After 87 years of operation, Philadelphia's premier visual arts institution has officially changed its name from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to simply the Philadelphia Art Museum. The rebranding, announced Wednesday, also introduces a shorter sub-brand "PhAM" and a new website URL visitpham.org, signaling what the museum's head marketer Paul Dien calls "not your grandfather's art museum."
The name change is part of a comprehensive 18-month rebranding effort aimed at making the encyclopedic art museum more accessible and reviving weak attendance numbers that have plagued the institution with operating deficits for several years. The museum has modernized its typography on signage and materials with bold designs, adopted less formal and even irreverent language in advertising, and implemented a fashion makeover for museum guards to appear more inviting rather than intimidating.
"I think at the end of the day, what we're trying to do is drive attendance – you know, keep the doors open," said Dien, the museum's chief marketing officer. "We have so much research that shows there is this brand perception that we're the castle on the hill. And so my job right now is [to ask], How do we come down the steps and meet people where they're at?" Museum Director and CEO Sasha Suda expressed confidence that the rebranding will "bring people in and help put us more clearly on the map."
The changes extend beyond visual aesthetics into programming and partnerships. The museum is increasingly embracing sports and pop culture with a distinctly Philadelphia flavor, forming partnerships with sports figures like Saquon Barkley and Malcolm Jenkins. Discussions are currently underway with the Roots hip-hop band to become artist-in-residence. "It's so part of their mystique as a band, the Philly love," Dien explained. The museum's Friday night performance series – the only day doors remain open past 5 p.m. – will soon launch a DJ-in-residence program featuring playlists inspired by the art collection.
Perhaps most notably, the nearly 150-year-old institution is embracing an aspect of its identity it never sought but sometimes rejected: its association with the Rocky statue. The museum is organizing a sports-themed exhibition that will include the famous statue, curated by Paul M. Farber, host and creator of "The Statue" podcast. "It's really inspired by Paul's podcast," said Suda, "which to me is a nod to how galvanizing that sculpture is in bringing people together in their hardships. It's about that grittiness. It's about that resilience that people have, which is embodied by the sculpture of Rocky."
The upcoming exhibition, expected to open in 2026, may even include a painting by Sylvester Stallone himself and represents part of an ongoing relationship the museum has been cultivating with the actor. "As a marketer, I see it as someone who will reach new audiences, someone who has a massive platform," Dien noted. "I think what we're trying to do is say, 'Hey, this is part of our DNA and it's also part of the DNA of Philly, and why do we want to shy away from that, right?'"
The rebranding efforts come as the museum struggles with attendance recovery following the pandemic. A decade ago, then-director Timothy Rub set a goal to reach an average of one million annual visitors within five years – a target the museum remains far from achieving. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, paid and nonpaid attendance reached 672,484, still well short of the pre-pandemic level of 773,511 from the last full year before COVID-19.
The attendance forecast for this year projects a slight increase to 731,000 visitors, but the museum continues to face financial challenges with an expected deficit of around $2 million on a $62 million budget, according to Suda. These financial constraints have delayed other projects, including plans for the Perelman annex across the street – an impressive Art Deco structure that closed to the public during the pandemic and never reopened. "That's a bit of a dream. It's on the horizon line until we've tackled this deficit and really feel like we have the plan in place for the next five years," Suda acknowledged.
The Philadelphia museum's attendance struggles reflect broader industry challenges. According to a forthcoming survey by the American Alliance of Museums drawing data from 511 museums (including 98 art museums), slightly more than half (55%) of U.S. museums have not recovered their pre-pandemic attendance numbers. Dien noted that "tourism numbers have been down this year in ways that we weren't anticipating," while Suda specifically mentioned that visitorship from New York has not rebounded, adding "That is a code I would love to crack."
To address these challenges, the museum is focusing heavily on the local market. A new billboard campaign specifically mentions Philadelphia neighborhoods like Fishtown and South Philadelphia, while fonts for museum signs draw inspiration from old Philadelphia signage. The emphasis on Philadelphia identity extends to the new logo, which resurrects the griffin image from the sculptural elements adorning the museum's roofline.
The logo redesign transforms the previously thin, elegant typeface (where "Art" appeared larger than other words) into what resembles a coin, with the new name circling the edge and the griffin centered. Design Director Luis Bravo explained that extensive testing revealed "the Philadelphia Museum of Art felt a little bit formal and maybe a little bit out of step with the colloquial way that people speak about us." The museum isn't legally changing its name, which it adopted in 1938, but rather its consumer-facing identity.
The new branding system was designed specifically for the digital age, with social media, video, and motion graphics in mind. "Given the media landscape and kind of the avalanche of content, as a marketer, I have three seconds to capture someone's attention. And so the current systems were just not made for the digital age," Dien explained. The new website even includes interactive Easter eggs, such as a version of the logo whose words spin when users hover over it.
The rollout of the new visual identity will be phased in over the coming months, with the first exhibition marketed under the rebrand being "Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100," opening November 7. While the show previously appeared in Europe, the Philadelphia version will feature nearly 40 works from the museum's own collection, infusing it with local character. "It's another indicator that the Philadelphia Art Museum is of Philadelphia, of this place," Suda concluded. "But we're playing for the world, and we're of the world."
