From LOVE to Lessons: Acquisitions in Academic Art Museums

ID: WMA2026_569

Track: Collections

This panel examines the acquisition process for academic art museums with complex relationships to external. Representatives from both collections and curatorial departments will share strategies that succeeded - or failed - in managing complicated accessions while navigating institutional protocols and external relationships. From the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the acquisition of LOVE (Red Outside Blue Inside) will be used as a case study, alongside the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s case study that examines donor/external relations.

Session Information

Format: Regular session/panel (roundtable, single speaker, etc.)

Uniqueness: This session focuses specifically on academic art museums, emphasizing cross-departmental collaboration and acknowledging external complexities while providing candid lessons that might benefit other art museums.

Objectives:

1. Cross-departmental collaboration Panelists will share strategies for working effectively across museum departments and with external partners, such as university administration, donors…. , highlighting approaches for coordination, information sharing, and achieving shared acquisition goals.
2. Balancing museum and stakeholder priorities Attendees will explore strategies for navigating stakeholders whose interests in acquisitions may conflict with museum policies, staff capacity, or established workflows, learning how to align institutional goals while maintaining professional standards.
3. Resource sharing and transparency By candidly presenting real-world case studies, the panel provides practical guidance for colleagues facing similar acquisition challenges, encouraging transparency, knowledge-sharing, and collaborative problem-solving across institutions.

Engagement: In this conversation, people will be encouraged to ask questions throughout the panelists’ discussion. The moderator will take several moments throughout to take questions and then facilitate the continuation of the main conversation.

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Curators/Scientists/Historians Registrars, Collections Managers 

Professional Level: All levels 

Scalability: The strategies and lessons shared in this panel are broadly scalable across museums of all sizes and types. While the case studies focus on academic museums operating within university systems, the challenges (cross-departmental collaboration, balancing institutional priorities, managing complex acquisition workflows, and fostering transparency) are relevant to any organization navigating layered governance or multiple stakeholders. Attendees from small, mid-sized, or large museums can adapt these approaches to their own institutional contexts, whether working with internal teams, external partners, or broader administrative structures. By highlighting practical solutions and real-world successes and challenges, the session equips participants with transferable strategies to improve acquisition processes, enhance collaboration, and strengthen stewardship, regardless of institutional scale.

Participants