Dispatches from the Future of Museums

Next stop, Baltimore

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Are you going to the Alliance Annual Meeting (May 18-22)? Come visit us at the Alliance Showcase! Also, you can earn a Future Traveler digital badge by attending select sessions and sharing your insights; details are on the CFM Blog. Whether or not you're joining us in person, you can follow the Baltimore highlights and interact with some of our star speakers via the Alliance Social Media desk.

Millennials recognize growing value of face-to-face interactions

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Perhaps the exhibitions industry shouldn't be too worried about younger, digitally obsessed generations shunning face-to-face contact. According to a new study from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, 61 percent of millennials aged 18-27 believe that exhibits at exhibitions, conventions and annual meetings are more valuable today than they were two years ago.

Is middle class wealth in meltdown?

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

The collapse of home prices and the stock market has taken an immense toll on the assets of the middle class, hitting minorities and young adults especially hard, a new study suggests. "Most telling is that the wealth of the average person by 2010 was at its lowest level since 1969," says Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New York University.

Who is the high entertainment spender?

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

According to Nielsen's U.S. Entertainment Consumer Report, consumers in households earning an average annual income of $66,000 or more account for more than 70 percent of spending on entertainment — things like books, video-on-demand and music. And not only did the survey find that these high entertainment spenders have more discretionary income than low or moderate spenders, they also participate in more entertainment activities. ♦ No details on museums, but the full report provides a good look at the competition.

Money laundering and art: Ever a new twist

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Patricia Cohen writes in the New York Times that art is increasingly being used as a money-laundering device. Most of the industries more commonly used for money laundering now have checks, but the art market lacks them to date. ♦ In other provenance-related news, The Verge asks, "How many museums have stolen objects in their collections?"

Record share of new mothers are college educated

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Mothers with infant children in the U.S. today are more educated than they ever have been. In 2011, more than 6 in 10 (66 percent) had at least some college education, while 34 percent had a high school diploma or less and just 14 percent lacked a high school diploma, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

The business of culture: Museums, robots and the economy

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Over the past six weeks, the bloggers at Jack Rouse Associates have "analyzed the impact of museums and other cultural assets on economic development in communities around the world." In this concluding essay, they explore whether "external forces such as decreased government funding, continued overall economic stagnation and increased job automation could impede these advantageous economic relationships" in the future.

On good and bad futurology

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

A new NESTA [i.e., the British government's main funding agency for research] paper, "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow," navigates the myths and realities of good and bad futurology, from economic forecasting to science fiction. The paper puts forward three maxims that show that thinking about the future in a structured way is not just useful, but essential.

Organ, tissue replacement could end aging by mid-2020s

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

As we trek through the next decade, older citizens might look in the mirror and wonder, "Who is that gorgeous creature?" Their reflection would reveal a body filled with enthusiasm, sporting a dazzling smile, wrinkle-free skin, perfect vision, natural hair color, real teeth, and an amazing sharp mind and memory. Welcome to the incredible world of innovative anti-aging health care, which growing numbers of future followers believe will become widely available and affordable as we move into the years ahead.

3-D gun printing, hidden eyeglass cameras, constant cyberhacks: Are we all doomed?

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Cyber-security expert David Gewirtz writes that "Technology is a beautiful thing. It's capable of transforming our lives. We can talk to family and friends across the world or around the corner. We can replace failed organs with artificial ones. We can play Angry Birds and carry around little, portable supercomputers in our pockets. And we can print guns out of plastic and video private conversations simply by wearing eyeglasses."

EU will collapse in 2018, according to 'museum of the future' art project

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

The day Europe dies, according to the Brussels theatre director Thomas Bellinck, will be in 2018. Mired in the "Great Recession," with the countries of southern Europe traumatized by a wave of "crisis suicides" and with neo-fascism, separatism and nationalism on the rise in many countries, Project Europe will collapse, he says.

