Gift Shop Plus Summer 2024

Playful Artistry: The Unemployed Philosophers Guild’s Art Collection By Carly McFadden

Great art should be celebrated.

Such is the thought process behind The Unemployed Philosophers Guild’s Art Collection, which brings art history to life in an endearing, quirky manner.

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild was founded in the 1990s by two brothers with a tremendous passion for the arts, education and social sciences. Three decades later, the Brooklyn, New York-based team is composed of 11 people, many of whom possess degrees in art history.

“All of us come to the table with our own unique passions and our own affiliations,” said Trudi Bartow, sales director at The Unemployed Philosophers Guild. “We sit around the table once a week, and we sort of just brainstorm for an hour. Sometimes there’s a lot of silence, and sometimes there’s just so much excitement that everyone gets really worked up and high strung because it’s so great to be around that table.”

The company’s products span many intellectual subjects such as natural science, history, pop culture and literature. But its Art Collection remains a bestselling line for specialty boutiques and museum gift shops.

Within the line is a diverse array of artsy giftables, including painting kits, soaps, pins, secular saint candles and plush. These products connect directly to an artist or piece of art — think a Frida Kahlo zipper bags or “Scream” sticky notes.

Undoubtedly, customers gravitate toward products that celebrate a specific artist, and the company sees that interest resonate across all product categories.

“If you see a personality in multiple categories — Are they a mug? Are they a sticky note? Are they a pencil set? — that’s how you know people are responding well, because obviously we wouldn’t keep putting them in different categories if they weren’t successful, and we sell these products everywhere,” Bartow said.

Other bestsellers include the Brief History of Art Mug and “magnetic personalities,” the all-in-one magnet and finger puppets, which come in characters such as Michelangelo and Tsuguharu Foujita.

“They have a magnet in the back of their head, so they stick to lockers, refrigerators, filing cabinets,” Bartow said. “We love our Van Gogh. We love our Andy Warhol, always in a great red jacket. We love our Frida Kahlo. Our designer who creates our puppets is able to really work on the detail of their eyes, their expression, little clothing details, so that they just feel fun. When you leave a museum exhibition, they’re what you want to pick up from the shop and take home with you as your gifts.”

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild is launching pencil sets in themes of various art movements. Like all of the company’s products, Bartow said extensive research came into play to determine the artwork featured within each set.

“One of them is called impressionists, and one of them is called modernists,” Bartow explained. “Each one features the artwork of six different artists within those movements. How do we pick those artists? Well, that’s the research — who’s being featured, who’s being talked about, what’s the cultural zeitgeist — really putting all that out there.”

The company is a member of the Museum Store Association, which has provided invaluable feedback on customer preferences, interests and upcoming exhibitions.

“We’ve been members for ages and ages,” Bartow said. “It’s a really brilliant organization that brings together all these different museums for buyers to talk about what sells, what are people featuring, what are people asking for, what is the curated experience, and we really try to listen to that feedback. We don’t want to make something sort of that’s so niche that nobody wants it. Obviously, we want products that are commercially successful for both our wholesale customers, and are fun and exciting for the end user of the product. So we have to really listen to the feedback. We have to see not only what exhibitions are happening right now, but also what’s happening in 2025 and 2026. So that’s really where we draw a lot of inspiration.”

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild’s main goal with its Art Collection is to celebrate the art and artists that have shaped society past and present. Its small but mighty team places weight on the education aspect of its line while also creating a product that prompts a smile or laugh.

“We’re not just taking a piece of a painting and putting it on a mug — anyone can do that,” Bartow said. “We try to reimagine that piece or that emotion, and we try to create something fun with it. We try to educate, we always try to make sure the artist or painting is listed. We try to create a whole experience around it, so we’re uplifting and celebrating what is already pretty spectacular in the existing artwork.”