The modern term art gallery is derived from the Renaissance galleries and palaces in the form of narrow rooms that were used as promenades and to exhibit art. An art gallery in general is a room or a building to display or sell works of art.
Roughly, we can find three types of art galleries: commercial art galleries, with for-profit purposes and function like any other business, artists’ run galleries where a group of artists use space to show their work and sometimes also to sell their artworks and the public galleries that have a function between an art gallery and a museum. In general, an art gallery is an institution characterized by the sale of artworks in a formal environment or just the place where artworks are exhibited and are open to the general public without charge for viewing.
With the terms modern or contemporary art gallery we refer to the commercial art galleries specialized in selling artworks of that period and they have fancy roles, usually situated in urban city centers, following the industrial aesthetic and mentality of today, but trying to give space to humanitarian ideas.
The main purpose of a professional running art gallery, (mostly commercials, and for-profit galleries), is to support visual artists, promote their work, and present them to the public, collectors, media, and other cultural institutions.
It is significant to add the white cube theory concerning the gallery as a space to exhibit. The aesthetic of exhibiting artwork in total white space, almost a clinic is a choice made to minimize distractions and even clearly frame an artwork. Brian O’Doherty, in his book Inside the White Cube, refers also to the problems that this choice can bring in art interpretation, and the balance which is needed between economics, social context, and aesthetics in the gallery as space.
The origin of the term museum is classical and derives from the Greek word “mouseion” which means the “seat of the Muses” and referred to a philosophical institution or a place for contemplation.
The modern meaning of the term museum generally refers to a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited. In a general classification, we have five types of museums: general, natural history and natural science, science and technology, history, and art.
An art museum (or a public art gallery as it is also known) is divided into galleries (the gallery as space), namely the various rooms dedicated to a precise theme, period, or movement; for example, a gallery with futuristic movement artworks. The art museum specialized in works of art ranging from drawings, and paintings, in general, visual and performing arts, music, theatre, film, video decorative arts, and industrial design.
The main purpose of an art museum, which is a not-for-profit institution, is to serve society by researching, collecting, conserving, interpreting, and exhibiting tangible and intangible artistic production and heritage. It is open to the public, accessible and inclusive, and fosters diversity and sustainability.
What is the main difference between an art gallery and an art museum?
An art museum is a place to visit free of charge for enterntaiment and education purposes with non-for-profit character, while an art gallery is a commercial enterprise, it has a for-profit character, and even if it is free and open to the public and can be educational, its basic purpose is to display art to sell it as any other good.
Sources
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/museum-cultural-institution/Art-museums
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