Museums and galleries are deeply embedded in profitable creative industries. Collections, archives, and curatorial expertise support projects in television, movies, fashion, publishing, and design. We see it all the time: Period films draw on historical garments preserved in textile collections. Art directors consult with museum pros when developing sets. Fashion houses look to museums for print inspiration. Book publishers take advantage of museum research. And on and on. Across all these creative fields, museums provide resources that inform new work.
Despite this, museums aren’t prioritized in federal or state-level creative economy policies and funding strategies. Economic development programs often target media, tech, entertainment, design, while museums are left to navigate shrinking public arts budgets and increasingly competitive philanthropic support.
Streaming services, video game studios, and immersive tech firms benefit from innovation grants and tax incentives. Fashion and advertising industries are routinely highlighted in government reports and creative industry summits. Museums rarely appear in these conversations, even when they are actively contributing to the success of those same industries.
8/8/25 update: Here’s a very recent example of this: ‘The Gilded Age’ Costume Designer Spills Her Art Historical Inspirations
This isn’t meant to be a depressing comparison, rather one that encourages motivation to come at advocacy and funding from a different angle. Can we get museums more recognition as legitimate drivers of the creative economy?
To build on the opening point, museums are absolutely contributing in this arena. They serve the entertainment industry with filmable spaces, archival research, and visual references. They support publishing through image licensing and scholarly consultation. They collaborate with fashion designers, visual artists, architects, and design teams exploring spatial and experiential storytelling. Maybe people need reminding that these museum roles are deeply embedded in how the creative economy functions.
Informing strategy
Art Fund in the UK recently released a report on this very issue. The findings identify a need to “develop robust, shared metrics to capture museums’ contributions to innovation, skills development, and ecosystem health.” Specifically:
• Ensure museums are represented in national economic and creative policy discussions.
• Invest in digital infrastructure and capacity to enable museums to thrive in the innovation economy, including providing high-value public data sets as part of the National AI Strategy.
• Build long-term partnerships with creative industries, universities, and local government.
• Leverage soft power and international influence by intentionally deploying museums’ narrative, convening and diplomatic capabilities. (Source: Museums, Growth, and the Creative Industries)
All of this pertains to museums in the U.S., too. (Side note: National AI Strategy is UK-specific, obviously. See here for the current U.S. government AI initiatives).
Related, recommended read: Why Museums Matter: The Creative Industries’ Untapped Resource, Art Fund
The tendency to shortchange museums may inadvertently come from an outdated (narrow) view of museums existing simply as public service entities. Yes, museums are trusted stewards, but they are also much more. Museums are launching digital exhibitions, producing original media, collaborating with contemporary artists, and contributing to design innovation. They operate with a public mandate and a professional rigor that deserves strategic inclusion.
Our institutions provide resources and foster cross-sector creativity every day. If government and industry leaders want to build a resilient creative economy, museums should be part of the plan.
