Why These British Artists Are Setting Up Private Museums

What unites Damien Hirst, Gilbert & George, and Glenn Brown? Apart from being British artists, they all, in 2024, run private museums which have shown their own works, and, in the case of Hirst and Brown, works by other artists that they hold in their collections as well.

So what is a private museum? According to Georgina Adams’s book The Rise and Rise of the Private Art Museum, it is an institution “intended to house and display the founder’s art collection, and generally lacks the ‘full services’ of a publicly funded institution,” such as curatorial and research departments.

The concept of collectors establishing museums is centuries old. The British Museum, for instance, traces its roots to the collection of physicist Hans Sloane, which was then acquired for the nation in 1753. A more recent example would be the Saatchi Gallery, which opened in 1985 and, according to the Private Art Museums Report, had the most visitors of any private museum in the world in 2015, with over 1.5 million.

The concept of artists setting up their own museums, however, is a more recent trend that seems to have been started in 2015 by Damien Hirst opening Newport Street Gallery in a largely neglected corner of Vauxhall in South London. Its primary purpose is to “present exhibitions of work from Damien Hirst’s art collection” and has staged shows by artists including Jeff Koons and Rachel Howard. In the past few years, Hirst has used the space to showcase his own works with a survey of his works in 2020–21 and his latest series of physical and NFT works being shown in 2022.

The Brown Collection, set up by the painter Glenn Brown, is a newer addition to the scene and opened in 2022. The Brown Collection has largely shown work by Brown and is housed in an impressive building across four floors in Marylebone. The artist is very open about how it will evolve. “I’m concerned about it being something that we can play with, use as a mode of expression,” he told Artsy. “It’s a place to experiment, putting paintings, sculptures, furniture, drawings, and prints from a variety of periods together to harmonize and to challenge each other.”

Meanwhile, the Gilbert & George Centre, which launched last year, is only showing work by the artist duo; and in spring this year, The Wyllieum, a new gallery celebrating the work and legacy of the late Scottish artist George Wyllie, will open in the town of Greencock. The free museum will open with an exhibition of works by Wyllie, and the rest of its programme will see exhibitions by other artists.

So what is behind this rise? According to Adam, the U.K. lags behind Asia, North America, and mainland Europe in its number of private museums. According to the Private Art Museums Report, the U.K. is in seventh place, with Germany, the U.S., and Korea making up the top three. This may be because the U.K. already has dozens of other museums and, while a new museum is always a welcome addition to the cultural scene, it may struggle to attract as many visitors.

For artists, one major factor in setting up a private museum is that many have amassed a large collection of their own works and works by other artists. Rather than relying on approaches from museums, they can have full curatorial control in their own space. “Museums are limited in what they can show of an artist’s work,” said Gilbert & George. “They can do a retrospective maybe once in a lifetime. Normally they put up one artwork every three or four years, but it’s limited. So that’s why, if you want to see something in-depth about our art, we need our own Centre.…It’s very important, and museums cannot do that.”

While the idea of giving back to the community is a welcome ethos cited by almost all private museums, there can be other factors at play. For example, displaying works in a museum exhibition is likely to raise the value of the works themselves.

Galleries are also supportive of the idea. White Cube, which works with Gilbert & George, was clear to separate its showing of the artists’ works with the artists from the Centre. “Whereas galleries like White Cube tend to show new pictures, The Centre allows Gilbert & George to exhibit and reposition previous bodies of work, and to have a public space to show their art on a more permanent basis,” said a spokesperson for the gallery.

Gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac also works with the pair and is a proponent of artists setting up their own museums: “We encourage and support our artists wholeheartedly in realizing their plans for foundations; it’s a fundamental part of our role and responsibility with the artists we represent,” Ropac told Artsy. “We are usually very much involved since we encourage artists to plan and ideally realize their plans within their lifetime, to really be sure that their foundation is a true reflection of their legacy, and that the various initiatives that their foundations run are in accordance with their hopes for them.”

Gagosian, which represents Glenn Brown, is similarly supportive: “It is wonderful that Glenn has the opportunity to show his work—and indeed his curatorial skills—year-round in London,” said Hannah Freedberg, a director at the gallery. “The Brown Collection is an absolute gift to the city and we could not be more supportive.”

The nature of having a sole or two founders of a museum always begs the question of what happens to the museum in the long-term future. Notable examples of collections that have persisted long after the owners’ deaths include Sir John Soane’s Museum and The Wallace Collection, both bequeathed to the nation in 1837 and 1897, respectively, with strict guidelines aimed at maintaining the collections in a state closely resembling their original curation.

The different approaches of private museums reflect the outlooks of their founders. The Gilbert & George Centre, for instance, is “managed by a Board of Trustees,” said a spokesperson. “The Centre will be dedicated to art and the programme will focus on presenting exhibitions of Gilbert & George’s works of art—thus continuing as The Gilbert & George Centre.”