Philbrook Museum puts its focus on communities

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Few people who have seen the Philbrook Museum of Art would argue that its historic Italian Renaissance-style villa and the grounds on which it resides are works of art. And that was the problem. "Philbrook was better known for what it was than for what it does," says director Rand Suffolk. "We as an institution hadn't figured out how to be essential to our community." How Philbrook set about transforming itself into a cultural gathering place offering something of interest for all Tulsans is a major part of a forthcoming book, "Magnetic: The Art and Science of Engagement."

Museums in the digital age

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Although we may all more or less agree that the Internet has radically changed the way in which people look for and find all kinds of cultural and leisure contents, do we really believe that museums, cultural institutions and art galleries can offer the same experience on visiting an exhibition or collection in the 21st century without embracing any kind of change? ♦ From the research team at Dosdoce in Spain, an excellent overview of how digital technologies can enhance the visitor experience before, during and after museum visits.

Exploratorium reinvents the museum café

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Cakes that look like a museum's Mondrians. Seawater cocktails served atop an exhibit on icy bodies of water. And optical illusion cupcakes that mess with your mind. These days, no self-respecting museum offers shrink-wrapped tuna sandwiches. From the Monterey Bay Aquarium to the MoMAs in San Francisco and New York, museum cafés have amped up the flavor dramatically over the past few years, hiring top chefs and even mixologists to supervise the offerings.

Inside the Rain Room: Walking through a downpour without getting wet

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

The first thing you notice about Rain Room, the sure blockbuster installation that opened at MoMA recently, is the tropical humidity. The second thing is the sound from hundreds of gallons of water pouring from an artificial ceiling. Finally, after your eyes adjust to the darkness, you actually see it: Rain Room, a 1,000-square-foot space that's in a state of perpetual downpour. Except you never get wet. Thanks to eight motion sensors installed above the space, the water pouring from the ceiling shivers to avoid you as you move through the room.

Tate Modern fan gets the iconic building inked

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

21-year-old UAL [University of the Arts, London] employee Niamh Coghlan took fan frenzy to another level, when she decided to get a memento of her favorite gallery, Tate Modern, etched onto her skin. Spanning over a foot in grey and black ink, the distinctive Brutalist building covers the entire left-hand side of her ribcage. ♦ Not necessarily a museum innovation, but an extreme expression of visitor engagement.

Tate Britain scraps explanatory panels next to works of art

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Visitors to Tate Britain are in for a shock. It may take a while to register. When it does, the revolution perpetrated by the museum's director, Penelope Curtis, explodes into view. There are no explanatory texts by the works of art.

ProPublica launches online tool to search nonprofit tax forms

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

The investigative-journalism organization ProPublica started a free online service recently for searching the federal tax returns of more than 615,000 nonprofits. ProPublica began building its Nonprofit Explorer tool on its website shortly after the Internal Revenue Service announced in April that it was making nonprofit tax returns available in a digital, searchable format. ProPublica's database provides nonprofit Form 990 information free back to 2001. ♦ An excellent tool for gathering public information about peer museums or potential donors.

Immersive dining: Ultraviolet in Shanghai

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

Shanghai-based, internationally renowned chef Paul Pairet has opened his second restaurant in the Paris-equivalent of the East. The avant-garde chef unites cutting-edge technology and quality cuisine as a total of 56 speakers, high-resolution projectors, dry smell projectors and a wind turbine create a truly immersive experience. ♦ Pushing the limits of immersive experience in a non-museum setting.

When Heineken bottles were square

16 May 2013 12:07:05 CDT

There are plenty of examples of structures built from recycled materials — even Buddhist temples have been made from them. In Simi Valley, Calif., an entire village known as Grandma Prisbey's Bottle Village was constructed from reused glass. But this is no new concept — back in 1960, executives at the Heineken brewery drew up a plan for a "brick that holds beer," a rectangular beer bottle that could also be used to build homes. ♦ A reminder that old approaches to green technology could be tools for the future as well.