Paris’ Musée d’Art Moderne is expanding its collection of photography thanks to a pioneering patronage scheme focused on young collectors, Le Figaro reports.
The 21 members of the newly established patronage group have committed to pledge €5,000 each year. This means the museum has secured a yearly budget of €105,000 entirely allocated to the acquisition of international works of photography. Two new female members will join the group during 2015, and the museum is hoping to reach a total of 30 young patrons in the longer term.
The museum’s photography collection is still modest, but carefully selected, comprising around 3000 works by heavy-weights like Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Thomas Ruff, and Andreas Gursky, among others.
But, while the Musée d’Art Moderne can’t yet seriously compete with the Centre Pompidou—which boasts a collection of 40,000 prints and 60,000 negatives, as well as a newly-launched photography gallery (see Centre Pompidou Opens First Permanent Photography Gallery)—its goals are ambitious.
“We want to position ourselves differently, and complementary, focusing on areas less explored by the Centre Pompidou, such as African, Japanese, or South American photography,” Emmanuelle de L’Ecotais, the Musée d’Art Moderne photography curator, told Le Figaro.
The acquisitions secured by the young committee will be exhibited at the museum each November to coincide with the art fair, Paris Photo, in what is now dubbed Paris’s “Photography Month” (see Take a Sneak Peek at Riches of Paris Photo 2014 and Julien Frydman Quits Paris Photo).
The Musée d’Art Moderne’s recent photography acquisitions—which include works by Rémy Duval, Eric Poitevin, Malick Sidibé, and Walid Raad—are currently on view at the museum, where they can be seen until April 12.