The Future of the Art World:
38 Dialogues
by András Szántó
Surveying the wider ecosystem in which art museums operate.
About the Book
Conversations with artists, curators, sociologists, philosophers, patrons, policymakers, and leading figures in the art trade assess the changing playing field on which art institutions operate. The dialogues explore different facets of the art world—from new definitions of art and creativity, to the outlooks for the art market and the art press, to links between art and wellness, to questions around globalization, philanthropy, restitution, cultural diplomacy, and new business models and technologies. Several conversations map rapidly evolving regional art scenes. The dialogues capture an art world in flux, posing new challenges for museums as they chart a path to the future.
38 dialogues with art leaders and experts in 17 countries.
Previous editions in the series investigated the “software” and the “hardware,” respectively, of the art museum, in dialogue with museum directors and architects. But institutions don’t exist in a vacuum. They must constantly adapt to an ever-changing environment. Panoramic in range, the conversations capture an art world that is larger, more globally dispersed, and commercially driven than ever. A key question explored in the book is whether today’s system can adapt through incremental changes or if the art world may be approaching a more fundamental, paradigmatic realignment.
REFIK ANADOL
Artist
ALBERT-LÁSZLÓ BARABÁSI
Artist and Director of the Center for Network Science at Northeastern University
ANA BRZEZIŃSKA
XR Curator and Creative Producer
LARISSA BUCHHOLZ
Professor at Northwestern University and Faculty Fellow at the Critical Realism Network at Yale University
DIANA CAMPBELL
Founding Artistic Director of the Samdani Art Foundation & Head of Global Initiatives at the Hartwig Art Foundation
JOSHUA CITARELLA
Creator of online platform Do Not Research
MICHAEL CONNOR
Executive Director of Rhizome
JONATHAN CROCKETT
Chairman for Asia at Phillips
MARCELLO DANTAS
Director of SFER IK Museion in Tulum, Mexico
SIMON DENNY
Artist and Professor for Time-Based Media at the HFBK Hamburg
OPHELIA DEROY
Professor of Philosophy and Neuroscience at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich
SOULEYMANE BACHIR DIAGNE
Professor of French and Romance Philology and Director of the Institute of African Studies, Columbia University
LÉULI ESHRĀGHI
Curator of Indigenous Practices at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal
THOMAS GIRST
Head of Cultural Engagement BMW Group
Creativity
HOLLY HERNDON & MATHEW DRYHURST
Artists
NOAH HOROWITZ
CEO of Art Basel
ISAAC JULIEN
Artist & Professor of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE
Artist
MONA KHAZINDAR
Curator
AGNIESZKA KURANT
Artist
JOSÉ KURI
Galley Director, Kurimanzutto
PABLO LEÓN DE LA BARRA
Curator At Large, Latin America at Guggenheim
SYLVAIN LEVY
Collector, DSL Collection
MIA LOCKS
Executive Director Museums Moving Forward
CAROL YINGHUA LU
Director of Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum
MIRANDA MASSIE
Director and Founder of the Climate Museum
ATSUKO NINAGAWA
Founder of Take Ninagawa Gallery and Co-Founder Director of Art Week Tokyo
African Models
TOKINI PETERSIDE-SCHWEBIG
Founder of ART X Lagos
YORAM ROTH
Chairman of Fotografiska
ALAIN SERVAIS
Collector, Servais Family Collection
MARC SPIEGLER
Journalist and art consultant
CALUM SUTTON
Founder & CEO at SUTTON
SHEIKHA AL-MAYASSA BINT HAMAD BIN KHALIFA
AL THANI
Chairperson of Qatar Museums
FATOŞ ÜSTEK
Co-Founder FRANK Fair Artist Pay
OLAV VELTHUIS
Professor at the Department of Sociology of the University of Amsterdam
GE WANG
Professor at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University
MARIËT WESTERMANN
CEO and Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation
DUSTIN YELLIN
Artist, Founder and Director of Pioneer Works
Events
Paris Book Launch — October 23, 2025 — Art Week Paris
Reception Party, Museo Kaluz — November 10, 2025 — Mexico City
Bass Museum Panel — December 4, 2025 — Miami Art Week
Art Basel Conversations — December 5, 2025 — Miami Art Week
New York Launch — November 2025 — Details forthcoming
Press
Want To Know the Future of the Art World? This Book Has You Covered
In a recent review, Sarah Douglas for ARTnews highlights András Szántó’s The Future of the Art World as a sweeping exploration of the cultural ecosystem through 38 dialogues with artists, curators, collectors, technologists, and other leading voices. Published by Hatje Cantz, the book extends the inquiry begun with The Future of the Museum (2020) and Imagining the Future Museum (2022), tracing how art and its institutions are adapting to new technologies, values, and global dynamics. The ARTnews piece praises the book’s ability to reveal a field in transformation—one that remains, in Szántó’s words, “endlessly inventive, self-reflective, and globally entangled.” Read More call_made
András Szántó on hube: “No Such Thing as a Neutral Space”
In conversation with Isabella Miceli from hube magazine, Szántó shares his perspectives, ambitions, and concerns about the evolving role of cultural institutions in a rapidly changing world. Read More call_made
The Future of the Art World di András Szántó
In this interview with Giuseppe Simone Modeo for Collezione da Tiffany, conducted on the occasion of the launch of his new book The Future of the Art World, András Szántó discusses how collectors can assess emerging artists, the evolving frameworks for acquiring AI-based artworks, and how foundations and institutions can remain mission-driven within an ever-changing cultural ecosystem. Read More call_made
“What the dialogues in this book and the two sets of published conversations that preceded it describe, from many different angles, is a field-wide shift in values. And what matters is whether art world actors can translate the new mindset into genuinely meaningful actions, because such a systemic reinvention is widely seen as the guarantor of long-term cultural relevance, organizational resilience, and public support.”
–András Szántó
