The Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum is a Baltimore-based nonprofit art museum operating a five-building free-admission campus with a 36,000-object collection, funded by individual donors, corporate partners, and government grants.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1934
- HeadquartersBaltimore, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What The Walters Art Museum does
The Walters Art Museum is a private, tax-exempt art museum headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, founded in 1934 upon Henry Walters' 1931 bequest of approximately 36,000 objects to the city, and opened to the public in 1937. It operates a five-building historic campus in the Mount Vernon neighborhood and stewards a collection spanning more than 7,000 years of human creativity, with particular depth in Asian art (~9,000 objects), Islamic art (~1,200 objects), medieval manuscripts (~1,000), Ethiopian art, and 18th- and 19th-century European art.
The museum's core programmatic and technical infrastructure includes a Conservation and Technical Research laboratory (the third-oldest museum lab in the United States) equipped with hyperspectral imaging, Raman, fiber optic reflectance, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy; a public-facing Conservation Window opened in 2009; open-access digital platforms (art.thewalters.org, manuscripts.thewalters.org, and journal.thewalters.org, the oldest continuously published scholarly art museum journal in the U.S.); and a programming stack covering exhibitions, lectures, teen and family programs, school field trips, volunteer corps, and an annual Gala.
Its business model is a free-admission nonprofit model funded by individual Partners across multiple giving tiers ($5 to $25,000+), corporate Business Partners ($500 to $50,000+), foundation grants, government grants from the City of Baltimore, Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore County, and Howard County, museum store and cafe sales, and special-event fundraising (the 2025 Gala raised a record $670,000). Customers include families, Pre-K–12 teachers and students, teens, college students, lifelong adult learners, and global researchers and scholars.
The Walters Art Museum firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- The Walters Art Museum
- Legal name
- The Walters Art Museum
- Website
- https://thewalters.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1934
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- The Walters Art Museum is a Baltimore-based nonprofit art museum operating a five-building free-admission campus with a 36,000-object collection, funded by individual donors, corporate partners, and government grants.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
The Walters Art Museum industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Art Museum / Cultural Institution
- NAICS
- Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712), Libraries and Archives (51921)
- SIC
- Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Art Museums (THAJADAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Art Galleries & Exhibition Spaces (Commercial & Nonprofit) (THAJADAH), Archives, Special Collections & Preservation Operations (Rare Materials, Conservation) (EDAEAGAJ), Museum, Zoo & Attraction Gift Shops (CRALAJAG), Museum & Landmark Guided Tours (Skip-the-line/Docent-led) (THAJAAAC)
Keywords
Where The Walters Art Museum is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Baltimore
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
The Walters Art Museum business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Other | Free admission — always free to all visitors |
| Subscription | Other | Free Partnership — no minimum donation required |
| Subscription | Annual | Give $5–$499 — supports free collections access |
| Subscription | Annual | Give $500–$999 — champion free arts programming |
| Subscription | Annual | Give $1,000–$4,999 — supports pre-K–12 school tours |
| Subscription | Annual | Give $5,000–$9,999 — makes exhibitions accessible to every visitor |
| Subscription | Annual | Give $10,000–$24,999 — helps care for objects in the collection |
| Subscription | Annual | Give $25,000 or more — supports and launches major initiatives |
| Subscription | Annual | Business Partnership — $500+ for businesses |
| Subscription | Annual | Business Partnership — $1,000+ |
| Subscription | Annual | Business Partnership — $5,000+ |
| Subscription | Annual | Business Partnership — $10,000+ |
| Subscription | Annual | Business Partnership — $25,000–$49,999 |
| Subscription | Annual | Business Partnership — $50,000+ |
| One time/ perpetual license | Other | Tour donations — $12 per person (suggested) |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Museum Store and Cafe |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Annual | Gala & Party — annual fundraising event |
Distribution channels8 records
Marketing channels8 records
The Walters Art Museum product offering
Product offeringCore offering
The Walters Art Museum operates a free-admission art museum on a five-building campus in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood, presenting a permanent collection of approximately 36,000 objects spanning more than 7,000 years of art. Its core offering combines permanent and special exhibitions with on-site educational programs, conservation and technical research services through its in-house lab, scholarly publishing via the Journal of the Walters Art Museum, and open-access digital resources (online collection and manuscript digitization portal), supported by a museum store and cafe.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Free general museum admission
Quantifiable outcome
- The 2025 Gala & Party raised a record-breaking $670,000
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use The Walters Art Museum
Customer profileSegments6 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
The Walters Art Museum technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature5 records
The Walters Art Museum partnerships and signals
Strategic signalRecent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
The Walters Art Museum competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Baltimore Museum of Art: Direct peer — also a free-admission Baltimore art museum with comparable mid-sized collection scale, educational programming, and overlapping audience in the same Mount Vernon/Cultural Center catchment area.
