The

BetterWall

founders have a background in research and curatorship from two major art museums and have a background of environmental consulting. Combining these passions, their experience led to the formation of

Better Wall

7 years ago.

BetterWall understands and appreciates the important role that art and good design play in making life more fulfilling and enjoyable. They also recognize that communities are stewards of the environment. They integrated their passions for art, design, and the environment into a program for museums called the Recycle and Reuse Program.

Better Wall identified that authentic

museum street banners

used to advertise exhibitions at art museums and galleries were discarded after they had been used. Beautifully designed and featuring the exquisite artwork from the exhibition, these design pieces were being consigned to the dumper truck.

BetterWall

saw a way that the banners could be recycled as artwork to the public, resolve the problem of disposal for the museums, and plough the profits back into the museums as a fundraiser.

It is standard practice, when a museum launches a new exhibition, for lampposts and buildings to be heavily adorned with vinyl signage heralding the show. Vinyl is versatile, weatherproof, well suited for colour printing, and of course, incredibly unfriendly to the earth. To make matters worse, these signs are as temporary as the exhibits they publicize, and are produced in quantities too small to qualify for the threshold of municipal recycling services leaving a costly job for the museums or the option of using landfill for disposal.

BetterWall decided to refurbish the banners and offer them to the public so they could make a dramatic statement in the home. All banners are naturally limited edition and it is a great way to raise funds for the museums and allows individuals to own a great piece of authentic artwork. Banners are the real thing having lived a previous life hanging from museums facades or street lamps. They are two sided and made of either vinyl or heavy canvas. All banners are carefully cleaned and stored in keeping with appropriate archival protocol and each comes with a certificate of authenticity.

You can choose

banners from exhibitions

held in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore, Chicago, LA, Denver, and Sacramento. Some of the available banners include Warhol’s self-portrait from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Bronzino Renaissance Portrait from The Art Institute of Chicago; Edvard Munch Angst from The Museum of Modern Art. Upcoming banners include Paul Cezanne, Diego Rivera, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Gauguin.

Banners as Art

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is celebrated for his posters depicting Parisian nightlife and theatre at the turn of the last century. His posters were produced as advertisements meant to attract the public to various shows and events. They were intended for limited time use, to be discarded after having served their purpose. Today, an original Toulouse-Lautrec poster can sell for upwards of $170,000!

Just as Toulouse-Lautrec captured the essence of the commercial landscape of 19th-century Paris in his poster art,

BetterWall banners

capture the world of contemporary museum promotions. Intended to inform and entice, the banners are similar in format, medium, and purpose, yet each is unique.

Now for the first time, you can own

limited-run museum banners

that take advertising art to a new level. Not only do these banners feature some of the most famous works of art in the world, they also combine a large format and contemporary materials with text, colours, graphics, and layouts that reflect today’s aesthetics.

You will not find any other banners from these museums sold anywhere else because

BetterWall

have made special arrangements with museums to sell their banners through BetterWall, and have secured the rights to sell these banners to the public. All banners are limited production runs from specific exhibitions and venues and cannot be reproduced.

What a very satisfying prospect

owning a museum banner

– a rare piece of art for your wall, support for the arts and a creative way toward eco-friendly responsible design.

Museum Banner Refurbishment

All banners are in excellent condition with no rips, tears, fading or large blemishes. Minor surface blemishes or other slight signs of wear do not detract from the beauty of the images and add to the banners’ value and authentic charm. Some banners have wind-slits, small half-moon shaped cuts that allow the banners to withstand high wind without ripping.

All banners are carefully cleaned and stored in keeping with appropriate archival protocol. Each banner comes with a certificate of authenticity.

When you purchase a banner through

BetterWall

, a percentage of the proceeds go back to the museum. It is a great way to do your part to advance good design, support the arts, and make a statement that makes a difference!

Recycle & Reuse Program for Museums™

With funding sources dwindling, museums today are constantly seeking new sources of revenue. As businesses and conscientious members of their communities, they are also exploring eco-friendly “green” practices that can benefit the environment and reduce waste. Museums achieve all of these goals simultaneously through

BetterWall

‘s Recycle and Reuse Program™.

BetterWall collaborates with museums to help them reduce waste by keeping tons of

vinyl banners

out of landfills each year. We also help them generate valuable financial support to strengthen their collections, operations, exhibitions, and programs.

BetterWall Philosophy

Art collectors recommend that when you purchase art you choose what you like. Not all of us can afford the resources to own a Monet, Chagall, or Rembrandt.

Better Wall

believe that owning “art” should not merely be a matter of resources, but also a matter of taste. At BetterWall, they help you to get closer to the work of artists and museums you love in a format that is unique, dramatic, and exclusive.

People everywhere are discovering how gorgeous these

museum street banners

look in their big city lofts and small town bungalows; bedrooms and great rooms; hip restaurants and trendy offices. The fact that the spectacular art on their walls once hung along the city streets makes the banners real conversation pieces.

Visiting museums is truly an important and enriching experience, and museums deserve support so they can continue to fulfil their important roles. As a portal to the arts, museums allow all of us to access and enjoy a wide array of collections and exhibitions. Whether you live in the city, the country, at the beach, or in the mountains, if you care about how things look and how your individual actions influences our world, you share in

Better Wall

‘s philosophy.

Establishing a mutually beneficial arrangement between institutions and individuals means the museum continues to exhibit and hold in perpetuity art for future generations and visiting exhibitions. Individuals can buy a unique authentic piece of art that becomes a historical stakeholder and costs far less than an original but with the appeal of a limited edition piece and finally the museums reduce their landfill waste

People everywhere are discovering how gorgeous these museum street banners look in their big city lofts and small town bungalows; bedrooms and great rooms; hip restaurants and trendy offices. The fact that the spectacular art on their walls once hung along the city streets makes the banners real conversation pieces.

Better Wall

partners with 33 art museums to sell their

used street banners

that promoted art exhibitions to people to hang in their homes as limited-edition wall art.

The bloggers, artists and graphic designers are loving this website and its simple but effective graphics, ease of navigation and slide show of banners makes it an appealing site to browse around. They involve the end user with interesting blog topics and lots of latest news and forthcoming banners available from exhibitions. The owners enthusiasm leaps off the page and there is a lot of newsy topics and items from the art world that make this an interesting place to visit. Whether or not these products are affordable is a moot point. They are very affordable if you cannot afford the original Renoir or Warhol but are more likely in the league of a wedding gift or special indulgence for most people. Very much an object of desire, they appear on a lot of blogger’s wish lists and there is a lot of buzz on the internet about the business. That they have been established for seven years makes them BetterWall credible and with a business model that is beneficial to everyone in the process chain, it looks as if it will be here to stay. There is no doubt that in time these pieces of wall art will become iconic and gain value. We can only hope this idea is taken up by other museums worldwide and at this rate

museum art banners

will become a genre in their own right.