Cultural Spaces for New Audiences

Amy Kaufman, Lord Cultural Resources Cr e a t in g Cu lt u r a l Ca pit a l

Table of Contents

• Changing Demographics and Behavior • Institutional Change • Design Implications

Interior, British Museum

, London Photo: fourmthree 10 Apr 2006/http://www.flickr.com/photos/51462625@N00/126331906/http://w ww.flickr.com/photos/51462625@N00/126331906/

The Louvre

, Paris Photo: Gregory Bastien 21 June 2008/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregory_bastien/2598585324/

It’s a New World

Technology was only the beginning… • New audiences, behaving in new ways • Funders are demanding real impact on "real people" • Budgets have been cut 10%-30% • Expansions and new buildings on hold Museums are responding: • Emphasis on social engagement through relevant and interdisciplinary programming • New models for collection building and storage • New approaches to space

Changing Demographics

The Changing Face of America - 2034

Aging Baby Boomers Acceleration of Minority Populations More Working Mothers

Photo: Walt Jabsco/Picassa Photo: Karen Banez/Picassa http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q

=old%20active%20couple&psc=G&filt er=1#5264346987601400226

20% of the population will be 65+ 46% of the population will be minorities Women get married and have kids later in life

No Average American

Diversity Aging Internet Multicultural Multigenerational Special Interest Groups

An Emerging Core Audience: Young Cosmopolitans

YoCos, young cosmopolitans, are turning modern and contemporary art institutions into hubs of social activity. • 65% of all YoCos participated in cultural activities last year (vs. 35% of the general population) • 36% visited museums (6.1 million) • YoCos are: • • • Digital Event driven Fundamentally social • Guided by word of mouth • Living in apartments – social activity is focused outside the home Photo: Larry Williams/Picassa

Core Audiences are Evolving

Changing Behavior

Activity Clustering

Activities Must Deliver More Than Ever Before:

Offer “Bang for your Buck” Be worth their Time

Photo: Royalty-Free/Corbin/Picassa

Allow people to “Make a Day of It” (Clustering)

Attendance Rising at Active Museums Types

Visitors are seeking out active, participatory, family friendly experiences.

Median Attendance

Science or Tech Museum Living Collections* Children’s or Youth Museum Natural History or Anthropology Art Museum General Museum Overall Average Specialized Museum Historic Home or Site History Museum

2009

357,103 208,574 130,870 58,176 44,878 58,500 26,500 22,000 11,700 10,000 *In 2009, AAM consolidated Zoos/Aquariums, Arboretum/Botanic Gardens and Nature Centers into one category called “Living Collections”

Audiences Trending toward Locals

Tourism is down, but local attendance is projected to increase.

• 28% of respondents to a recent national study expect to increase attendance at museums in the next 6 months (66% expect to remain the same) 1 • 7 out of 10 looking for: convenient schedule, discounted programs, free events and exhibitions • Attracting repeat visits will become more important than ever before • 35% of surveyed museums in the UK have seen an increase in visitors, with many reporting record figures 2 1 LaPlaca Cohen/AMS forthcoming study 2 The Art Fund, “Culture Crunch? The Art Fund Museum Survey – Sept 2008 – March 2009

New Modes of Communication

Visitors are regularly using new technologies.

• Walker Center “Art on Call” • Cell phone tour • Web with 2.0

• MP3 podcasts • The visitor experience now starts at home – or on a PDA • Almost half of ticketing projected to be done online Photo: Fire Monkey Fish 29 Oct 2004/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmewuji/1136537/

Institutional Change

“The museum is like a living, cultural being. It’s an active space, a thinking space.”

Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator of Contemporary Art, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

From Aggregating to Civil Society Institutions

Emphasis on Collections Emphasis on Programming Photo: Craig Stevens 19 Jan 2009 http://www.flickr.com/photos/beantown/3209643011/ Photo: Walters Art Museum 7 July 2009/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/walters-art-museum/3697505361/

Social Engagement as the Primary Driver

Museums are promoting the social context as integral to the experience.

• Centre Pompidou - a complete multifaceted experience • Orange County Museum of Art - Orange Lounge, a multimedia space that targets youth • Museums in general - prime sources for building “social capital” •Harvard Business School Alumni – The Contemporaries •Art Circle – 10 New York arts groups •Young Professionals of Milwaukee – Art Mob

Art Production as Part of the Experience

Museums are increasingly taking on the role of studio and lab to integrate production into the visitor experience. • Museum of Art and Design, New York • Greene Family Learning Gallery, High Museum, Atlanta Photo: bittermelon 2 July 2008/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bittermelon/26328 12256/in/photostream/ Photo: http://www.madmuseum.org/DO/ Open%20Studios.aspx

Focusing on the Community

Community centric initiatives are being rewarded through increased visitation and greater impact. • Brooklyn Museum has reached out to its immediate community by: • • • Welcoming everyone Producing social and family programming – Target First Saturdays Taking in travelling blockbusters • • Reimagining permanent collection Creating a point of differentiation: The Sackler Center for Feminist Art • NOMA saw record attendance at the Rodrigue “Blue Dog” exhibition which dealt with Hurricane Katrina and incorporated social events.