- Cleveland Museum of Art: Closely comparable mid-sized American art museum with always-free general admission, an encyclopedic collection of similar breadth (Asian, European, contemporary), and a parallel digital open-access strategy.
- Minneapolis Institute of Art: Mid-sized American encyclopedic art museum with always-free admission, broad geographic collection holdings (Asian, African, Islamic), and similar conservation, education, and digital-publishing programming.
- Cincinnati Art Museum: Mid-sized encyclopedic art museum with free general admission, comparable collection breadth and educational programming, and a similar donor/grant funding model.
- Philadelphia Museum of Art: Major encyclopedic American art museum in the mid-Atlantic region with broadly comparable collection scale and educational mission, drawing from overlapping audiences.
- The Morgan Library & Museum: Mid-sized museum with a notable manuscripts/rare-books collection and active scholarly publication program — closely comparable to the Walters' manuscript holdings and Journal of the Walters Art Museum.
- The Frick Collection: Boutique art museum with a focused collection of European and decorative arts, broadly comparable in curatorial specificity, donor-base structure, and visitor-experience model.
Broad incumbents
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The dominant American encyclopedic art museum; sets the prestige, exhibition, and conservation-science benchmarks against which the Walters competes for talent, donors, and traveling exhibitions.
- Art Institute of Chicago: Top-tier encyclopedic American art museum with substantial open-access digital collection and scholarly publishing, a structural benchmark for the Walters' own programming.
- National Gallery of Art: Free-admission encyclopedic art museum in Washington D.C. that is the most direct regional competitor for cultural tourism, donors, and scholarly prestige within the mid-Atlantic.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
The Walters Art Museum social profiles
Digital presenceThe Walters Art Museum financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
The Walters Art Museum leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
The Walters Art Museum funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
The Walters Art Museum M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about The Walters Art Museum
What does The Walters Art Museum do?
The Walters Art Museum operates a free-admission art museum on a five-building campus in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood, presenting a permanent collection of approximately 36,000 objects spanning more than 7,000 years of art. Its core offering combines permanent and special exhibitions with on-site educational programs, conservation and technical research services through its in-house lab, scholarly publishing via the Journal of the Walters Art Museum, and open-access digital resources (online collection and manuscript digitization portal), supported by a museum store and cafe.
Is The Walters Art Museum a public or private company?
The Walters Art Museum is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was The Walters Art Museum founded?
The Walters Art Museum was founded in 1934. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is The Walters Art Museum based?
The Walters Art Museum is headquartered in Baltimore, United States, in the North America region.
Who are The Walters Art Museum's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Baltimore Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Morgan Library & Museum and The Frick Collection. Broad incumbents are The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago and National Gallery of Art.
Does The Walters Art Museum have an API?
No public API is recorded for The Walters Art Museum.
What industry is The Walters Art Museum in?
The Walters Art Museum's product category is Art Museum / Cultural Institution. Its primary akta.pro industry code is THAJADAA, Art Museums, with a secondary code of THAJADAH, Art Galleries & Exhibition Spaces (Commercial & Nonprofit). Its NAICS code is 712 and its SIC code is 2731.