Pacific Standard reports that "Surprised museum researchers find many visitors snap photographs of themselves with the masterpieces." I'm not sure which researchers are actually surprised by this. But by coincidence I am now reading John Carey's The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939. He cites Thomas Hardy's notebooks from the 1880s, and the author's visit to the British Museum, where he saw (p. 24): ... crowds parading and gaily traipsing round the mummies, thinking today is for … [Read more...]
Time has come today
At the Washington Post, Philip Kennicott looks at changes in how people work and play, and implications for cultural organizations, especially museums. I'm not sure all of the claims made by people he cites add up. First, from Elizabeth Merritt, of Center for the Future of Museums. Kennicott writes: A transformation in how we work, says Merritt, will affect both how museums employ people and how they may need to change to attract new audiences. “Increasingly we see people who had regular full-time jobs who are now picking up pieces of … [Read more...]
Is there a Canadian cultural policy crisis?
At the Globe and Mail, Kate Taylor writes: The policy tools that have protected and nurtured Canada’s cultural industries since the 1970s are unknown to transnational distributors of foreign content – that would be Google, YouTube and Netflix – while Canadian consumers are increasingly sidestepping the domestic distributors who, whether by inclination or by regulation, produce Canadian content. How big a crisis? A new report prepared by the research firm Nordicity for the annual Digital Media at the Crossroads gathering held at the … [Read more...]
Dynamic pricing and price discrimination are not the same thing
But a recent article in The Economist (!) confuses the matter. Dynamic pricing occurs when sellers adjust prices on a frequent basis to account for varying shifts in demand, or limitations in supply. Uber raises fares when demand spikes upward and drivers are scarce; sports teams cut prices for tickets for the final games in a season when it becomes clear the team will not qualify for the playoffs; airlines raise or lower prices to maximize revenue from scheduled flights; theatres lower prices for shows, or specific dates for shows, where … [Read more...]
Local, state, federal: public funding for the arts in the U.S.
At the Atlantic, Andy Horwitz asks 'Who should pay for the arts in America?' He is specifically asking about nonprofit arts, whose funding comes from paying customers, donors and other sponsors, and the public sector. He observes: The current state of the arts in this country is a microcosm of the state of the nation. Large, mainstream arts institutions, founded to serve the public good and assigned non-profit status to do so, have come to resemble exclusive country clubs. Meanwhile, outside their walls, a dynamic new generation of artists, … [Read more...]
Arts funding and peer review
At The Scotsman, Euan McColm writes about the controversy surrounding Creative Scotland's grant to artist Ellie Harrison, who will live in Glasgow for a year without leaving, in order to personally document what is known in social science as the 'Glasgow effect', whereby various measures of quality of life are markedly lower in and around Glasgow than anywhere else in the UK, if not the entire EU.* McColm's views are similar to mine: the project seems a bit iffy, but he respects the decision of Creative Scotland to fund it: If we are agreed … [Read more...]
When you can afford the very best
A thought experiment: suppose you are in a middle-class household, around the median income. What goods and services do you purchase and enjoy that are the very finest available, such that people in the top 1% of earners would consume the same item? A billionaire with a taste for Coca-Cola will drink the same coke that you do, though he/she will likely have a fancier car, house, means of air travel, etc. Tyler Cowen gives his list here, and it includes iPhones and Kindles, books and movies, writing paper and rutabagas. Let's restrict ourselves … [Read more...]
The arts, effective altruism, and data
The Seattle Times reports "With millennial philanthropy money flowing, arts groups miss out": [Elizabeth] Van Nostrand explained that Effective Altruism “is extremely quantitative. ‘How much money does it take them to save a life? Give to the one that saves the most.’ ” Though millennials like Van Nostrand and Salvatier are a generosity-minded bunch, this data-driven approach has left a traditional beneficiary of charitable giving out in the cold: the arts. Cultural institutions, which have historically been high on the list of those … [Read more...]
Performing arts and cities and (again) the creative class
A new study just published in the academic journal Economic Development Quarterly looks at the links between big (budget over $2 million) performing arts organizations and the change in the proportion of the metro workforce that is in Richard Florida's definition of the 'creative class'. The article, by Arthur Nelson and colleagues is (behind a paywall) here, and Florida discusses here. Artsjournal.com links to it with the clickbait "The study finds substantial evidence that performing arts organizations add to both the growth of the knowledge … [Read more...]
The creative class won’t save your arts organizations
Let's talk about Hartford. I've never been to Connecticut, but in the past week I have read two stories about Hartford, and it is interesting to think about the links, if any. First, the symphony is in financial troubles. Dan Haar of the Hartford Courant reports, "The symphony is bleeding $1.3 million a year and nearing the end of its cash reserves." Hartford's Connecticut Opera went bust in 2009. So far, a familiar story to a number of mid-sized US cities and their 'legacy' arts organizations. The other story comes from Richard Florida's … [Read more...]