Balancing Art & Business: Performance Goals and Measurement Systems in Commercial Art Galleries

This research investigates the performance goals of commercial art galleries and the performance measurement systems (PMS) they use. As one of the first examinations into the topic, this research provides a foundational understanding of performance measurement in for-profit arts organizations. Combining notions from traditional management, non-profits arts PMS, and cultural economics I develop a framework within which to analyze galleries’ performance goals and PMS. Through qualitative interviews with galleries in Los Angeles and the Netherlands, I find that previous explanations of performance goals in arts organizations are insufficient to explain the varying goals of galleries. I develop a gallery orientation matrix that defines four types of galleries (discoverers, developers, endorsers, and canonizers) based on their values which helps to account for the variation in galleries’ goals and measurement systems. I also find several factors which are shared across galleries (motivations, challenges, and business structure) which shape performance goals and measurement systems. Based on these factors, the different performance goals and PMS of galleries are outlined.