Some come with free luxury housing, or first-class travel, or an allowance for social clubs, as long as business is involved. Many come with deferred compensation and other benefits that can push annual earnings past the $1 million mark. The challenges nonprofit arts organizations have been facing, particularly since the pandemic, have made the job of running one increasingly complex. Those difficulties have also drawn more scrutiny to pay and expenditures, and many arts executives took pay cuts during the pandemic. So what do the leaders of some of the most prominent arts institutions in the nation make?
Here’s a look at their pay and benefits, as drawn from recent tax filings.
Museum of Modern Art
Director’s compensation: $2 million
Reported perks included: The director received health club dues and a rent-free luxury apartment in the tower above the museum.
Institution’s total spending: $248 million
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Director-CEO’s compensation: $1.9 million
Reported perks included: The director-CEO received a housing allowance.
Institution’s total spending: $98 million
Metropolitan Opera
General Manager’s compensation: $1.8 million
Reported perks included: The general manager received a car and driver, a life insurance policy and some first-class travel if business related.
Institution’s total spending: $315 million
New York Philharmonic
President-CEO’s compensation: $1.6 million
Institution’s total spending: $74 million
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Director’s compensation: $1.6 million
Institution’s total spending: $62 million
American Museum of Natural History
President’s compensation: $1.6 million
Reported perks included: The president received free housing in a luxury apartment owned by the museum and the payment of life insurance premiums. (The figures date from the museum’s 2021 return because the 2022 filing, which showed its departing president, Ellen Futter, received an $11.9 million package, was anomalous in that the package included $10.7 million in deferred retirement income earned over 28 years.)
Institution’s total spending: $189 million
Carnegie Hall
Executive-Artistic Director’s compensation: $1.6 million
Reported perks included: The artistic director was provided a rent-free apartment for 10 months of the year and took a first-class trip to a business event with a companion.
Institution’s total spending: $101 million
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Director’s compensation: $1.5 million
Reported perks included: The director received a housing allowance and dues for a social club used for business purposes.
Institution’s total spending: $124 million
Lincoln Center
President-CEO’s compensation: $1.5 million
Institution’s total spending: $130 million
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Director’s compensation: $1.4 million
Reported perks included: The director received a housing allowance.
Institution’s total spending: $419 million
The Public Theater
Artistic Director’s compensation: $1.1 million
Reported perks included: The artistic director received payments toward life insurance coverage and upgraded seating is allowed on overnight business flights that take six hours or longer.
Institution’s total spending: $63 million
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Director’s compensation: $1.1 million
Reported perks included: The director received a housing allowance of $50,000, a small companion travel expense and $14,000 in unspecified attorney’s fees.
Institution’s total spending: $134 million
Perelman Performing Arts Center at New York’s World Trade Center
Artistic Director’s compensation: $1.1 million
Reported perks included: The artistic director received a housing allowance.
Institution’s total spending: $27 million
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Director’s compensation: $1.1 million
Institution’s total spending: $85 million
J. Paul Getty Museum
Director’s compensation: $1.1 million
Institution’s total spending: $164 million
Whitney Museum of American Art
Director’s compensation: $1 million
Reported perks included: The director received a housing allowance.
Institution’s total spending: $77 million
Art Institute of Chicago
Museum President’s compensation: $972,000
Reported perks included: For the museum president, some business-related, first-class travel is allowed and club fees are reimbursed to the extent they are used for museum business.
Institution’s total spending: $300 million
The Frick Collection
Director-CEO’s compensation: $883,000
Reported perks included: The director received a housing allowance and travel expenses for his spouse are reimbursed on business trips.
Institution’s total spending: $24 million
Brooklyn Museum
Director’s compensation: $816,000
Institution’s total spending: $55 million
Smithsonian Institution
Secretary’s compensation: $810,000
Institution’s total spending: $1.5 billion
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Director-CEO’s compensation: $796,000
Institution’s total spending: $76 million
Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles
Director’s compensation: $780, 000
Reported perks included: The director received a housing allowance and some first-class travel was allowed when business related.
Institution’s total spending: $21 million
Field Museum of Natural History
President-CEO’s compensation: $778,000
Reported perks included: The president-CEO received payments toward dues for a social club used for museum business and travel benefits for a spouse who is also a museum volunteer.
Institution’s total spending: $73 million
The Shed
Artistic Director-CEO’s compensation: $687,000
Reported perks included: The artistic director received a housing allowance.
Institution’s total spending: $38 million
Dallas Museum of Art
Executive Director’s compensation: $661,000
Reported perks included: The executive director received a housing allowance.
Institution’s total spending: $31 million
Park Avenue Armory
President-Director’s compensation: $624,000
Institution’s total spending: $28 million
Denver Art Museum
Director’s compensation: $599,000
Reported perks included: The director received compensation toward a health club membership.
Institution’s total spending: $50 million
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Artistic Director’s compensation: $567,000
Institution’s total spending: $45 million
Pérez Art Museum Miami
Museum Director’s compensation: $548,000
Institution’s total spending: $18 million
Methodology: This list tracks the total compensation earned by top executives at many of America’s largest cultural organizations as reported on their last publicly available federal tax returns. For most of the organizations, the returns cover the fiscal year ending in June 2022, but a few cover 12-month periods that were earlier or later. In several cases, the listed compensation is for an executive who has since left the institution. In all cases, the figures have been rounded. Organizations that have no perks listed did not report any on their tax return.
The federal tax return records total compensation as a sum of all earnings, including salary, any bonuses, housing allowances or other benefits and any deferred or retirement compensation.
For the Perelman Center, the total expenses were taken from its 2023 operating budget because it had yet to begin full operations during the time covered by its last federal tax return. The compensation figure reflects the artistic director’s earnings from last year (2022). For the Getty Museum, the total expense figure is taken from the annual financial statement of the J. Paul Getty Trust, its parent organization. The Brooklyn Museum said its compensation package had been inflated by the inclusion of back pay that had been cut during the pandemic.
