The Art Institution of Tomorrow: Reinventing the Model

By Fatos Üstek

This publication is a unique manifesto for raising the standard of institutional practices across the world. It suggests that existing art institutions are not equipped to deal with the radical social, economic and environmental change we are living through and engage with advancement in the arts, and that unless they re-focus on their core purpose and fundamentally transform their organisational structure and operational models, they will start to lose their relevance and influence. Built on an extensive study of non-profit visual-arts organisations and the creative industries at large, and incorporating interviews with institutional leaders from throughout the sector, the book expresses a clear outline of change that art institutions will need to undergo in order to maintain their relevance for generations to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lund Humphries
• Release date: Feb 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9781848226531

Book preview

Front Cover of The Art Institution of TomorrowHalf Title of The Art Institution of Tomorrow

Hot Topics in the Art World

Published in association with Sotheby’s Institute of Art

Series Editors

Jeffrey Boloten and Juliet Hacking, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London

This series of short, thought-provoking and sometimes controversial books debates key issues of current relevance to art-world professionals working in both the private and public sectors. The texts give wider visibility to some critical areas of professional art-world practice, considering what disruptors are challenging the status quo and how the art world is likely to be transformed over the next decades as a result.

International Series Advisory Board

Georgina Adam, journalist, author and art market Editor-at-Large of The Art Newspaper

Alia Al-Senussi, cultural strategist, patron, academic and lecturer

Touria El Glaoui, Founding Director of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (London – New-York – Marrakech)

Jos Hackforth-Jones, former CEO and Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London

Louise Hamlin, Director of the Art Business Conference (London – New York – Shanghai)

Llucià Homs, Director of Talking Galleries, Barcelona

Zehra Jumabhoy, academic, critic and curator

Julie Lomax, CEO at a-n, The Artists Information Company, UK

Franklin Sirmans, Director of the Pérez Art Museum, Miami

Philip Tinari, Director and CEO of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

Book Title of The Art Institution of Tomorrow

First published in 2024 by Lund Humphries

in association with Sotheby’s Institute of Art

Lund Humphries

Huckletree Shoreditch

Alphabeta Building

18 Finsbury Square

London EC2A 1AH

UK

www.lundhumphries.com

The Art Institution of Tomorrow: Reinventing the Model © Fatoş Üstek, 2024

All rights reserved

ISBN (hardback): 978-1-84822-651-7

ISBN (eBook PDF): 978-1-84822-653-1

ISBN (eBook ePub): 978-1-84822-652-4

A Cataloguing-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise, without first seeking the permission of the copyright owners and publishers. Every effort has been made to seek permission to reproduce the images in this book. Any omissions are entirely unintentional, and details should be addressed to the publishers.

Fatoş Üstek has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work.

Copy edited by Michela Parkin

Designed by Crow Books

Set in Caslon Pro and Sofia Pro

Printed in Estonia

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Guidance for the Use of the Term Art Institution

Author’s Note

Introduction

1Realigning Institutions with their Core Purpose

2Institutional Learning: Embracing the Contemporary World

3Reconfiguring the Organisational Structure

4Future-proofing the Business Model

Conclusion: The New Model

Notes

Further Reading

Foreword

The model for our most prominent art-world institution, the museum, was born of the Enlightenment and has been with us for over two centuries. Other more recent models, such as the non-profit art space, were also a response to a specific set of historical circumstances, in this case the counterculture of the 1960s. Since that time, we have experienced numerous paradigm shifts, economically, politically and environmentally, and yet our modelling of arts organisations has not evolved in response to these changing imperatives.

In this new study, leading curator Fatoş Üstek argues that, in the context of the presently highly unsettled global landscape – global political unrest, looming financial crises, climate emergencies, and major refugee/migration challenges – the majority of large- and medium-scale art institutions are increasingly unable to respond constructively to these intensive societal shifts and predicaments. Fundamental financial and legacy organisational constraints are increasingly rendering these essential institutions unable to provide the much-needed visionary leadership and guidance that the arts, when supported, can provide.

In this urgent polemic, Üstek exhorts us to envisage the art institution of tomorrow. Drawing on key theorists of the New Institutionalism, she acknowledges the myriad problems – both internal and public-facing – confronting today’s art institutions and articulates the core purpose that will guide us towards a more robust, equitable and meaningful art-world culture.

