Pricing for Museum use

[blackshadow]

I’ve been contacted by a museum in Amsterdam asking for permission to use one of my photos – I have no idea if they are genuine or if they are just looking for free artwork. They are wanting to hang it for 10 years and I have no idea what to charge.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

This is the relevant text from the email.

In December the museum name Amsterdam, the Netherlands, will open a new exhibition on music. We are an ethnographic museum and the exhibition is about all different sorts of music and instruments from all over the world. In this exhibition we will display instruments from our collection, films on music etcetera. We are also making a selection of photographs to show in the exhibition in blow-ups from about 1x1 meters. With these pictures we want to create a lively background for the exhibition. We came across your website and we might be interested in showing one of your photographs of name (2008) or maybe of name (2006).

The museum name is a not-for-profit institution and the pictures won’t be used for any commercial purposes (just educative). The exhibition will open in December 2009 for a period of approx. 10 years and will be open to the public seven days a week.
Could we receive permission to use one of your photographs in the museum and are their any terms and/or costs involved? Of course we will name the photographers in the credits.
To be able to use the photographs it is important for us that the photograph is digitally available (to download) in high resolution: 300 dpi to print on a 1x1 m format. Would it be possible to receive a digital copy in high resolution? (This so our exhibition designer can print all the photographs we use in the same manner).

[Karl Johnston]

Did they leave a contact number? Usually the manager or curator will...try calling the museum and asking for more information on their budget, what exactly it will look like, what they will be printing on, etc...try contacting the museum through their web page or their phone number (if you do a google search you can find that all out) if you doubt the validity of the email.

Seems a little bit odd to search for someone as far away as Aus if its coming from the netherlands

[blackshadow]

Did they leave a contact number? Usually the manager or curator will...try calling the museum and asking for more information on their budget, what exactly it will look like, what they will be printing on, etc...try contacting the museum through their web page or their phone number (if you do a google search you can find that all out) if you doubt the validity of the email.

Seems a little bit odd to search for someone as far away as Aus if its coming from the netherlands

It all seems legit, the museum and the organisation that runs the museum are legit and a google search brings up the person's name in many links associated with the museum. Yes they have left a contact number and full details.

[lavenlaar]

if they are NOT FOR PROFIT as stated, they must distribute cash back out. So I'd be asking for at least the cost of the return airfare to view this work.
Depends on museum (if the one im thinking about - to be therefore hung alongside the likes of well known multimillion dollar works of art) i'd be stoked.

[blackshadow]

They are not for profit but the organisation has a turnover in the 10s of millions of Euros - their financial statements are online. I think I'll draw up an estimate at full commercial rate then show a 50% discount for educational use.

[Karl Johnston]

50 % seems like a huge discount, if money is no object :D then why skimp? :lol: 10s of millions of euros...woooeee...ask for 50 thousand ;) just kidding..what would you think would be a good ballpark for something like this out of curiosity?

[AssassinJN]

50 % seems like a huge discount, if money is no object :D then why skimp? :lol: 10s of millions of euros...woooeee...ask for 50 thousand ;) just kidding..what would you think would be a good ballpark for something like this out of curiosity?

You might have been joking with the 50,000 quote, but keep in mind this is a showing for 10 years. That's $417/month, a bit high maybe but not as unreasonable as it sounded at first.

Not sure about there, but I've found some local art rental places that charge between 17-149 monthly, which translates to $2k - $18k. Also keep in mind (and possibly negotiate) the fact that you are sending a digital and they are printing etc the image. What happens with the printed image once the display is done? Storage? Send it to you?

A good bit to think about, and I honestly have no clue what an average rate would be for a museum, but I wouldn't think $1k/year is out of the question.

[breal101]

blackshadow, I can't offer an opinion on pricing having no experience in museum pricing but it seems to me that this MIGHT be one of the rare cases where a credit can do you some good. Best of luck with the negotiations.

[Karl Johnston]

You might have been joking with the 50,000 quote, but keep in mind this is a showing for 10 years. That's $417/month, a bit high maybe but not as unreasonable as it sounded at first.

Not sure about there, but I've found some local art rental places that charge between 17-149 monthly, which translates to $2k - $18k. Also keep in mind (and possibly negotiate) the fact that you are sending a digital and they are printing etc the image. What happens with the printed image once the display is done? Storage? Send it to you?

A good bit to think about, and I honestly have no clue what an average rate would be for a museum, but I wouldn't think $1k/year is out of the question.
I have no idea how to begin about pricing it to be honest..I would think you would want to sell them a license to display it over 10 years and take into consideration how much money it costs them to develop whatever thing they develop it at - include that in your costs..or theirs? I don't think it would be unreasonable at all to ask for something like 1-5 000 a year reoccurring, in fact standard in a lot of ways if you consider the license..but as for the specific use who knows?

[Dimer]

My sister works for FOAM, Amsterdam. If you PM me the details of the photomuseum I can ask her if she knows them and if they are legit.