Museums Essay

For museums, which depend heavily on philanthropy and for decades have cultivated emerging donors and collectors through their in-house patrons' circles, the growth of independent groups poses a challenge. On the one hand, increased interest in the arts ultimately could enhance museums' ability to attract new patrons. On the other hand, young arts aficionados might never develop the institutional ties that lead individuals to become significant contributors as their wealth grows. What's more, the newer organizations have come on the scene as arts institutions compete with public health, education and other causes for donations.

Museums for years have run their own arts-patronage groups to court under-40 members. Besides art itself, the organizations often emphasize fundraising and acquisitions, with the belief that some of today's young art enthusiasts will be tomorrow's significant donors. At New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Junior Associates run campaigns to raise capital for the museum. The group raised around $1 million for the expansion of MoMA's building facilities in 2004. Some members of the Guggenheim Museum's Young Collectors' Council sit on its acquisitions committee and help select new pieces for the museum, says Abby Lawler, who organizes events for the group.

In general, museum development officials say their in-house groups are better places for young arts enthusiasts to get started. "Art fairs are a great place to go and look at collecting, but it's a commercial perspective," says Bettina Korek, who chairs the prints and drawings council at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and who helped launch Avant Garde, its patronage group for people under 40, three years ago. The Guggenheim's group offers new collectors an opportunity to cement strong relationships with curators, says the Guggenheim's Ms. Lawler, who help develop every event. But museum officials also see the potential for outside groups to act as feeders for their own organizations. Both the Guggenheim and New York's MoMA arranged recent events for Summer