Jeffrey Boloten and Juliet Hacking, January 2024

Acknowledgements

I am truly thankful to the series editors Juliet Hacking, Jeffrey Boloten and Lucy Myers with whom I had the pleasure of working on this publication. This books puts forward new ideas to develop institutional models and directorial and curatorial positions. I remain grateful to all of my colleagues and peers, who are quoted throughout the work and who spared time and energy in sharing their insights and ideas with me, making outstanding contributions to this work. I am truly indebted to Adam Szymczyk, Alia Swastika, András Szántó, Bengi Ünsal, Bryony Bond, Charles Esche, Christian Zimmermann, Chus Martínez, Clémentine Deliss, Daria de Beauvais, Gabriele Horn, Gilane Tawadros, Gus Casely-Hayford, Isabel Elson, Janne Sirén, Jessica Morgan, Jochen Volz, Jonas Höglund, Jonathan Reekie, Julia Kaganskiy, Karen Archey, Karen Grøn, Kate Fowle, Legacy Russell, Lucy Rose Sollitt, Maja Ćirić, Mami Kataoka, Mandy Merzaban, Manuel Borja-Villel, Maria Lind, Maria Mercedes González, Max Hollein, Merve Çağlar, Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst, Mónica Bello, Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Nikita Choi, Nina Möntmann and Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Pablo Lafuente, Ruth Catlow, Sarah Brown, Sebastian Cichocki, Shumon Basar, Stefanie Hessler, Sunjung Kim, Takashi Kudo, Tessa Praun, Vivian Ziherl, What, how & for whom/WHW and Yana Peel for their generosity in sharing their insights. I am also indebted to Frances Morris and Ute Meta Bauer for their engagement and generous support in endorsing this publication.

Last, but not least, I give my sincere thanks to my family and my ever-supportive friends, especially Jayshree Radia for the writing retreats at her place. I cannot thank Robert Violette and Niraj Dattani enough for their valuable editorial support and dedication to making this book a reality.

Guidance for the Use of the Term Art Institution

The specific art institutions studied and modelled throughout this book operate in the not-for-profit sector of the arts, with differing historical lineage, countries of residence, public and private supporters, and income streams. These include public and private museums, kunsthalles (non-collecting public art galleries), international art biennials, temporary festivals, artist-run spaces and art organisations that operate without a building or a year-long programme. In the United States, Europe and Asia, the size and scale of these organisations are classified differently,¹ where the metrics of annual turnover vary. The European classification for small organisations provides a healthy median when we think about the scale of art institutions worldwide. Hence, when referred to in this book, the classification of institutions will be micro (up to 10 members of staff), small (50), medium (150), large (250) and extra-large (250+). Art institutions will be used as an umbrella term for different types of art organisations unless specified. For the sake of clarity, and with the assumption that micro-scale grassroots organisations are more malleable and adaptable to the changing socio-political and financial climate, the focus will be on small, medium, large and extra-large art institutions, especially museums. This will therefore include organisations such as The Kitchen, New York and Spike Island, Bristol, through to Tate, UK and UCCA, China.

Author’s Note

This book is an attempt to envision a new model that will better equip art institutions with tools to survive the clash of the old world with the new, to strip them bare of the practice of ‘old, centralised power’ in favour of new forms of collective empowerment, and to respond to the changing needs of our times. In short, to free them from their current stagnation.

The ideas presented here for a new operational model are the outcome of extensive research into institutional histories and an international review of current institutional practices of excellence, artistic production and art discourses. I have approached the building of this new model with the belief that generating new ideas necessitates looking beyond the confines of the sector. I have delved into a wide range of sources, drawing on my experience in the arts and art history, and embraced contemporary theories from a wide variety of disciplines including sociology and economics, applying to the art world, in particular, recent organisational theory to offer new ways of thinking about current problems. Particularly significant for my approach are the ideas of sociologist Frederic Laloux, who in his 2014 book Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness, observes that: ‘With every new stage in human consciousness also came a breakthrough in our ability to collaborate, bringing about a new organizational model. Organizations, as we know them today, are simply the expression of our current worldview, our current stage of development.’¹

Drawing on texts such as these in conjunction with reports, interviews and studies specifically relating to the art world results in a transdisciplinary model that will, I argue, enable the arts sector to grow, empowering institutions to fight stagnation, contribute better to the arts sector and become the forebears