Fancy backing a work by Matthew Barney or Doris Salcedo? Instituto Inhotim in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is looking for wealthy patrons to “adopt” its 22 pavilions.
The private museum—which has works by international artists installed in individual galleries dotted across 140-hectares of botanical gardens and subtropical forest—is also looking to finance the construction of new galleries as well as fund the maintenance of existing ones, for “a period of five or ten years”, says a spokeswoman. In return, sponsors will gain brand “visibility” on the galleries. The exact details are still to be finalised but they may also include naming rights, the spokeswoman says. Sponsors are currently only listed on a banner at the entrance and on the sides of the golf carts used to zip around the vast museum grounds.
Banco Santander has already signed up to adopt the first newly built gallery, which is due to open on 26 November. The 1600 sq. m space will house around 500 images of the Yanomami tribe taken by the Swiss-born Brazilian photographer Claudia Andujar.
According to the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the amount needed to sponsor and fund a new gallery—such as the proposed Anish Kapoor and Olafur Eliasson pavilions—would be between R$2m and R$5m (£360,000 and £890,000). The museum would not confirm these figures though, as they are still being finalised, the spokeswoman says.
The museum was founded—and is still partly funded—by the mining billionaire Bernardo Paz in 2002, before opening to the public in 2006. The adoption campaign would allow it to become less reliant on his wealth, as well as that of other major sponsors who could be affected by economic woes in the local mining sector. Just over half of the museum’s current R$42m (£7.7m) budget comes from sponsors. The rest comes from ticket sales, events and other services (21%), and donations and private funding (23%), which include Paz’s support.