About the Project
Between Patronage and Power is a four-year research project examining the changing relationships between public museums and private art collectors in Europe.
Rather than approaching public and private actors as two separate spheres, the project focuses on the collaborations and networks through which they increasingly become interconnected. These may include loans, exhibitions, co-curation, shared acquisitions, financial support, collection partnerships and other hybrid arrangements.
The research examines how such collaborations shape governance and decision-making, how responsibilities and influence are negotiated between actors, and what these relationships mean for institutional autonomy, legitimacy and public value.
This focus builds directly on the premise of your FWO proposal, where collaborations are situated within broader transformations in the museum landscape and questions of decision-making, autonomy and accountability.
CENTRAL RESEARCH QUESTION
How do collaborations shape organizational boundaries, governance practices, and the roles of public museums and private art collections?
The project investigates these dynamics through comparative case studies of collaborations between public museums, private collectors and private art collections across different European institutional and policy contexts.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Public and private collecting have never been entirely separate. Many public museums historically developed from private collections, while private collectors have long contributed to collecting, exhibiting and cultural patronage. Yet the institutional landscape is changing.
The rapid development of private museums and collector-led institutions since the beginning of the twenty-first century has made these relationships increasingly visible. Research has identified hundreds of private museums for modern and contemporary art worldwide, while also raising questions about their relationships with established public institutions, governments and art markets.
The project therefore moves beyond asking whether private involvement is simply beneficial or problematic. Instead, it examines what actually happens when public and private actors work together: how do collaborations reshape the established institutional boundaries.
RESEARCH APPROACH
Cases are selected across different European contexts and forms of collaboration, allowing the research to compare how institutional structures, cultural policies and actor constellations shape collaboration. The case study map will evolve throughout the research project. As cases are identified, selected and confirmed across different European contexts, they will be progressively incorporated into the study and visualised on the map.
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT / OUTPUTS
2026 - Mapping & conceptual developmentLiterature review · theoretical framework · exploratory case research
2026-2028 - Empirical researchEuropean comparative case studies · interviews · network analysis
2028-2029 - Comparative analysis
2029-2030 - Synthesis & dissemination
PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
Presentations
ENCATC Congress 2026Artists and Cultural & Creative Professionals at the Centre: Rethinking Work, Policy, and Cultural Ecosystems
→ Between Patronage and Power: Rethinking Governance and Decision-Making in Collaborations Between Public Museums and Private Art CollectorsENCATC Congress 2026
PROJECT INFORMATION
Between Patronage and Power: The Changing Relationship between Museums and Private Art Collectors
Duration2026-2030
InstitutionUniversity of AntwerpResearch Group Cultural Management & Cultural Policy
ResearcherPhD Laura D’hoore
SupervisorsProf. Dr. Annick Schramme
Prof. Dr. Johan Pas
FundingResearch Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Contact