Feed Editor 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT Dispatches from the Future of Museums provides industry-specific news and information to leading professionals in the cultural arts industry. Delivered weekly, the publication keeps museum professionals informed of topics that impact their industry. http://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/aam/rss.xml en Dispatches is one of many ways the Center for the Future of Museums promotes awareness of long-term trends. Join CFM's ongoing exploration of the future by following the blog, taping an interview for Voices of the Future, or reviewing the Research Roundup and other resources on our website. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cb8621ee0d 1 When you finally leave your job for good you have eight or more extra hours to do whatever you wish. Retirees generally spend their newfound free time sleeping a little later, working around the house, and watching a lot more TV than working Americans, according to data released this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ♦ Click here for more information about the American Time Use Survey. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cba6fdcfc6 2 Museums in Japan are abuzz with visitors aplenty, more so than in any other nation — but they are not all solemn art lovers attempting to cultivate their tastes. Observers say the main contributing factor to booming attendances is a perception among young people that visiting museums is cool. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbae925f0c 3 Protesters picketed a party at the Tate Britain, calling on its bosses to cut their ties with sponsor BP. A group of artists under the name The Good Crude Britannia voiced concerns about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill at the party, which was organised jointly to launch a display by artist Fiona Banner and to celebrate 20 years of BP support. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbb2ecb792 4 International tourism grew by 7 percent to more than 258 million arrivals in the first four months of 2010, up from the corresponding period in 2009, the Madrid-based United Nations World Tourism Organization said recently. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbb5f29df1 5 In the past year, adult obesity rates increased in 28 states, while only the District of Columbia saw a decline, according to a new report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbb986b6cd 6 When compared with non-media participants, Americans who participate in the arts through technology and electronic media — using the Internet, television, radio, computers, and handheld devices — are nearly three times more likely to attend live arts events; attend twice as many live arts events; and attend a greater variety of genres of live arts events. ♦ In 2008, about as many adults visited actual art museums or galleries as enjoyed visual artworks or related programs through electronic media (23 percent). 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cc3a0b368d 7 Nearly 1-in-5 American women in her early 40s is childless, according to a report that shows a striking increase in women who don't have biological children. The trend was much less common in the 1970s, when 1-in-10 women did not have children by 40 to 44, the age bracket researchers use to designate the end of childbearing years. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cc5a307e61 8 Fifteen years after the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women's Beijing Platform for Action proclaimed that "shared power and responsibility should be established between women and men at home, in the workplace and in the wider national and international communities," people around the globe embrace the document's key principles. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cc62642081 9 New York Museum of Modern Art director Glenn D. Lowry delivered a keynote speech, Museums of the 21st Century, at Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image on Thursday, June 24. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbc5e4eebc 10 Manhattan's AIA Center for Architecture recently debuted an exhibition that envisions a new era of sustainable mobility. For "Our Cities Ourselves," the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy invited architects to take on the evolving transportation needs of the world's cities, which in two decades are expected to be home to 60 percent of the global population. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbcfe59d57 11 The year is 2025. There is no pubic relations, no advertising and no marketing. In fact, there's no media in the traditional sense. All that's left after the social media nuclear cloud cleared, are virtual newsrooms connected by civilians that are paid per search rank and residual content like videos, pictures, Tweets and status updates. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbd285453e 12 "I never think of the future," Albert Einstein once observed. "It comes soon enough." Most business managers, confronted with the global forces shaping the business landscape, also assume that their ability to sculpt the future is minimal. They are right that they can do little to change a demographic trend or a widespread shift in consumer consciousness. But they can react to such forces or, even better, anticipate them to their own advantage. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cc3e2373da 13 Over the past year, educators at Nassau County Museum of Art and Queensborough Community College in New York City have been developing strategies that use the visual arts to assist non-English speaking adults achieve English literacy. The result is CALTA, or Culture and Literacy through Art. The American Association of Museums says that this program positions NCMA as "a key player in helping ease the transition of new immigrants into their American communities." ♦ Learn more about this project from the CFM Blog. