Gift shops are like the final exhibit of an art museum. They’re often located toward the exit and are unmissable on your way out the door. Souvenirs inside can range from Vincent Van Gogh socks to giant stuffed soup cans to Mona Lisa rubber ducks. But how do gift shop curators decide what to sell?
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In the 1830s, Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai made dozens of prints showing different views of Mt. Fuji. This one, the Great Wave off Kanagawa, shows the sea whipped up by a storm, three boats, and the mountain in the background.
It’s one of the most recognizable examples of Ukiyo-e traditional Japanese woodblock prints. And it's one of the most reproduced artworks in the world. Since the early 1900s, this print and others by Hokusai have lived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
And if you end up at the MET art store, there are dozens of ways for you to take it home. From a scarf...… to a wallet… socks…cuff links… a watch… journal… belt…onesie… dog collar… dog leash.. a USB charger...and, of course, a tote bag.
At a certain point, seeing this classic piece of art on so many random things starts to feel absurd. But all this merch is meticulously planned out. So that what you see in the gift shop, might change the way you think about art.
If you’ve been to an art museum, you’ve probably been to an art museum gift shop. They’re usually the last stop on any tour the final exhibit before you head home.
“We are here to support the museum financially and to support the mission of the museum in terms of education.” Leanne Graeff is the head of design and product development for the MET store. “What we really try to do is to create a varied assortment based on, of course, recognizable artworks.”
The decisions curators like Leanne make can be powerful thanks to something called the mere-exposure effect. A psychological phenomenon where repeated exposure to something makes you like it more. It’s also called the “familiarity principle.”
The classic example is: when you hear a song on the radio for the first time and hate it, but after a couple more listens, start to like it. In a museum gift shop, seeing the same piece of art on a scarf, or a postcard, or a watch, reinforces the idea that that particular piece of art is important.
“So you can kind of extend your education about art in the gift shop. It's just an opportunity to expand on people's knowledge base for art.”
And when you buy that piece of art and take it home with you, the mere-exposure effect becomes even greater. “People appreciate art, and they like to be able to buy things that have art on it.”
At its core, a museum gift shop is still a store. Which means some decisions revolve around money. According to the Museum Store Association, museums collect 5 to 25% of their annual revenue from their stores. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art netted $6.1 million in store sales for the 2018 fiscal year. Roughly 7% of its total revenue.
When figuring out what will sell, artwork that’s already popular helps. The wallet, the tech accessories, patch, socks- these are all new product types that we hadn't tried before. We wanted to try an artwork that we knew is very recognizable by the customer to see if the actual product itself would be interesting.
Traditionally, museums also make a lot of money by selling merch related to big exhibitions. Like, if a museum had a temporary installation of Van Gogh paintings, you'd usually see the gift shop flooded with Van Gogh art in many shapes and forms.
