By popular demand (that is, by Nigel, loudly) the Institute introduces a tiered membership programme. Each level offers a richer relationship with the Institute and a thinner connection to reality.
The Tiers
The Bystander (Free) You look at the gallery. The gallery does not look at you. Includes the right to form opinions, provided you keep them institutional.
The Patron (Aspirational) All the above, plus a warm feeling upon acquiring a work, and the right to say "as a patron of the Institute" at dinner, ruining it.
The Benefactor (Imaginary) All the above, plus your name spoken aloud by Nigel, once, in an empty room, with feeling. A plaque is promised. The plaque is not coming.
The Visionary (Strictly Theoretical) All the above, plus a standing invitation to the Members' Lounge (a hallway), priority coat hook access, and the knowledge that you have given more than was wise.
The Director-General (Filled) This tier is occupied by Nigel and is not available, now or ever. It includes everything, means everything, and costs nothing, because he refuses to pay himself.
How to Join
You may not. Enrolment is closed, conceptual, and faintly insulting by design. The exclusivity is the product. The membership is the absence of membership, beautifully framed.
We thank our patrons across all tiers, who range in number from zero to zero, for their extraordinary generosity.
The Membership Office, gatekeeping a gate that opens onto a hallway