ABSTRACT
An increasing number of art museums, tendencies towards reduced governmental support as well as an awareness that museums compete not only with other museums, but with leisure activities overall have led to museums having a stronger focus on marketing. The chapter illustrates different strategies art museums use to become more market oriented. The museum shop plays a major role in market orientation. The products in museum shops range from primarily reflecting the collection to containing a variety of items for sale that has little or vague connection to the museum, its collections or exhibitions. The chapter shows that developing the shop is a continuous process of juggling the collection and demands from the market. Exhibiting fashion is another way to market orient art museums since fashion has the potential to attract a wide variety of visitors. Finally, inviting collectors to exhibit their private collections is yet another strategy to attract new visitors to art museums. Examples are given from Swedish art museums and the world’s leading museum of art and design, V&A.
