Phillips Collection Museum of Modern Art

What Phillips Collection Museum of Modern Art does

The Phillips Collection is America's first museum of modern art, founded in 1921 by Duncan Phillips and operated as a private nonprofit institution headquartered in Washington, DC. It serves a broad public audience — general visitors, members, families, PK-12 educators and students, university researchers, and underserved Southeast DC residents — alongside institutional partners and donors. The museum's core offering is access to a permanent collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and American modern art (including Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, the Rothko Room, the Migration Series, and over 30 Bonnard works), supplemented by rotating special exhibitions (e.g., 'Miró and the United States,' 'Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings'), an 85-season Phillips Music concert series, and community programming such as Phillips after 5 and Art-Play-Practice.

The institution's product surface spans two physical sites (the main Dupont Circle building combining historic Phillips family home with purpose-built galleries, and the Phillips@THEARC satellite campus in Wards 7 and 8) and a growing digital layer including the Bloomberg Connects mobile app, Matterport/Treedis 360-degree virtual tours, virtual time-capsule archives, custom interactive installations (e.g., the retro TV station for the Miró exhibition built on Touch Designer, Arduino, and Python), and an image-licensing service. The business model is hybrid: earned revenue from admissions ($12 adults / $10 students and seniors), annual memberships with exclusive early-access hours, a museum shop (both physical and e-commerce via shopphillipscollection.org), venue rentals, the Bread Furst café, and educational fees ($125 per graduate credit), supplemented by donations across Annual Fund, individual, institutional, corporate, and planned giving categories, plus financial patronage from foundations such as Teiger Foundation.

Name

Phillips Collection Museum of Modern Art

Legal name

The Phillips Collection

Website

https://phillipscollection.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1921

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

The Phillips Collection is America's first museum of modern art, operating a flagship Dupont Circle museum and a Southeast DC satellite, serving general visitors, members, students, and community audiences with permanent collection access, rotating exhibitions, concerts, and education programs funded by admissions, membership, and donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Admission and Membership: General admission fees ($12 adults, $10 students/seniors 62+, free under 18) and membership program providing unlimited free admission, with members always admitted free and early access on Sundays.
2. Museum Shop: E-commerce sales of exhibition catalogues, merchandise, publications including 'Love is a Dangerous Word: the Selected Poems of Essex Hemphill', and art-related products through shopphillipscollection.org. Purchases directly support exhibitions and programs.
3. Image Licensing and Rights: High-resolution images of works in permanent collection licensed for publication use. Fees vary based on image type, print run, placement, and format (TIFF, JPG, transparency, print). Museum is digitizing entire collection.
4. Donations and Institutional Giving: Private non-government museum supported primarily by donations including Annual Fund, Individual Giving, Institutional Giving, Corporate Partnerships, and Planned Giving.
5. Educational Programs: Professional development courses for educators including Summer Institute for Teachers offering graduate credit through Trinity Washington University ($125 per credit).
6. Special Events and Venue Rentals: Annual Gala, corporate events, private rentals, and facility usage fees.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The Phillips Collection is a private nonprofit art museum that operates two physical galleries in Washington, D.C., exhibiting its permanent modern and contemporary art collection alongside temporary exhibitions. It sells paid admissions and memberships, runs school and public education programs, hosts private events, operates a museum shop, and licenses images from its collection to publishers and media.

Product overview

The Phillips Collection is America's first museum of modern art, offering a unified visitor experience centered on its permanent collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and modern art. The museum operates multiple integrated programs: Phillips Music (85th season concert series in the Music Room), Phillips@THEARC satellite campus in Southeast DC, PK-12 education programs including Summer Institute for Teachers, and community engagement through Phillips after 5 events and Art and Wellness. Digital offerings include Bloomberg Connects mobile app, 360-degree virtual tours via Matterport and Treedis, and an Image Licensing service for high-resolution collection images. Physical visitor services encompass general admission, group tours, venue rentals, museum shop, Bread Furst Café, and membership. The museum also presents special exhibitions through its One-on-One series and maintains Library and Archives for research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Museum Admissions Ticketed access to the Phillips Collection's permanent modern art collection and rotating temporary exhibitions at the main Dupont Circle building and Phillips@THEARC, available to general visitors, students, seniors, children, and group bookings.
• Membership Program Annual memberships at multiple price tiers that grant unlimited museum admission, exhibition previews, discounts at the museum shop, and invitations to member events, designed for repeat individual and household visitors.
• Art Education Programs On-site and virtual educational programs including school tours, family workshops, lectures, and adult learning sessions for K–12 students, teachers, families, and lifelong learners.
• Special Event Venue Rentals Booking of museum galleries and event spaces for private celebrations, corporate receptions, and cultural galas, offered to individual hosts, corporations, and nonprofit partners.
• Museum Shop On-site (and online) retail store selling art books, exhibition catalogues, prints, gifts, and museum-branded merchandise to visitors and the public.
• Collection Image Licensing Licensing of high-resolution digital images of artworks from the Phillips Collection for editorial, educational, and limited commercial reproduction by publishers, media organizations, authors, and producers.
• Public Special Programs and Lectures Ticketed and free public lectures, artist talks, symposia, and seasonal programs that accompany the museum's exhibitions and collection displays for the general public.

