MoMA welcomes three million people to its Midtown campus in a good year. But the beloved cultural institution now has the power to reach multiples of that through a hoodie, a Lego set, and a chicken-shaped cutting board. General Manager of Retail, Jesse Goldstine, joins the show to explain how MoMA inverted the museum retail model, how every product in the store thoughtfully ties back to MoMA’s art, and where the design institution draws the line between rolling out AI partnerships while protecting human craft.

Until the AI Overlords Say Otherwise

Key takeaways:

Museums historically have defaulted to funneling visitors through the gift shop last. MoMA inverted the formula, shifting the museum’s point-of-entry to retail channels.
Cutting SKUs in SoHo raised productivity per SKU and clarified brand identity.
Licensing starts and ends with one question: why MoMA?
Discovery and gifting resist automation in ways basic replenishment does not.
[00:24:04] Jesse: "The DNA of our business is rooted in decisions made by humans in our curatorial department…I will continue to defer to them and put my faith in them until our AI overlords tell me that I need to behave differently."
[00:26:43] Jesse: "There's something really special about our brand that... will sort of inoculate it against some sort of automated sock repurchase every six months."

In-Show Mentions:

Join us at VISIONS: NYC at MoMa on November 3!
MoMA Design Stores
MoMA licensing partners: LEGO, Mattel Creations, Uniqlo, Champion

Associated Links:

More on the intersection of art, culture, and commerce: Insiders #186
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Enter Through the Gift Shop: Inside MoMA's Retail Journey

Future Commerce

Enter Through the Gift Shop: Inside MoMA's Retail Journey