PHILADELPHIA—For the Philadelphia Museum of Art, organizing "Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens" at the Venice Biennale could pay off in ways beyond the exhibition’s great success, capped by its winning of the prestigious Golden Lion award. The Nauman show has allowed the museum to stake a claim in an area in which it is growing but not necessarily well-known: contemporary art.

The hope is that the exhibition, a thematic survey comprising four decades of the artist’s work, will build the museum’s contemporary-art collection and also help raise money for new contemporary-art galleries in Frank Gehry's expansion and the reworking of the main building. And as the museum takes the final steps to find a new director to replace Anne d'Harnoncourt, who died a year ago, her successor may be in a stronger position to make a persuasive case to potential funders of that expansion. The museum is also hoping its Venice triumph will increase its chances of augmenting its collection of Nauman works, given its strengthened relationship with the artist.

Read more at the Philadelphia Inquirer.