Pressured to up the female presence in its shows, the Centre Pompidou, in Paris, responded with "elles@centrepompidou," a yearlong exhibition tracing the history of 20th- and 21st-century art through women artists only that opened in May to plenty of buzz and a largely positive critical reaction. But more notable, perhaps, was its reliance on the museum’s permanent collection. As budgets tighten, institutions are "shopping in their closets" to produce quality events while saving millions on shipping and insurance.

"This show has created a different attitude toward the museum," says its curator, Camille Morineau. "People realize that the collection is a living thing, an important, open space for discussion." The Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis, has also drawn from its holdings for "Benches and Binoculars," a lush, salon-style presentation of some of its paintings, and "Event Horizon," which considers artworks in the context of their historical moment. "This idea of a static permanent collection is something we wanted to challenge," explains Darsie Alexander, the Walker’s chief curator.

She notes that this approach goes hand in hand with increased curatorial invitations to outside scholars and artists, on the theory that they can help visitors see familiar material with fresh eyes. It’s a tack the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (mca) is also taking. Its "The one hundred and sixty-third floor: Liam Gillick Curates the Collection," on view through January 10, 2010, is meant to complement Gillick’s traveling retrospective, running concurrently at the mca.

Museums are also building shows around single masterpieces, as in "Monet’s Water Lilies," at the Museum of Modern Art in New York through April 12, 2010. In a variation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art used Vermeers The Milkmaid, borrowed from Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, as the nucleus for a major fall show featuring related works from its permanent collection.

"There’s less money going around — that’s one reason for these shows but not necessarily the only reason," says the Pompidou’s Morineau. "The collection is such an important thing. It’s the heart of the museum."