The Museum of Modern Art, more commonly known as the MoMA, is located in midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York and was originally established on November 7, 1929. It is considered to be the most influential museum of modern art in the world. It has played an important role in developing and collecting modernist art. The MoMA welcomes about 2.5 million visitors every year. A record 3.1 million people visited the MoMA in the 12 months ending in June 2010. The museum’s collection of modern and contemporary art, such as architecture and design, drawings, paintings, sculptures, etc., is unparalleled by any other museum anywhere in the world. It has exhibited some of the most well-known pieces of modern art there exists, including Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” Henry Rousseau’s “The Dream,” Andy Warhol’s “Campbell Soup Cans,” and Henri Matisse’s “The Dance.”
A museum as lavish and popular as the MoMA is not easy to maintain and take care of. It requires cleaning, security, tour guides, and many others, but perhaps the most important aspect of running a museum like the MoMA is a good financial perspective. It has to be financially ready to pay for its operating expenses such as curatorial and related support services, exhibitions, public services, and facilities. Being able to balance these expenses with all of its other expenses is the most vital thing for this sort of museum to continue operating.
A look at the MoMA’s actual financial statements from June 30, 2011, since that is the end of its fiscal year, helps understand its expenses and overall monetary status by the value of its assets. Starting with its assets, it consists of the cash it has available, the accounts receivable, contributions receivable, inventories, investments, and property. The sum of all of the values of these assets gives a total assets value of $1,540,768,000. Comparing this value to the $1,461,799,000 from the total assets value for 2010 and looking at the individual assets, it can be concluded that the museum has less cash available, more contributions receivable, more investments, and the property value has depreciated. The available cash at the beginning of the year was $51,043,000, but at the end of the year, the available cash decreased to $32,573,000. The liabilities that the MoMA is responsible for add up to $470,267,000, which consists of accounts payable, art acquisition payable, loans payable, and pension and postretirement benefit obligations. When the liabilities are subtracted from the total assets, the museum’s total net assets accounts to $1,070,501,000. The total net assets at the beginning of the year were $1,008,975,000; so the MoMA increased the total net assets by $61,526,000.
Moving on to the MoMA’s operating costs and revenues, which show how much the museum spends to operate properly and how much it makes by operating, respectively. The majority of the operating costs consist of: $26,603,000 for curatorial and related support services; $7,835,000 for exhibitions; $47,507,000 for sales/auxiliary activities; $10,705,000 for membership, development, and cultivation; and $25,950,000 for facilities and security. The total operating costs add up to $154,950,000. Other non-operating expenses included $50,936,000 for the acquisition of works of art. The majority of the operating revenues consist of: $22,695,000 from admissions; $14,991,000 from membership; $17,406,000 from annual fund contributions; and $50,493,000 from auxiliary activities. Overall, the total operating revenues add up to $157,615,000. The museum also made $18,283,000 from selling works of art; this value being up from $11,296,000 of sales in 2010.
The MoMA is a famous and popular museum which influences people to contribute money to it. In 2011, the MoMA received $170,526,000 in contributions receivable. In museums, such as the MoMA, there has to be debt associated with it. The MoMA owes: $12,456,000 in less than a year; $43,777,000 within one to five years; and $129,423,000 in more than five years. The MoMA also has other assets such as in its property, which was purchased for a total of $543,580,000 and software, equipment, machinery and furniture and fixtures for $74,501,000. Since the MoMA sits on private land and not city-owned land, like the MET and the Museum of Natural History, it receives little government operating support. Recently, in order to expand further, the MoMA paid $31 million for the 30,000-square-foot American Folk Art Museum building next door. This building will be designed into a mixed-used skyscraper that will add about 40,000 square feet to exhibition space. It also has to set aside some of its money for pension benefits and postretirement benefits. It spent $67,766,000 for pension benefit obligations at the end of the year and it spent $21,188,000 for postretirement benefits.
Although the MoMA increased its admission fee from $20 to $25 in September 2011, it still remains one of the city’s most popular sites. It had to make this price hike because it needed more funding. As Kym Rice states, “Who can really blame the Museum of Modern Art for raising its admission price to $25 from $20? Even with budget cutting, running a world-class art museum is an expensive proposition…if a museum wants to finance its artistic and institutional ambitions by inflating its admission price, and enough people are willing to pay it, then what’s wrong with that?” She believes that even though the museum is charging visitors more for admission, since it is doing so in order to further its art exhibits for visitors, it is justifiable since such a museum can be difficult to maintain financially.
Inside the MoMA
Outside the MoMA
"Starry Night" in the MoMA
