Philadelphia Museum of Art undergoes new name, brand change
One of the premier landmarks in Philadelphia will now be under a slightly new moniker, what used to be called the Philadelphia Museum of Art is now the Philadelphia Art Museum.
A slight change, but to the locals, it feels more natural, being that the institution has been colloquially called the Art Museum by Philadelphians for years.
“When I mention to folks who aren’t engaged in the arts and culture community and I say the PMA, they have no idea what I’m talking about,” said museum director and CEO Sasha Suda. “I just have to say, ‘the Art Museum.’”
The name change also comes with a new logo: A round badge centered by a griffin encircled by the words Philadelphia Art Museum in bold type. It replaces the previous logo that put the title on three lines, the words “Philadelphia” and “Museum of” in small type, anchored by “Art” in oversized letters.
With the new logo, Suda wants to restore “Philadelphia” to the forefront of tourism.
Overall, the logo is meant to be bold and immediately eye-catching in a digital environment awash with competing messaging. Gone are the delicate lines of the museum’s previous font. It is now written in Fairmount Serif, which Suda described as “chunky.”
“For us, it is a nuanced nod to people who feel that coming to the top of the steps was enough for their visit to the museum,” Suda said. “To be throwing the doors wide open and saying this is an institution that’s here to serve you and welcome you.”
The Philadelphia Art Museum began during the 1876 Centennial Exposition as the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. It was later called the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, a name few people used conversationally. According to the museum’s website, everyone called it the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so that is what it became in 1938.
Eighty-seven years later, similar reasoning went into this new name change: If everyone calls it the Philadelphia Art Museum, why not lean into that? But the colloquialism is more than local.
“You think it’s a local thing, but in fact it is much bigger than that,” Suda said. “When I’m abroad seeing colleagues elsewhere in the world, they refer to it as the Philadelphia Art Museum. Or just, Philadelphia: ‘We’re going to Philadelphia to see the Duchamps or the Van Goghs.’ What defines this institution locally and around the world is the fact that it’s here in Philadelphia.”
Suda believe change and foward thinking was needed for sustainability of the museum
“We’ve had some huge wins. We’ve also had some tough times,” Suda said. “Thinking through where the museum will be in the next decade, two decades, three decades, it was time to turn the page and welcome a new era, pay homage to who the institution is here to serve and what the institution represents.”