Partnerships & Alliances

Museums are leveraging partnerships and alliances in new ways to.

• The Mori in Tokyo admits visitors to the mixed use development for free • Munch and Stenersen are co-locating to tell a bigger story • Space carved out in Federal Hall for partnership with NYC & Co.

Mori Tower, Tokyo

Photo: s.yume/ 11 Sept 2009/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/syume/3911042876/in/photostream

Interdisciplinary Endeavors

Cultural institutions are blurring boundaries and emerging as catalysts of interdisciplinary investigation.

• The Lab at Belmar –Mixed Tastes: Tag Team Lectures on Unrelated Topics (Marxism and Kittens, Silent Films and Counterfeit Currency, Tamales and Literary Memoirs, Walt Whitman and Whole Hog Cooking), Spoken word and musical performances • Le Laboratorie – Collaborations and innovation in Art Science • Works & Process at the Guggenheim

Visitor Curated Content

Museums are forging deeper relationships with visitors by allowing them to drive narrative.

• MoMA: “unauthorized” podcast has led to visitor clips posted on website • Musetrek – Web 2.0 application for PDAs currently in testing at the Louvre •My Collection – Acoustiguide and HP technology, allows collection items to be bookmarked and downloaded after tour Photo: http://www.musetrek.com/

Implications for Design

Beyond Galleries and Lobbies

• Active experiences • Welcoming for both savvy and first time visitors • Providing for both formal and informal education • Displaying collection in new ways • Maximum flexibility • Comfortable for all ages • Setting the scene for social interaction • Lobbies – less ticketing, more service?

Campuses and Mixed-Use Environments

Institutions continue to link in cultural clusters to attract a critical mass of local and tourists.

• Dallas Cultural District • Galicia’s City of Culture • Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island

Wyly Center, Dallas Arts District

Photo: Iwan Bann/ New York Times

Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

Photo: Abu Dhabi Tourism Development and Investment Corporation

Transparency and Permeability

There is a deliberate movement away from imposing “institutional” buildings to create places of meaning and community. • Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati • Brooklyn Museum, New York •Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn

Photo: Joe Architect/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/joearchitect/2673291934/

Back of House Moves to the Front

Institutions are leveraging all their activities to provide a more robust visitor experience. • California Academy of Sciences • Chicago Botanic Garden • Lunder Center, Smithsonian Museum of American Art

California Academy of Sciences

Larger, Flexible Volumes

Kind Abdulaziz Center for Knowledge and Culture, Dharan, Saudi Arabia

Institutions are preparing to deliver new and unexpected forms of exhibitions and performance. • Park Avenue Armory, New York •National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC • King Abdulaziz Center for Knowledge and Culture, Dharan, Saudi Arabia

Ernesto Neto “Anthropodino”, Park Avenue Armory

Photo: www.armoryonpark.org

Social Spaces

Social spaces are no longer an afterthought.

• Orange Lounge, Orange County Museum of Art • Y2K Lounge, Rubin Museum of Art, New York • SFMoMA, Sculpture Garden and Café •Children’s Museum of Manhattan

Y2K Lounge, Rubin Museum of Art, New York

Photo: Chang Lee/ The New York Times

Visible Storage

Collections are being made accessible and helping visitors to understand the challenges and possibilities of curatorial work. • University of Michigan Art Museum, Ann Arbor • Brooklyn Museum, New York • Darwin Center, London

New York Historical Society, New York

Education Centers and “Hot-Spots”

As museums serve increasingly diverse audiences formal and informal learning spaces are becoming “must haves.” • Education Center at the New Museum, New York: Museum as Hub, Resource Center • ICA, Boston: Mediatheque • Denver Art Museum: hotspots •California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco: Naturalist Center and learning stations

Mediateque Center Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

Photos: Franchphotos/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankphotos/2797696288

/

Project Spaces and Artists in Residence

Project spaces and artist studios are now planned rather than adapted by curators in need of flexible space.

• Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego • Park Avenue Armory, New York • August Wilson Center, Pennsylvania

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

Photo: Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

Retooling Existing Spaces

Museums are reconsidering plans to expand and opting to reconfigure existing space.

San Jose Art Museum, California

Grouping, Regrouping and Getting Comfortable

Cultural spaces are not known for comfort. Visitors rarely arrive at urban cultural institutions feeling composed. • Driving destinations are simpler and even allow people to be processed in their cars.

• The new Brooklyn Museum entrance provides outdoor seating, space to breathe and group, public restrooms, coat check, and NO pressure to hurry through and buy a ticket.

Interior Brooklyn Museum, New York

Photo: Tommaync 11 May 2008/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/perke/368141117/

Universal Design and Access

As active Boomers age and intergenerational visitation increases, universal access will become critical - and expected.

Following ADA guidelines may not be enough. Are there perfect examples of universally accessible cultural spaces?

• Newseum

Newseum, Washington D.C.

Photo: Afagen 10 Dec 2007 http://www.flickr.com/photos/afagen/2101181909/

Changes in Demographics

Design Implications

Changes in Behavior Changes in Institutions