Industry
Software for museum exhibitions, loans, and outgoing programmes
A museum already has a collections management system (TMS, Mimsy, Axiell, Vernon) for the accessioned permanent collection. What it usually does not have is a clean operational tool for the active programming layer: temporary exhibitions, outgoing loans, fundraising contacts, deaccessioning sales. This page explains where Art.industries fits and where it does not.
Where Art.industries fits in museum operations
Art.industries is not a replacement for a museum collections management system (CMS). The CMS holds the permanent collection record (accession numbers, deep provenance, conservation history accumulated over decades) and integrates with discipline-specific cataloguing standards. Replacing it is rarely the right answer.
Art.industries fits next to the CMS for the operational work the CMS is bad at: temporary exhibition management, outgoing loans to other institutions, private viewing rooms for major-donor previews and sponsor stewardship, deaccessioning sales, and the relationship layer (donors, board, sponsors, lenders).
A museum running TMS for the permanent collection and Art.industries for active programming gets each tool doing what it is good at, without trying to force one to do both.
The five museum workflows Art.industries handles well
Where the value is, on the active-programming side.
- Temporary exhibition management. Checklist, loans, install, condition reports, wall labels, opening events, post-show. See Exhibition management.
- Outgoing loans to other institutions. A loan from your collection to another museum, with the loan agreement, insurance values, condition reports, and custody chain. See Multi-location inventory.
- Donor and major-gift CRM. Relationship history with donors, board members, and sponsors, tied to the works and exhibitions they have supported. See CRM for art galleries — the model adapts cleanly to institutional fundraising.
- Private viewing rooms for stewardship. Send a curated preview to a major donor or a sponsor in advance of an opening. Discreet, branded, revocable. See Private viewing rooms.
- Deaccessioning sales (when applicable). When a museum sells a deaccessioned work, the sale flow (invoice, Stripe payment, settlement) works the same as a gallery primary-market sale, with appropriate restricted-fund accounting integration.
How museums typically integrate Art.industries with TMS or another CMS
The standard pattern is a one-way reference flow: the museum's permanent collection works are referenced in Art.industries by their accession number, with the canonical record remaining in the CMS. When a permanent-collection work is included in a temporary exhibition, the exhibition record in Art.industries references the accession; the CMS remains the source of truth for the work itself.
For loaned-in works (from other institutions or private lenders), the work is created directly in Art.industries with its loan agreement attached, since these works are not in the museum's permanent collection.
Outgoing loans (lending a permanent-collection work to another institution) are managed in Art.industries' loan flow: the work record references the CMS accession, the loan agreement and condition reports live in Art.industries, the receiving institution's contact is in the museum's CRM.
A real flow: a temporary exhibition with permanent-collection and loaned works
A 30-work temporary exhibition: 12 works from the museum's permanent collection (referenced from TMS by accession), 14 works on loan from other institutions, 4 works on loan from private collectors. Here is the flow.
- 12 weeks out: Exhibition record created in Art.industries. Permanent-collection works added by accession reference; loaned works added as new records with loan agreements attached.
- 8 weeks out: Loan agreements signed and attached. Insurance values entered per work. Inbound shipping booked through fine-art carriers. Donor and sponsor contacts added to the CRM as the exhibition's stewardship segment.
- 4 weeks out: Condition reports on intake for each loaned work. Insurer-ready PDFs generated from the data. Private donor preview rooms sent (viewing rooms with the major works of the show).
- Opening: Standard exhibition launch. Donor stewardship continues through the run.
- Closing: Post-show condition reports for each loaned work. Outbound shipping with custody events. Loan returns paperwork generated for each lender.
When Art.industries is not the right fit for a museum
If the primary need is replacing or modernising the permanent collection database (deep accession history, dedicated conservation logging, Cataloguing Cultural Objects (CCO) and CDWA compliance, Linked Open Data integration with disciplinary standards), Art.industries is the wrong tool. A dedicated CMS (TMS, Mimsy, Axiell Collections, EmbARK) remains the right answer.
For museums where the active programming layer is the operational pain point and the CMS is doing fine, Art.industries adds the operational tooling without disturbing the permanent collection record.
Pricing for museum-scale teams
Most museums using Art.industries are on Advanced or Max. Advanced ($40/month base) suits smaller museums with a single exhibitions team; Max ($200/month base) suits larger museums with multiple departments and significant outgoing-loan volumes. Custom rollout support is included on Max.
For very large institutions with specific compliance requirements, a custom-tier conversation is the right starting point; the contact page routes those enquiries to the right team.
FAQ
- Does Art.industries replace TMS, Mimsy, Axiell, or another collections management system?
- No. The CMS remains the permanent-collection record. Art.industries handles the active operational layer: temporary exhibitions, outgoing loans, donor CRM, and stewardship rooms. The two integrate via accession-number reference for permanent-collection works.
- How does this work for outgoing loans to other institutions?
- A loan record references the work (by accession from the CMS), the receiving institution (in the CRM), the loan period, insurance values, and the custody chain (multi-location). Condition reports on outgoing and incoming legs attach to the work.
- Can we use Art.industries for major-donor relationship management?
- Yes. The CRM model adapts to institutional fundraising: donors as contacts, gifts and pledges as historical events, exhibitions and acquisitions as the works they have supported. Private viewing rooms for stewardship work the same way they do for collector previews.
- How are deaccessioning sales handled?
- Through the standard sale flow (invoice, Stripe, settlement) with the deaccessioned work referenced from the CMS. The proceeds are tracked with the appropriate restricted-fund tagging for the museum's accountant; integration with major museum financial systems is supported.
- Does Art.industries handle Linked Open Data, CIDOC CRM, or AAT integration?
- Not as a primary feature. Disciplinary standards integration is the CMS's job; Art.industries focuses on operational tooling. For museums where these standards are central to the cataloguing workflow, the CMS remains the source of truth and Art.industries operates around it.
- Can Art.industries handle our museum's public website?
- For temporary exhibitions and active programming pages, yes (Website Studio). For the permanent-collection website (deep search across thousands of accessioned works with disciplinary metadata), the CMS's public-facing tools or a dedicated museum web platform usually fits better.
- How does Art.industries handle the conservation department's work on the permanent collection?
- For active conservation events tied to a temporary exhibition or outgoing loan, condition reports are attached to the work. For long-term conservation logging on the permanent collection, the dedicated CMS conservation module is usually the right tool; Art.industries reads or references it as needed but does not replace it.
Pilot it on the next temporary exhibition
Set up the next temporary exhibition record in the trial: checklist, loans, condition reports, donor stewardship rooms. By opening, the operational side will be a single workflow rather than four.