In Boston, a new generation of for-profit museums has arrived
The guests, now sporting nicknames such as 'Frozone' and 'Sprinkles,' obliged.
With its 'lobster roll' confections, 'Creamliner' fuselage, and signature ball pit of giant sprinkles, the Museum of Ice Cream is a far cry from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and its more traditional
brethren in the not-for-profit world of museums.
But tradition isn't really the goal.
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'We're purposefully blurring the line of what a museum could be,' said cofounder Manish Vora, whose company has venues in five other cities, including Miami, Chicago, and Singapore.
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Today, the Museum of Ice Cream is among the most recognized brands in a burgeoning field of for-profit 'museums,' businesses that seek to deliver easily digestible art or cultural experiences as a form of entertainment, hospitality, or even retail. The trend itself isn't new — MOIC launched as a pop-up roughly 10 years ago. But Boston has recently become a prime market in the so-called experience economy, a feel-good world where purveyors seek to inspire delight, or simply offer distraction, by 'immersing' visitors in interactive installations and artworks, and where a general admission ticket can cost anywhere from $25 to more than $70.
'Our mission is around joy and connection,' said Vora, who ascribes a lot of sway to his museum's signature offering. 'We're connecting people across the globe through the power of ice cream.'
The Museum of Ice Cream, which opened in December, is one of three for-profit museums to arrive in Boston over the past year. The Museum of Illusions, a franchise operation that offers immersive optical illusions, has a new venue near Faneuil Hall, and the WNDR Museum, an immersive art chain founded by one of the entrepreneurs behind Groupon, arrived last year in Downtown Crossing.
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'It's clearly a phenomena,' said Guy Hermann, founder of the consulting firm Museum Insights. 'It's a lot of dollars per hour that they're generating.'
The Museum of Ice Cream, an Instagram darling, is known for its pool of giant sprinkles.
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
As for-profit businesses, none of these experiential museums qualify as a museum in
'They're using the word 'museum' as an asset, in essence, to support their form of experiential commerce,' said Elizabeth Merritt, vice president for strategic foresight at the American Alliance of Museums. She added that for-profits can 'provide the experience without taking on any of the potential associated costs.'
Dismissed by some in the art world as '
museums have gained a toehold in cities such as Boston, where an
'You have cheap rent and big spaces in tourism hubs,' said Brendan Ciecko, founder of Cuseum, a technology firm that assists museums and other cultural venues with visitor engagement. The combination 'fills the space and generates revenue,' he added. 'It's very rinse and repeat.'
At WNDR's Boston outpost (the company also has venues in Chicago and San Diego) patrons can sip wine in the lounge or as they peruse the screen- and projection-heavy galleries. Situated in what was once an Eddie Bauer store on Washington Street, the museum features a lighted floor that responds to people's footsteps, a wall where visitors can control undulating waves of light, and a 'Wisdom Project' that encourages patrons to share uplifting life lessons on small sheets of paper.
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Like the Museum of Ice Cream, WNDR employs a team of in-house artists and designers to create installations, some of which are featured at WNDR's other locations. The museum also works with individual artists and designers to create interactive displays.
Logan Davison, chief operating officer at WNDR, said the for-profit model enables the venue to be more nimble, 'to kind of experiment in real time.'
'Guests don't want to just see art, they want to experience it, they want to interact with it, they want to create it,' said Davison. 'Traditional museums, they're larger institutions, they have a lot of donor dependent funding, and that allows an opportunity for places like WNDR to really thrive. We can come in, we can pivot, we can challenge the idea of art.'
Visitors leave messages on the wall at the Wisdom Project exhibit at the WNDR Museum.
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
The museum world is taking note of these new cultural venues. The Indianapolis Museum of Art repurposed a floor of exhibition space in 2021 to install immersive galleries. Similarly, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe worked with a projection firm in 2022 to create an immersive show.
'We in museums can learn a lot by seeing what is working and what isn't working in terms of how we can think about storytelling in the 21st century,' said Liz Neely, curator of digital experience at the O'Keeffe museum. 'How are we thinking about learning differently in a digital storytelling age?'
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The AAM's Merritt said that some not-for-profit museums struggle with finances because they offer cost-intensive services that benefit the public, such as educational programs or free admission for schoolchildren.
'It's always going to be easier to make a profit by jettisoning all those public goods,' she said. The question is whether 'for-profit organizations are basically creating similar experiences but ditching the additional responsibilities' and 'impeding the ability of museums to do similar things and support their mission.'
Davison said WNDR's competition isn't confined merely to traditional museums.
'I view our competition as anyone who can engage a guest in anything,' he said, listing everything from baseball games to aquariums and Disney parks. 'Anyone is a competitor in the immersive entertainment space, and a museum, while they may not consider themselves to be an immersive entertainment, I would challenge that and say they absolutely are. They are providing an entertainment experience.'
He added that WNDR's Chicago location is set to open a revamped lounge and gift shop, turning it into an immersive hospitality and retail experience.
'The entire space is going to become kind of your your nostalgic summer camp,' he said, 'trees and a waterfall, a giant Airstream where we're serving food and drink, and retail that's integrated with the environment.'
Cofounder Manish Vora called the Museum of Ice Cream 'one of the most social media'd venues in the world.'
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
The Museum of Ice Cream has also sought to extend its brand beyond the experience economy, creating limited ice cream runs and a line of children's clothing with Target in 2018.
Vora, who described the MOIC as 'one of the most social media'd venues in the world,' called the experiential museums 'additive' to the cultural sector.
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'At the end of the day, we're a hospitality-driven experience,' said Vora, who likened the MOIC to attractions such as an arcade or bowling alley. 'We're equal parts amusement and ice cream extravaganza and tasting world as we are museum.'
Either way, the model appears to be working. WNDR's Boston location, which opened in early 2024, recently announced that it sold more than 300,000 tickets in its first year. Vora declined to provide specific visitor statistics for the MOIC, saying 'we've had millions of visitors through the door.'
'We also have ideas to expand and create new concepts and experiences' beyond ice cream, Vora said. 'The staying power of our brand is that you're creating memories.'
Critically, visitors are also documenting those memories on social media.
'That's the consumer behavior for everything,' he said. 'If you go to the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa, that's actually an Instagram moment.'
Malcolm Gay can be reached at
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