening in July 2021. Its partnership with London's Tate Means that even before we can fly to London right away, we can see many of the "treasures of the town" that were never borrowed before.
Pudong Art Museum
Another blockbuster new pavilion on your doorstep is The Hong Kong M+. Since its opening in November 2021, it has become the largest visual culture museum in Hong Kong and is on its way to becoming the most important contemporary art institution in Asia. In the tiny-budgeted Hong Kong, M+ is a luxury: it's twice the size of the Long Museum and almost as big as the newly expanded New York MoMA.
One of M+'s opening exhibits: Asian Field by Antony Gormley
The epidemic may have closed the doors of museums, but it has also inadvertently opened a few windows, allowing the museum industry to bravely seek new directions and paths for survival, to establish closer and more solid connections with audiences around the world in the Internet age, and to rethink what art means to people's lives in the present.
In fact, museums have slowly emerged from this too long "industry winter": in February, the reopened Courtauld Gallery will bring Van Gogh exhibitions; in April, the National Gallery of England will have an exhibition by Raphael; in October, the Tate Modern will have a large Cézanne exhibition, and the Louvre and the National Museum in Tokyo, which have not yet been finalized.
Although we are not free to meet with most of these museums "offline" for the time being, it is still a joy to know that the world is improving and people are starting to flock to museums to date, chat, and study.
Written by: Lili
Edit: Andy
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