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The Philadelphia Art Museum is dead. Long live the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The PMA announced Wednesday it is reverting to its original name after four months of turmoil triggered by a rebranding. In October, the museum became the more colloquial Philadelphia Art Museum, accompanied by a new logo of a bold black-and-white griffin inside a circular medallion.
Director and CEO Daniel Weiss announced the name will go back to the “beloved” Philadelphia Museum of Art, but that the new griffin logo will remain.
“Every rebrand, of some sort or another, often can be controversial. This one was more than just controversial. I think it was problematic,” Weiss said. “It didn’t resonate with our staff, our trustees, our members and our supporters in ways that felt right to us.”
Weiss said the museum did a series of surveys with stakeholders to identify why the rebrand was not resonating, then adjusted accordingly: tossing the name change while retaining the font and graphics.
“Dan and the entire team have quickly and importantly found a way to embrace the heritage of the museum, and provide a platform to widen our audience,” Ellen Caplan, board chair, said in a statement.
The original rebrand cost “north of $1 million,” according to Weiss, and the fix was about $50,000.
“We wanted to solve the problem and represent the museum in a way that we are pleased with cost-effectively,” Weiss said. “We did not want to put a lot of resources into this.”