CODAworx maintains a database of published projects, including many specific to commissioned works in museums and galleries. A review of entries within the last 36 months provides artists, commissioners, developers and architects with insight into the total, as well as the highest and median commission value of art installations occurring in these settings.

When we think about past visits to art museums and galleries, especially when we were younger, we recall being “shushed” by school chaperones, security guards and other visitors. Your interaction with the artwork was limited to looking, reading the written description or perhaps, listening to a docent tell you their thoughts regarding the work. 

Fortunately, and to the benefit of artists and lovers of art, museums and galleries are embracing installations that dispel the image of hushed, exclusive experiences. While commission values are important, a review of select entries in the CODAworx database demonstrates how museums and galleries now incorporate interactive displays, audio soundscapes, virtual reality and “artainment” — the fusion of art and entertainment.

Museums and Galleries Evolve to Actively Entertain Visitors

The blooloop.com article “How artainment fuses technology and art to create a whole new world of attractions” describes how museums and galleries are rapidly adopting technology fused with art, with eye-catching results. The authors note that “Art is displayed in new ways, often as part of digital, immersive experiences. These can be interactive or serve as a way of exposing art to a new audience.”

In the axiell.com article “The big trends transforming libraries, museums and archives in 2019 and beyond” the author notes that even an experiential visit is now insufficient engagement with participants. “Now, museums and galleries are providing ways for visitors to interact with objects, to open them up and personalise them. There’s a greater recognition of the visitor as an active participant in the art or in the storytelling. This user-centred approach will help libraries, galleries and museums grow with their audience, and will help their audience grow to live more culturally enriched lives.”

In fact, the definition of the term “museum” is evolving to include facilities constructed not to house paintings and sculptures, but to showcase these evolving technologies. Borderless Museum, opened in 2018 by teamlab, sold out on the first day. This Japanese art collective consists of programmers, designers, engineers and computer scientists whose talents result in art projections onto the walls that are in constant motion. Pieces metamorphosize and interact with each other. Visitors find themselves becoming a part of the art.

Also in 2018, Culturespaces teamed up with Barco to create a digital art museum in Paris. The museum, Atelier des Lumières, lives in a former foundry. As visitors travel through the rooms, the museum immerses them in digital art. The first exhibition included paintings by Viennese artists such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.

Museum galleries with limited physical space are also participating in this visual arts revolution. For example, a 2018 exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution Renwick Gallery used virtual reality for No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man. Virtual reality was an innovative way of allowing visitors to get up close and personal with the sculptures that were installed in the Nevada desert and as tradition has it, burned to ash when the festival ends.

Below, we highlight those works that represent the highest commission values in Museums and Galleries, as well as those that reflect the average commission value of projects. 

Also provided is an overview of most frequently occurring and largest commissioned value installations by medium, with references as to how these settings have elevated artwork to be an essential element of the learning experience.  

Commission Value — Museums and Galleries

Commission profiles are described below according to total, highest and median values for this category (306 entries with commissions totaling $18,438,369). The reader will find links to projects with the highest commission and to projects that best represent the median commission. 

The project with the largest commission value ($2 million) occurred at the Pueblo Grande Museum in Phoenix, AZ. Passage creates a new pedestrian entrance experience to the museum, connecting the site to the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Sky Train and the 44th Street light rail station. The artwork is integrated within a desert site, providing access to the existing architecture that comprises the Museum facilities. Great effort was made to honor the indigenous culture throughout the design of this project. The most prominent feature is a sculptural portal inspired by red-on-buff Hohokam pottery. It incorporates a solid steel plasma cut gate with a Hohokam-inspired design. A pathway leads visitors through a 140' circular gathering space ringed by 85 native boulders, 94 saguaro cacti, and ironwood trees. A threshold stone, which all visitors cross over, is imprinted with a rendering of the original Hohokam Canal System. The Hohokam constructed one of the most sophisticated irrigation networks ever created, harnessing the waters of the Salt and Gila Rivers. The setting offers a community space for tribal events. 

Among all study period projects in the Museums and Galleries database, an artwork installation at Bridgehampton, NY best represents the median commission fee. Cosmic Wave incorporates back-painted glass panels assembled with hand-blown glass, distressed silvered glass, and Swarovski crystals. The 12-panel installation measures 12’6″W x 9’4”H x 6”D in total, with each panel measured at 3'W x 3’H x 6”D. The work was installed at Market Art & Design in the Hamptons region of Long Island.

Mediums by Frequency

Sculpture

Sculptural works are the most frequent medium (90 entries) used in the Museums and Galleries category. Dream Wall, located in Middleburg, VA is a multimedia project combining sculpture, sound, 3D animation and projection mapping that measures 9’ tall and 25’ long. The installation commanded the highest commission value in this sub-category ($950,000). Dream Wall offers a compelling metamorphic experience that engages both visual and auditory senses. The project is based on the theme of human/spiritual transformation and conveys “heart, soul, mystery, purity and intensity”. The artist incorporated clay, bronze and wood. Animation, projection mapping, virtual reality technology and sound design bring the sculpture to life.

Interactive and Experiential

Interactive and experiential works also occurred with significant frequency (84 entries). The kinetic sculpture ENERGY, located in Vancouver, BC, Canada had the largest commission value within this sub-category ($185,000). Located at Science World - TELUS World of Science, the artist built a large-scale musical, human-powered kinetic sculpture. The Switch:  Outdoor Science Experience was created within the park was created to promote public involvement. The open-air area includes more than twenty exhibits and stations, introducing visitors of all ages to the world of science, energy and sustainability.

Lighting and Light Art

The Target Interactive Breezeway project commanded the highest commission fee ($1 million) for sub-category projects (31 total submitted during the study period). The work creates a branded space or the Target Corporation in the Rockefeller Center (NY, NY) observation deck. Visitors are assigned a “personality” by a 3-D tracking system and have individualized light patterns and sounds follow them throughout the space. The project makes novel use of the "persistent tracking" feature, where individuals in a space are individually and persistently tracked.

Publish Your Projects

CODAworx is a leading authority on commissioned art and maintains a comprehensive database of information regarding RFPs, commissioning entities, budgets, and awards. Tapping into this database enables CODAweekly to feature regular Industry Reports by design segment (commercial, hospitality, healthcare, etc.) that highlights top artists, trends in commission fees, and more.

We encourage you to add information to the CODAworx database by publishing a project to our Project Library or populate data on projects already in the database. Anyone involved in the collaborative process can publish a project on CODAworx. This includes the artist and creative teams, design professionals and other commissioners, and industry resources such as fabricators, engineers, installers, lighting designers, videographers, and more. Potential clients, commissioners, collaborators and your peers will get to know you and your work. They can contact you directly through the CODAworx messaging system.

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