10 Museum and Brand Partnerships Worth Exploring

Creative and commercial have gone hand in hand for many years from Yves-Saint-Laurent and his homage to artist Mondrian or Andy Warhol and his penchant for Campbell’s soup. This concept isn’t new and can be a perfect way to engage your audience and expand your network.

This roundup, first published in 2020, explores ten museum-brand collaborations, from collection-inspired fashion to historically themed beer and an overnight competition at the Musée du Louvre. The products and promotions described are historical examples.

1) Rijksmuseum x SWATCH

SWATCH, the Swiss watchmaking company took inspiration from the gallery walls of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum in 2018. The 2018 Rijksmuseum range continued Swatch’s long relationship with art, which included its first Art Special with Kiki Picasso in 1985. This collaboration was well-received and allowed Rijksmuseum works to be circulated even more widely on wrists across the world.

2) MoMA x Uniqlo

Uniqlo has been working in partnership with New York’s Museum of Modern Art since 2013 to support ‘Uniqlo Free Friday Nights’ and in 2014, they also launched ‘SPRZ NY’, a fashion collection in stores that sported designs from MoMA. This long and fruitful partnership has helped bring more people to the museum as well as the museum to more people; a great example of a win-win partnership scenario!

3) Van Gogh Museum x Vans

These trainers nearly ran off the shelves when they debuted in 2018 alongside jackets, hats and other fashion accessories. The collaboration between Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum and Vans brought collection imagery to trainers, clothing and accessories. Several pieces were purposefully chosen from the Van Gogh’s canon to represent the depth of his artistry—Skull, Sunflowers, Almond Blossom, Self-Portrait as a Painter, Old Vineyard with Peasant Woman. Young people are a target audience for many museums and this collaboration is a terrific example of a well-suited partnership.

For a related example, see MuseumNext’s account of Van Gogh Museum brand partnerships.

4) Museum of Ice Cream x Sephora

The whimsical Museum of Ice Cream has been a hot-spot for the social media-savvy since it opened in 2016 with giant pools full of sprinkles and massive ice cream cones to pose with. In 2018, they announced a collaboration with the international makeup authority Sephora which brought the attraction’s colourful identity into a makeup collection. The online makeup community is massive and intersects with audiences that were regularly coming to the museum and posting on social media. This collaboration took advantage of shared audiences and spoke to them at large with an insanely cute collection.

5) American Museum of Natural History x Etsy

In 2015, New York’s American Museum of Natural History teamed up with online artisan-supported retailer Etsy to debut a bespoke collection themed around the museum’s objects.

Unique items were created with the museum’s contents in mind such as a porcelain iceberg necklace and leather pouches painted to look like bird’s eggs. This partnership demonstrated that the American Museum of Natural History supports individual artisans and wants to offer them new opportunities. In light of many museums choosing to partner up with big fashion houses, this collaboration is a refreshing break.

6) MoCA x Levi’s

Does the denim jacket design below look familiar? If so, that’s probably because it is directly inspired by the work of Keith Haring, a beloved pop/street artist. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles cleverly planned a partnership with Levi’s to run alongside one of the most extensive exhibitions on street art to date. To mark the occasion, the denim clothier released a limited-edition collection inspired by the artists within the exhibition. This partnership was kicked off on shared ground as street art translated well into denim jackets with them both sharing the same “cool guy” vibe.

7) Field Museum x Chicago Brewseum x Temperance Beer

This unique three-way partnership went over like a cold beer on a hot day… That means well!

Chicago’s Field Museum has a history of collaborations around libations and previously produced dinosaur-themed brews to mark special occasions. However, this boozy partnership between the Field Museum, Chicago’s Brewseum and Temperance Beer Company came together to celebrate the 1893 World’s Fair which had a lasting impact on the landscape of Chicago and occurred the same year as the founding of the Field Museum. This project reflected a true dedication to authenticity with the museum stepping in to help with the historical aspect of brewing including learning about 19th-century brewing techniques from objects and digging into the botany of 1893 to provide genuine ingredients.

8) Airbnb x Louvre

In this too good to be true marketing campaign, AirBnb teamed up with Musée du Louvre to provide an experience like no other. This collaboration was centred around a contest that AirBnb ran to provide one lucky winner with a private night at the Louvre complete with a Mona Lisa viewing free of tourists and a tiny glass pyramid room to sleep in next to the giant iconic pyramid. The campaign gave Airbnb an unusual prize to promote and placed the Louvre’s collection and architecture at the centre of the story.

9) V&A x Coco de Mer

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is renowned world-wide for being a mecca of art and design. In 2018 they partnered with luxury British lingerie line Coco de Mer to produce a collection that reflects the brands delicacy and sexiness with the extraordinary craftsmanship exhibited within the galleries of the V&A Museum. This seemingly unexpected collaboration ties the V&A in with Coco de Mer’s luxury persona and reciprocally, associates the lingerie brand with the design prestige that’s represented in the letters, V&A.

10) COS x Guggenheim

Fashion brand COS produced a bespoke clothing collection for the opening of the 2016 Agnes Martin’s retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The chic and simple aesthetic reflected in the branding of COS aligns well with the abstract expressionist/minimalist work of Martin and so the pair seemingly fit. This collaboration is another example of the museum world teaming up with the fashion industry in a way that reflects shared ideals.

For a related example, see MuseumNext’s account of museum brand licensing.

Wrapping things up

There is a lot of potential for partnership between the museums and commercial sector. Opening up the doors to new audiences and brand association are two reasons to consider giving it a go with an interesting and invested collaborator.