You’ve seen the headlines. “Kate Fowle, former director of MoMA PS1, joins Hauser & Wirth” . “Pace Gallery Hires Hirshhorn Museum Curator Mark Beasley to Lead Its New ‘Live’ Art Program. In recent years, there has been a steady exodus of high-profile American museum curators into the commercial sector. But look a little further and you’ll find that the trend doesn’t stop in the curatorial department. Mid-level registrars, senior event producers, visitor services associates, video editors, retail assistants, and even museum educators too they’re making the switch.And their transitions may have an even greater impact and reveal more about the future of museums than those of their more famous peers.
The museum-to-gallery pipeline has been operational for decades. In 2004, Gregor Muir caused quite a stir when he left Tate to run the Hauser & Wirth gallery in London. Such movements are rigorous today. Just this year, Marissa Passi joined Hauser & Wirth as its Learning Coordinator at the Museum of Art and Design in New York; Jonathan Gardenhire, formerly deputy director of individual donations at MoMA PS1, has become associate director of Hauser & Wirth; and Pamela Eisenberg Taite has been named David Zwirner Director of Events after nearly seven years at the Guggenheim.
These changes accelerated, especially in the United States, after the start of the pandemic, when museums began to cut budgets and equipment. “My salary was cut and I was taking on a lot more responsibilities for less money,” says Joya Erickson, PS1’s former head of registration. She left the museum in 2022, after seven years, to join Pace. In the process, it went from a full-time team of one struggling with updated software to working with 12 registrars and a dedicated shipping department with access to a proprietary art inventory database.
Sources at the museum assure that the salaries of the movers rose between 20% and 300% when they joined the commercial sector; it is not uncommon for commissioners’ pay to double. But money is not the only factor at play. Some candidates expressed a desire to work with artists more directly; others enjoyed the opportunity to operate at a faster pace in a less structured environment. Several museum professionals say their decision was informed by broader changes they observed in the field. PS1, for example, became less attractive to Erickson as he began organizing fewer exhibitions and shifted his focus from large-scale art objects to archival material and conceptual fare. Institutions that strive to become more fiscally responsible and socially engaged “are being smart and responsive,” he notes. “But, at the same time, what do we do who were trained to manage this complex logistics? Let’s go to the galleries.”
Similar trends can be identified in the fundraising, strategic planning and development divisions. Because millennials are less likely than their parents to donate to museums, many institutions are shifting some of their focus from philanthropy to retail and event rentals to generate revenue. (According to an October report from CCS Fundraising, arts and culture rank second on a list of priorities for baby boomers; among Gen X, Millennials, or Gen Z respondents, it does not appear in the top three. Development experts who specialize in attracting wealthy collectors and donors find, however, that their skills remain in high demand in galleries.
It seems that as the museum climate changed and became more corporatized, it became more difficult to defend the artist
Rebecca McGrew, former curator of the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College
Negative feedback loop
Some museum veterans say the stress of the pandemic has also put pressure on the culture of their institutions, making them more open to alternatives than they were before. “It seems that as the museum climate changed and became more corporatized, it became harder to advocate for the artist,” says Rebecca McGrew, who worked as a curator at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College for 25 years before joining the museum. Vielmetter Los Angeles this summer in the new role of senior director of institutional relations.
The problem has the potential to create a negative feedback loop as more people leave. “If you work somewhere where it feels like every pipe is leaking in every direction, it creates a culture that doesn’t feel stable,” says Mia Locks, executive director of Museums Moving Forward (MMF), an advocacy group dedicated to improving the equity and working conditions in museums. “This is more costly to the institution than even a short-term brain drain.” In a recent survey of nearly 2,000 museum employees, MMF found that 68% of employees considered leaving the museum field due in large part to low pay, burnout, and a lack of growth opportunities.
“I felt underpaid but not overworked. I felt undervalued,” says one former museum worker who made the switch. “Galleries come up and say, ‘You’re so special. We’re going to pay you so much money, you’re so smart and you work so well with artists.’ When someone makes you feel that way, you’re going to respond.” But, staff adds, there are fundamental differences, especially for curators, between museums and galleries. “You work in the museum with artists, and in the gallery where you work stop artists That’s a very different relationship. Whatever anyone says, at the end of the day, everyone is making gallery sales.”
Few of the sources I spoke to feared that the museum-to-gallery trend would spread so far that museums could not find qualified staff. “People who believe in the work that museums do will continue to seek it out,” says Bryan Barcena, who left the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art to become director of Regen Projects in 2021. (He left Regen in March 2023 to establish a consultancy editorial, and after conducting our interview, he joined Artforum as an associate editor.) So what about historically underpaid, technically experienced employees like registrars? “The registrars,” jokes Bárcena, “should all move to the galleries.”
As far as Erickson is concerned, if he were ever to return to the world of museums, he would favor a private institution like Amant in Brooklyn or the Pinault Collection. “They don’t deal with the politics or budget issues that other museums have to deal with,” she says.
• Julia Halperin is a journalist and co-author of the Burns Halperin Report
