BUYING ART AT THE MUSEUM

In this research a study is done on an additional service that has occurred within photography museums last decades: the activity of selling photography editions within the museum. This activity is an arts marketing strategy that expands the total museum experience at the museum for the visitors. Arts marketing strategies serve as a method for the museum to create a supply that can meet the consumers demand. So to research this activity, an analysis on both the supply side and the demand side is done. First, the supply side is researched to determine the strategies to add this service to the total museum experience. This is done by a qualitative study where semi-structured interviews were held with three photography museums performing the activity of a sales gallery: FOAM in Amsterdam, the Photographers’ Gallery in London and the House of Photography in Hamburg. Secondly, the demand for this activity is researched in two museums: FOAM and the House of Photography, to find out what the opinion is of the visitors about this addition of a sales gallery to the total museum experience. From both studies it can be concluded that museums perform this activity of a sales gallery to generate extra incomes for the museum and to extend the total museum experience for its visitors. Respondents of the surveys agree that this could be a successful addition to the total museum experience. To perform successfully, the sales gallery has to be developed as a wellrounded service of which all marketing components need to be synergized to prevent that visitors do not understand the concept. Additionally, these components need to be adjusted to create different experiences, for example educational experiences and engaging experiences in order to get the visitors participating actively in collecting photography.