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbdd3069ac 14 A new Field Museum exhibit — and a plan to lower Chicago's carbon footprint — enlists citizens in a fight only their grandchildren will know was won or lost. "The exhibit and the plan provide a call to action on climate change," said the Nature Conservancy's Bob Moseley. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbe2612a0d 15 Whenever controversies arise that pit scientists against segments of the U.S. public, a predictable dance seems to unfold. One the one hand, the nonscientists appear almost entirely impervious to scientific data, while the scientists shake their heads and lament that if only the public weren't so ignorant, these kinds of misunderstandings wouldn't occur. ♦ Based on a new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences that inexplicably fails to note the role of science museums "in engaging different segments of the broad American public." 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbe98cc132 16 Visitors and staff at the Brunswick Railroad Museum in Brunswick, Md., may not be alone, according to a team of Gettysburg paranormal investigators. Darryl Keller, founder of the Mason Dixon Paranormal Society, was at the museum to reveal results of a June 6, investigation by his group. A team of investigators set up audio and video equipment around the building to capture any potential paranormal activity. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbee07305c 17 In order to more effectively carry out its mission, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission asked Pennsylvanians what they believe is important in preserving and interpreting the commonwealth's rich history. The PHMC intends to use the results to provide a more "needs-based" approach to the business of history, to recruit partners in preserving history at the grassroots level and to engage in conversations with constituents and stakeholders. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbf323a3d4 18 The Adobe Museum of Digital Media is a unique virtual space designed to showcase and preserve groundbreaking digital work and to present expert commentary on how digital media influences culture and society. The museum is an ever-changing repository of eclectic exhibits from diverse fields ranging from photography to product development to broadcast communications. ♦ This virtual museum opens Aug. 2. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbf72ca7cc 19 There is a decidedly frisky feel to a recent series of advertisements promoting the scholarly joys of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The most irreverent of all shows three grinning children in a gallery of Egyptian mummies, with a friend satirically swathed in toilet paper. "It's time we Met" proclaims the poster, cheesily. It's a happy scene, with a subtext: The austere museum known throughout the world for its academic rigour and its peerless collections is these days not above slumming it in the marketing jungle with a larky pun or two. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cbfd641e9e 20 Many business legends revolve around stories of big, smart successful companies who completely failed to notice that their environment had changed. It's often taught as the "buggy-whip syndrome," based on manufacturers of carriage accessories who failed to notice that the advent of the automobile had rendered them redundant. To many standing on the sidelines, the only question is: How could they not see what was happening? ♦ Includes advice for challenging assumptions about the future. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cc075dcc01 21 The Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project has issued a report about how organizations can best leverage their limited financial and staff resources and assets to support nonprofit advocacy efforts. ♦ AAM is a partner in the Listening Post Project. Contact us for information about how your museum can participate in the project. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cc4a0af2d4 22 History Pin hopes to become the largest user-generated archive of the world's historical images and stories. The website acts like a digital time machine, and uses Google Maps and Street View technology to allow the wide public to dig out, upload and pin their own old photos, as well as the stories behind them, onto an interactive map. Uniquely, History Pin lets people layer old images onto modern Street View scenes, providing a series of geo-located time tunnel views into the past. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cc4f2a2bf3 23 Intel Corp. is creating a new research lab dedicated to helping scientists figure out how people will use computers in the future. Intel's chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, announced the formation of the new lab, dubbed Interaction and Experience Research, at the company's annual Research Day in Mountain View, Calif. 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cc532a54a1 24 The fabric of the future won't be just plain chiffon, silk or cotton. Instead electroluminescent material, microprocessors and LEDs may be woven together with clothing fibers to create smart textiles. "Clothing can be considered a second skin and by implementing technology in it, you are bringing it into your intimate space," says Nicky Assmann, an e-textile designer whose work was part of a recent exhibition in the Netherlands. "You are not just carrying technology like a laptop or an iPhone, but wearing it constantly." ♦ How long before museums can interact directly with your clothing? 1 Jul 2010 14:08:09 CDT http://multibriefs.com/ViewLink.php?i=4c2cc68d2886c 25