The Most Influential Art Institutions

Part II of The Art & Artists Report

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to The Art & Artists Report.

Thank you all so much for subscribing and for your great feedback on last week’s post on books.

Before we get into the subject of this week’s newsletter—institutions—just a reminder that this project is self-supported. If you like what you are reading and would like to see future research-based contemporary art studies like this, please consider a paid subscription or become a Founding Member.

All right. This week, we’re focusing on art institutions. The second question of the survey was:

“Name 2-3 institutions (museums, galleries, non-profits) that are truly influencing the dialogue on modern and contemporary art now and will have a long-term impact.”

You might remember that last week, there was little consensus regarding book recommendations. More people agreed on the world’s most important institutions, though there was still a “long tail” of many institutions cited only once. Below are the top institutions with the frequency of their mentions in parentheses:

• The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (9)

• Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (8)

• Tate Modern, London, UK (6)

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (5)

• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (4)

• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (3)

• Forge Project, Taghkanic, NY (3)

• Hauser & Wirth, Various International Locations (3)

• Bitforms, New York, NY (2)

• Camden Art Centre, London, UK (2)

• Gagosian, Various International Locations (2)

• New Museum, New York, NY (2)

• Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL (2)

• Serpentine Galleries, London, UK (2)

• Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME (2)

• South London Gallery, London, UK (2)

• Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2)

• The Kitchen, New York, NY (2)

Rendering of the new Studio Museum in Harlem building, opening Fall 2025. Courtesy Adjaye Associates.

So, what do we make of this list?

First off, while respondents did have the choice to mention galleries and other non-profits, it’s worth stating that museums still dominate this list.

Institutions with significant historical collections take the top spots here, as many respondents mentioned such museums’ important ability to exhibit the widest breadth of modern and contemporary art history and their resulting capacity to best contextualize new art. Yes, it’s easy to be critical of these types of museums. They are generally risk-averse and not of the moment, and it takes them many years to organize exhibitions. However, what contemporary art these museums eventually share with the world demands (and receives) much more attention than any other venue due to the expertise, time, and consideration that have gone into their decisions. Also, art history is inherently a story (even if that story contains lots of simultaneous narratives), and museums have the very difficult job of understanding how new art fits into this story. When they finally land on something and see how new art is in dialogue with the hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of years of art in their historical collections, it’s best to take heed.

Respondents also discussed their interest in organizations that championed long-overlooked populations and regions. The Studio Museum in Harlem (whose future building is pictured above) is a key example. It’s consistently cited as an influential institution even though it is, unlike the other historical venues, focused on one specific population. The museum was founded in the late 1960s to “address the near-complete exclusion of artists of African descent from mainstream museums, commercial art galleries, academic institutions, and scholarly publications,” and it has become, to quote the museum’s current mission statement, “the nexus for artists of African descent locally, nationally, and internationally and for work that has been inspired and influenced by Black culture. It is a site for the dynamic exchange of ideas about art and society.”

Volunteers removing introduced species that negatively impact plants with long relation to the area or reseeding areas that have already been cleared for remediation, September 2023. Photo by Alekz Pacheco courtesy Forge Project.

Respondents’ interest in overlooked populations also explains the presence of Forge Project, a relatively new, Native-led non-profit organization located in the Hudson Valley whose “mandate is to cultivate and advance Indigenous leadership in arts and culture.” Forge was founded in 2021 by collector Becky Gochman and Zach Feuer (best known for his long-running, eponymous, and influential New York gallery). Initially, Forge was a private organization formed to help support the work of Indigenous artists. It soon became a non-profit with Indigenous-led governance structures. Forge is currently located on a 60-acre campus (including buildings designed by Ai Weiwei) and has an art collection of over 175 works by Indigenous artists. Candice Hopkins, a citizen of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation, is now Forge Project’s executive director and chief curator.

The presence of Hauser & Wirth on this list is also notable, reflecting the fact that the “mega-galleries” (a cohort that also usually includes Pace, Gagosian, and David Zwirner) have been, at least for the last decade now, functioning in many ways like museums. They sometimes mount historical exhibitions where there is little and sometimes nothing for sale. They have robust publishing wings. And they also have various educational initiatives. Hauser & Wirth, for example, has been building out its “learning” offerings, such as educational spaces that are part of its exhibitions, classes, residencies, and scholarships. On its website, it shares that the gallery had 180,000 “engaged learners” in 2023 who attended events, activities, and educational labs.

As the boundaries increasingly blur between museum and mega-gallery, it’s worth mentioning the fundamental difference between the two: Mega-galleries remain inherently beholden to collectors and the market, while museums must be responsive to a select Board (who are often collectors), the public, as well as the government and other grantmaking organizations to be able to support themselves. These distinct audiences continue to shape programming in important ways.

