Museums face choice between extractivist models and commons-based partnerships

Kuba Szreder posits that museums face a choice between exploitative extractivist practices and socially focused economies. In 2018, Szreder and Kathrin Böhm co-founded the Centre for Plausible Economies to illustrate these concepts. Many museums cater to the wealthiest 1% or embrace regenerative models that reflect commons principles. The term 'constituent' museums, introduced by L'Internationale and Alistair Hudson, refers to the latter approach. Sociologists Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello observe that networked organizations can support anticapitalist initiatives while still perpetuating extraction. Labor exploitation is widespread, with 76% of US millennial museum employees considering leaving, and UK artists earning an average of £16,150 in 2015. Notable alternative models include initiatives from Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the Whitworth. Earlier this year, the Centre showcased findings in the exhibition Economics: The Blockbuster at the Whitworth.