Proposal:Art museums, art galleries and art shops
| Art museum | |
|---|---|
| Proposal status: | Draft (under way) |
| Proposed by: | Math1985 |
| Tagging: | tourism=gallery |
| Applies to: | |
| Definition: | DISCOURAGED, use a more specific tag, such as tourism=museum or shop=art |
| Statistics: |
|
| Draft started: | 2016-02-15 |
| Art gallery | |
|---|---|
| Proposal status: | Draft (under way) |
| Proposed by: | Math1985 |
| Tagging: | tourism=gallery |
| Applies to: | |
| Definition: | DISCOURAGED, use a more specific tag, such as tourism=museum or shop=art |
| Statistics: |
|
| Draft started: | 2016-02-15 |
| Art shop | |
|---|---|
| Proposal status: | Draft (under way) |
| Proposed by: | Math1985 |
| Tagging: | shop=art |
| Applies to: | |
| Definition: | DISCOURAGED, use a more specific tag, such as tourism=museum or shop=art |
| Statistics: |
|
| Draft started: | 2016-02-15 |
Proposal
This proposal aims to clarify the difference between art museums (tourism=museum+museum=art), art galleries (tourism=gallery), and art shops (shop=art).
Art museum
Tagging: tourism=museum+museum=art. Definition: An institution showing art to the public with a business model based on public funding, donations and/or ticket sales
An art museum is an institution which shows artworks so that the public can see them. The artworks are usually by established artists. Shows are developed with a concept by curators. Artworks are from the museums collection or on loan from other museums, galleries or private collectors. The business model of an museum is based on public funding, donations and/or ticket sales. Exhibitions are permanent collections and temporary special exhibitions which run for a couple of months. Depending on the available space, permanent and temporary exhibitions are often simultaneously on display (in different rooms or levels).
(Contemporary) art gallery
Tagging: tourism=gallery Definition: A place that shows art to the public, with the possibility to buy the art on display
A gallery is a place that shows art to the public for free (no ticket sales). There is the possibility of purchase, but it is only a tiny fraction of the audience which actually is buying. The works are by artists the gallery represents. Shows are designed by the artist (with help or in collaboration with the gallerist). An exhibition consists typically of new work by the artist and is usually on display for a couple of weeks only. The business model of an art gallery is based on the sales from the art. A gallery usually gets a cut of up to 50% of the price of the artwork and is doing the dealings with the art collector. Gallery owners may take part in art fairs. Artworks on display tend to stay property of the artist until they are being sold.
Art shop
Tagging: shop=art Definition: A place that sells artwork to the public
An art shop is a shop that sells art(sy) things. The artworks that are for sale may be more on the craft side of the arts. They usually are of decorative nature and not of considerable worth on the art market. Artworks may end there as second hand goods. The producers of these artworks may not even know their work is in the shop. There is no special exhibition, concept or theme other than the intent of selling the goods. Most visitors of the shop are looking to buy a piece of art, although visiting without buying is possible (just as you may walk through a supermarket without buying anything). Artworks on display are usually owned by the shop, not the artist.
Rationale
The wiki is currently not clear on the difference between art museums, art galleries, and art shops.
In addition, most definitions in the wiki are not followed by mappers.
For example, the wiki states that art galleries should be tagged as tourism=gallery, even if they have 'museum' in the name.
The wiki defines the tag tourism=gallery as 'an area or typically a building that displays a variety of visual art exhibitions'. This is an officially approved tag. In addition, the wiki page on tourism=museum specifies that
However, practice shows that the tag tourism=gallery is not very frequently used. We have currently 54 951 instances of tourism=museum, versus only 1 505 instances of tourism=gallery. I had a look at some famous galleries: the MoMA in New York, the Uffizi in Florence, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. It turned out that all of them are tagged as tourism=museum.
This might be partly caused by mappers that are simply not aware of the tourism=gallery tagging scheme, but perhaps there is also a more fundamental problem. The line between a gallery and a museum is not always easy to draw, especially in continental Europe, where many museums have both historic and artistic exhibitions (compare for instance the Louvre). Also the fact that many galleries are called 'museum' does not help.
Credits
Thanks to 'Max', who proposed the definitions in this proposal.