Let’s move on to the long tail of the list and share the respondents’ reasoning for their selections. Among other rationales, respondents said the following influenced their choices:

1. Who is currently running an institution—which can dramatically change what is being presented, especially for smaller institutions. While directors’ names were not required or requested in this part of the survey, respondents mentioned, among others, Franklin Sirmans of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami, FL; Johanna Burton of MOCA, Los Angeles, CA; Matthew Higgs of White Columns, New York, NY; and Hopkins of Forge Project.

2. Their wariness of the dominance of Western institutions

3. Their interest in smaller institutions that are more community-oriented and offer exciting alternatives to mainstream ideas

4. The unavoidable power of “mega-museums” and the fact that regardless of their choices, they will probably have the most significant chance to make a long-term impact

5. The influence of educational institutions (like Skowhegan, mentioned above) and galleries

6. The importance of institutions championing historically-overlooked regions

7. The importance of institutions championing historically overlooked groups, specifically:

   1. Women artists

   2. Black artists

   3. Asian-American artists

   4. Older artists (in such a youth-focused market)

   5. Artists working with new technologies

8. An interest in highlighting organizations working to improve museums. One respondent, for example, made a lengthy case for the significance of the non-profit Museums Moving Forward. Among other things, they explained their fondness for this organization “led by a brain trust and collective of some of the very most wonderful, rigorous, and generous people in the arts…[which is] inverting and expanding the model of the Association for Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and creating a cross-institution platform for change in the arts.” They added: “MMF is specifically conceived as a time-delimited organization. Their aim is to create ‘a more just museum sector by 2030.’”

Without further ado, here is the complete list:

• 52 Walker, New York, NY

• 56 Henry, New York, NY

• Alserkal Arts Foundation, Dubai, UAE

• Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK

• Bitforms, New York, NY

• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

• Camden Art Centre, London, UK

• Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

• Cob Gallery, London, UK

• Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA

• Creative Time, New York, NY

• David Zwirner, Various International Locations

• Delfina Foundation, London, UK

• Dia, New York and International Sites

• Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, CH

• Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, FR

• Fondazione Prada, Milan, IT

• Forge Project, Taghkanic, NY

• Fonderie Darling, Montreal, CA

• Gagosian, Various International Locations

• Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA

• GRAIN Projects, Midlands, UK

• Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

• Hartwig Art Foundation, Amsterdam, NL

• Haus der Kunst, Munich, DE

• Hauser & Wirth, Various International Locations

• Hollybush Gardens, London, UK

• Instituto Moreira Salles, Various Sites in Brazil

• Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

• Jonathan Carver Moore, San Francisco, CA

• Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, CH

• Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, CH

• Kurimanzutto, Mexico City and New York

• L’Internationale, European confederation of museums, arts organizations, and universities

• La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, IT

• Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Louisiana, DK

• Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakech, Morocco

• MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA

• Maxwell Graham, New York, NY

• Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) Frankfurt, Frankfurt, DE

• Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

• MoMA, New York, NY

• MoMA PS1, Queens, NY

• mor charpentier, Bogota, Columbia and Paris, FR

• Mrs., Queens, NY

• Museums Moving Forward, No physical location

• New Inc, New York, NY

• New Museum, New York, NY

• Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, NY

• O’Flaherty’s, New York, NY

• Pace Gallery, Various International Locations

• Para Site, Hong Kong, China

• Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

• Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL

• PHI Centre, Montreal, CA

• Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City, Guatemala

• PST ART (Formerly Pacific Standard Time), Southern California

• Public Art Fund, New York, NY

• Queens Museum, Queens, NY

• Rebuild Foundation, Chicago, IL

• Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

• Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh

• Serpentine Galleries, London, UK

• Shah Garg Foundation, Bay Area, CA

• SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, CA

• Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Madison, ME

• South London Gallery, London, UK

• Stills, Edinburgh, Scotland

• Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

• Tate Modern, London, UK

• TEOR/ética, Carmen, San Jose, Costa Rica

• The Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI), Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA

• The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY

• The Kitchen, New York, NY

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

• The Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, ES

• The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL

• Timothy Taylor, London, UK

• Underground Museum (closed), Los Angeles, CA

• Vera List Center for Art and Politics, New York, NY

• Villa Romana, Florence, IT

• Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY

• White Columns, New York, NY

• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

• Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa

• ZⓈONAMACO, Mexico City, Mexico

Thanks again for your interest in this project, and I’m looking forward to seeing you back here in two weeks. Next up, I’ll share which topics of art content will influence the future of contemporary art.

In the meantime, go visit one (or more) of these institutions!

Best,

Matthew

Matthew Israel
matthewisrael.com
A Year in the Art World
artandartists.substack.com