Research Roundup
Date: March 9, 2009
 

Tools for the future:
  • The Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures at the University of Denver hosts the International Futures (IFs) project, a “large-scale, long-term, integrated global modeling system. It represents demographic, economic, energy, agricultural, socio-political, and environmental subsystems for 183 countries interacting in the global system. The central purpose of IFs is to facilitate exploration of global futures through alternative scenarios.”
  • The Spring 2009 issue of h+ Magazine asks “Is the Future Cancelled?”

The near future (and the unsettled present):
  • On March 27-29, 2009, the University of Houston hosts Systems of Sustainability: Art, Innovation, Action. “Part arts festival, part academic symposium, Systems of Sustainability (S.O.S.) looks at creative enterprise as an integral tool for cultural growth and social change. Experience a range of events that showcase innovative practices from local, national, and international participants including prominent artists, researchers, activists, and scholars. The program includes site-specific projects, participatory activities, lectures, scholarly panels, and many opportunities for dialogue.”
  • Portfolio.com offer “13 Signs of the Economic Apocalypse”—which is not as grim as it sounds, as the “signs” actually contain acute observations about changing consumer and cultural trends, from Starbucks’s foray into instant coffee to a 23% jump in public library in Washington, DC.
  • More proof (as if any more proof was needed) that the current economic downturn has had an impact on consumer spending habits. According to a February 2009 survey by BuzzBack Market Research, “Americans are Very Concerned, Have Cut Spending & Say their Lives have been Impacted.” The survey found that 76% of American consumers have cut back, with “the most dramatic cuts coming in eating at restaurants (86%), buying clothing (76%) and attending entertainment events (71%) like movies, concerts and sporting events. 47% said they are spending more time researching items before buying and saving money.” Click here for all the details.
  • Smith Travel Research offers a summary of recent research on the tourism, hospitality and leisure industry. The bottom line is that “after several years of healthy growth, 2009 is expected to be much tougher” for the U.S. tourism industry. One bright spot for museums that primarily attract local visitors is that consumers will be more likely to spend their money on long weekends and “mini-vacations” than extended trips away from home.
  • And two more economy-related surveys: First, according to the Harris Poll, “Half of Americans Believe Economic and Environmental Goals Are Aligned and We Do Not Need To Choose Between Them” (click here for all the details). Second, a survey of the wealthier-than-average (with annual household incomes in excess of $50,000) discovered that Americans in this category “do not expect the newly-approved $787 billion economic stimulus package will improve their personal finances” (click here for all the details, then go back and look at the “13 Signs of the Economic Apocalypse” described above).
  • Finally, on a more optimistic note, Richard Florida (he of “Creative Class”  fame) writes in the Toronto Globe and Mail that “A really new deal would stimulate the economy of the future, not the past.” He argues that infrastructure-driven recovery programs of the New Deal “worked precisely because [they] didn't stimulate that period’s aging agriculture economy. Instead, [they] accelerated the transition to a new economy based on housing, autos and all the products of the industrial assembly line, from refrigerators and washing machines to air conditioners and television sets.” By analogy, stimulus funding in 2009 and beyond should focus on “new, idea-driven industries. They range from software, communication devices and biotechnologies to culture and entertainment—and importantly the convergence of the two.” Read more. 

Social trends, etc.:
  • In “Why Minds Are Not Like Computers” (The New Atlantis, Winter 2009), Ari N. Schulman offers a primer on the analogies (both bad and good) between humans and computers and a discussion of the future of Artificial Intelligence.

Research Reports:
  • The Office of Research & Analysis at National Endowment for the Arts just released a sobering research note on Artists in a Year of Recession: Impact on Jobs in 2008. See the press release and the full report. The news is not good, with artists (including architects and designers, writers, and photographers as well as fine artists and performers of all kinds) facing unemployment at twice the rate of professional workers in general. It’s not clear how many of these artists work for or with museums, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the core museum workforce is also being hit hard by the recession.
  • A new report on arts education in Boston reinforces the importance of museums in K-12 education and the potentially devastating effects of a cut-back in resources for school field trips. See Julia Gittleman and Laura Perille, The Arts Advantage: Expanding Arts Education in the Boston Public Schools (Boston Foundation, Feb. 2009). The report “presents findings from a survey on the availability of arts education in the city's public schools, relevant school traits, funding needs, and partners. Offers recommendations and strategies for a three-year expansion plan. Highlights best practices.” (From the summary at PubHub.)
Two passages are especially worth quoting. The first comes from an overview of funding challenges: “most educators and artists agree that it is also important to provide students—particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds—with opportunities for arts exposure through performances, exhibits, and museum tours—to further enrich arts learning for students. In one of the discussion groups, a parent spoke to the importance of these activities: ‘I think that leaving the building is critical. It is vital for the children of this city to believe it is their city. The only way to own it is to get out there and see it.’”

The second comes from a glossary of terms related to arts education with this entry for “Elite or Academic Culture”: “the culture and knowledge taught officially through formal curricula and instructions such as schools, colleges, museums, and conservatories, as opposed to folk culture or popular culture” (emphasis added). Are museums always (or truly) analogous to schools, colleges, universities and conservatories? And is elite culture the only kind that museums contain?

Other articles, essays, and recent items of interest:
  • In the Hartford Courant (March 1, 2009), two columnists debate the question “Museums: Worth More Than Market Value?” Gina Barreca, an English professor at the University of Connecticut, argues that UConn “should not consider shutting the doors of its two museums [the Benton Museum of Art and the state natural history museum] as a way to save some dough.” She relies on traditional (but still powerful) arguments about museums as sites of “creativity, science, beauty and knowledge.” Laurence Cohen, a public policy consultant, counters that “assets are assets … [and] when times are tough, you spin them off, sell them or transform [them] … One of the positive things to come out of tough economic times is the obligation to assess redundant assets.” 
  • Forbes Traveler has compiled a list of “America’s most visited tourist attractions” in 2008. Top of the list is Times Square with 37.6 million visitors; the top museum on the list is the Metropolitan Museum of Art (#18), with 4.7 million—but the methodology is a bit suspect, since attraction #3 (the National Mall) includes one of the highest concentrations of museums in the world. Forbes Traveler compiled a similar list of “America’s 25 Most Visited Museums” in 2007.

Useless Time-Wasters:
  • Time-lapse videos of flowers blooming in glorious color and close-up detail. The high-def video of the lily is especially nice (and worth four minutes and 38 seconds of your time).

 

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