There is a specific quality of attention that settles over people in a well-designed museum gallery. It is not the same as reading, or watching, or listening to music. It is something closer to sustained looking, the kind that accumulates slowly and leaves a particular residue when it is over. The museum store sits at…
There is a version of the museum store that has nothing to do with the collection. Generic tote bags in institutional colors. A rack of postcards. Journals with the logo embossed on the cover. These objects are not wrong exactly, but they communicate something specific: the institution has not thought very hard about this room….
The case for exhibition-linked merchandise is not hard to make. A traveling show creates urgency. The opening brings people who are specifically excited about the subject matter. The window is defined, which makes buying decisions easier. You order for the run, you clear inventory when it closes, you move on. The logic is clean. The…