The Art of Museum Licensing panel at last month’s Brand Licensing Europe saw representatives from the Met, MoMA, Van Gogh Museum and Natural History Museum come together to discuss the current museum and heritage licensing landscape, and the trends driving consumer behaviour into 2025 and beyond.
Moderator Esther Jolley, director of brand extension at Stobbs, chaired the expert panel, which comprised Josh Romm, head of global licensing and partnerships at the Met; Robin Sayetta, head of business development at MoMA; Natural History Museum’s head of licensing, Maxine Lister; and Marijn Veraart, head of global partnerships and licensing at the Van Gogh Museum.
Heritage institutions’ reasons for venturing into licensing extend beyond the commercial, the panellists concurred, and range from the desire to reach younger generations and to start conversations about art, design and history and make them more relevant to people’s lives, to the need to reach a wider audience who may not be able to visit a particular museum or art gallery in person.
Each of the institutions represented by the panel houses thousands of artefacts, and choosing which will can be successfully applied to licensing involves looking at current and upcoming trends, consulting licensees and retailers, as well as working closely with curators to strike a balance between showcasing popular and less celebrated works.
“You might find Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night in our programme, because everybody recognises it and it’s a beautiful, popular artwork, but it might be balanced out by artwork by a lesser known artist,” said MoMA’s Robin Sayetta. “We might bring in diversity with somebody who’s younger, or a living artist, so we have the familiar and the unexpected represented.”
Many works housed by the biggest galleries and museums are in the public domain, but there are huge advantages for licensees in teaming with a named institution for official collaborations. The Met’s Josh Romm pointed out: “It’s a seal of approval. Our design team has a real aesthetic in how we let licensees interpret and shape the art. So, we have a certain common theme and voice that is reflected in our programme. And also, I think consumers feel like they’re getting back and doing good by purchasing a product that is connected to the Museum.”
For Van Gogh Museum’s Marijn Veraart, “It’s about the brand, and about shared values, and the values of the Van Gogh Museum, such as authenticity, but also the expertise and the quality. It’s also about trying to find the best fit for a particular partnership or collaboration. And of course, in our case, it’s also about being unconventional, finding the unexpected and pushing the boundaries. Being a single-artist museum, and having a lot of the letters Vincent wrote to his brother, Theo, we can really tell Vincent’s story.”
Working in tandem with curators gives licensed products an extra level of authenticity. “A lot of our scientists actually help us approve the product, through our approvals system,” said NHM’s Maxine Lister. “Our palaeontologists will approve the artwork on any dinosaur style guide, for example.”
The Natural History Museum is well known for its award-winning collaboration with retailer Dunelm – a partnership of three years’ standing which recently been renewed – and has ventured into the live space for the first time, launching a ‘pollinator inspired afternoon tea’ experience at the Royal Lancaster London hotel, reflecting both institutions’ commitment to sustainability. “It was based on our new gardens opening at the Museum,” Maxine explained. “The actual hotel is a 25-minute walk through Hyde Park from the Museum, so we’ve created a map within the afternoon menu that people can take away with them so they can do a nature walk between the two buildings.”
Robin, Josh and Marijn also pointed to collaborations they’re proud of, with Robin mentioning LEGO’s reproduction of Starry Night in brick form, and the launch of Nike socks featuring both the Nike and MoMA logos. “[The latter] is a really interesting example, because what we’re finding is that big brands are coming to us, and they might not even want to feature artwork on the product, because they see MoMA as a brand that signifies a connection to art and design,” she commented.
For the Met, meanwhile, key collaborations have helped it successfully connect with Gen Z, as Josh explained. “[They show we’re] cool and hip, we’re resonating with Gen Z brands like PacSun and Dr Martens… and it’s activating art in that demographic so we continue to be accessible to a wide audience, which continues to be a goal of our programme.”
A younger demographic was also the target of the Van Gogh Museum’s 2023 collaboration with Pokémon, which aimed to introduce a new audience – children and young parents – to the artist’s work. The partnership received global press coverage and achieved a total reach of almost 4.9 billion. Marijn also pointed to the Hotel de l’Europe Amsterdam’s Van Gogh suite, a themed room where guests can choose one of three 3D high-quality reproductions of Van Gogh artworks to enhance their stay, as a further example of bringing the brand outside the Museum’s four walls.
She stated: “In terms of licensing trends, shared values and storytelling are getting more and more important, but what we really see is that consumers are going ‘outdoors’ more, enjoying experiences such as dining, traveling, music and gaming. These are really the new licensing opportunities, and the Van Gogh suite is our first step in that direction in this growing area.”
Maxine agreed: “It’s about taking an experience outside. More and more people want that. It’s about looking at how a museum can develop that in many different ways. It’s an exciting area to be in, and an exciting time.”