Quantifiable outcome

• One of only two DC museums named to Washington Post Top 10 exhibitions list (2023)
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 March 2026Co-organizing the major international exhibition 'Miró and the United States' celebrating the dynamic dialogue between Joan Miró and American art scene of mid-20th century. The Fundació provides expertise and works from their collection for this exhibition featuring 75 works. Partnership includes collaboration on scholarly programming and the Duncan Phillips Award presentation to Joan Punyet Miró.
• Northern Trust / EXPO CHICAGOcoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026The Phillips Collection was awarded the Northern Trust Purchase Prize at the 2026 EXPO CHICAGO art fair. The prize supports acquisition of works from the fair's Focus section dedicated to young galleries. Through this prize, the museum acquired works by Paul Gardère and Diego Mouro from Mitra Galeria.
• Ugo RondinonecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 November 2023Sixth iteration of One-on-One series engaged acclaimed Swiss artist to select works from Phillips collection and juxtapose with his own. Exhibited Eilshemius works from both Phillips collection and artist's personal collection.
• Pinacoteca Giuseppe De Nittis (Barletta, Italy)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 November 2022Collaboration for 'An Italian Impressionist in Paris: Giuseppe De Nittis' exhibition, the first in the US devoted to the work of Giuseppe De Nittis. Partnership with the City of Barletta, Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio, and Region of Puglia.
• Embassy of Italy / Italian Cultural InstituteminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 12 November 2022Additional exhibition support provided by Embassy of Italy, Washington, DC, and Italian Cultural Institute.
• New Museum (New York)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 June 2019Partnership for 'The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement' exhibition, curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Natalie Bell in partnership with the New Museum. The exhibition presented 75 historical and contemporary artists exploring migration and displacement themes.
• Bloomberg ConnectscoreTechnology or IntegrationMobile app partnership providing arts and culture content on demand, extending museum experience beyond physical visits through digital interpretation and audio tours.
• University of MarylandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEducational partnership offering professional development courses for PK-12 educators using Phillips Collection's Prism.K12 arts integration strategies. Courses delivered through online engagement and hands-on practice in collaboration with the university.
• Trinity Washington UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerGraduate-level credit partnership for Summer Institute for Teachers program. Educators can receive graduate credit through Trinity Washington University to support teacher recertification and salary advancement.
• Various Refugee Support OrganizationsminorOthersListed organizations including ACLU, International Rescue Committee, National Immigration Law Center, and local DC/MD/VA organizations actively supporting immigrant and refugee communities, featured in conjunction with The Warmth of Other Suns exhibition.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• The Kreeger Museum: DC-based private museum in a Philip Johnson-designed mid-century home, sharing the Phillips's DC geography, founder-home format, and Impressionist-to-modern collection focus. Smaller in scale but directly comparable in positioning.
• The Frick Collection: New York-based private art museum housed in a historic mansion, comparable in scale, donor dependency, and intimate visitor experience. Shares the founder-home-plus-gallery footprint pattern and Old Master/Impressionist collection orientation.
• The Barnes Foundation: Philadelphia-based private museum founded on a personal art collection, similarly intimate in scale, with comparable business model (membership, admissions, donations, education) and an iconic Impressionist/Post-Impressionist collection. Direct strategic parallel to Phillips's founder-driven, single-site model.
• The Studio Museum in Harlem: New York private museum focused on Black American art with a comparable private-nonprofit, donor-dependent model, education programs, and community-engagement emphasis. Direct operational analog with a more contemporary/identity-focused collection.
• The Menil Collection: Houston private museum offering free admission, founded on a private collection, with a similarly intimate campus, modern and antiquities holdings, and a strong special-exhibition program. Closely comparable operating model and visitor experience.

Broad incumbents

• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: Smithsonian modern and contemporary art museum located in DC, directly competing for the same DC visitor base. Comparable collection focus (modern/contemporary) but operates as a free federal institution, creating distinct funding dynamics.
• The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): Largest US modern art museum, sharing Phillips's Impressionist-to-contemporary collection arc and NYC-DC cultural-tourism overlap. Operates at a vastly larger scale with greater endowment, retail, and digital revenue infrastructure.
• The Whitney Museum of American Art: Larger US private museum dedicated to American modern and contemporary art, sharing Phillips's American-modern focus but at substantially greater scale, budget, and programmatic reach. Comparable curatorial and donor dynamics at a different order of magnitude.
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: New York-based private museum with a global brand, modern-art focus, and donor-dependent nonprofit model. Comparable fundraising, membership, and special-exhibition dynamics, but at substantially larger scale and international footprint.
• National Gallery of Art: DC-based federal art museum with comparable Impressionist and modern holdings (including Renoir and Bonnard), free admission, and major international loan exhibitions. Sets the competitive ceiling for DC private museum visitation and pricing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/phillipsmuseum
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/PhillipsArtMuseum
• Facebookfacebook.com/phillipscollection
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-phillips-collection
• Instagraminstagram.com/phillipscollection

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Phillips Collection Museum of Modern Art