According to the 2010 census, the fastest growing population group was those ages 65 to 69, up by a third from 2000.  That group will expand even more rapidly in the decade to come, starting in 2011, as baby boomers begin to turn 65.  The Northeast had the largest percentage of people 65 and older, at 14 percent (compared to 13 percent nationally).  But the states with the top incremental increases were in the West: Alaska, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and Arizona helped push the 65 to 69 age cohort up by 23 percent over the decade.

In total, there were 40.3 million people ages 65 and older as of April 2010, a rise of about 15 percent from 2ooo.  Seniors grew more rapidly than the 10 percent pace of the nation as a whole.  The only age group to experience a decline was that of the 75- to 79-year-olds, reflecting the low number of births during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Aline Chatmajian

About a year ago, I offered the idea, to Anne-Marie Nolin, Head of Communications at the Rubin Museum of Art, suggesting that museums with a more targeted curatorial focus band together to promote themselves and encourage New Yorkers and visitors alike to broaden their horizons.  Anne-Marie and her media relations colleague at the Rubin, Alanna Schindewolf, have made this a reality.  The “Museum Discovery Pass” is now a reality and offers two-for-one admission to seven small, more specialized museums including:

• American Folk Art Museum
• Asia Society Museum
• Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art
• Museum of Chinese in America
• The Noguchi Museum
• Rubin Museum of Art
• The Studio Museum in Harlem

You can print the wallet-sized pass from each museum’s website (e.g., www.rmanyc.org/visit). It is also available at NYC & Company’s Information Center at 810 Seventh Avenue at 53^rd Street.  The Pass is good from March 1 until May 31, 2010, a great time to get out and visit museums representing different international cultures.

The details, however, reveal a typically busy lifestyle for arts professionals with 57 percent holding down two jobs currently and another 18 percent working three or more jobs.

On the upside, 54 percent of those working solely outside the arts at the current time said their arts training was relevant to their job.  And 71 percent not professionally active now continue to make or publicly perform their art.

Although not a random sample, the sample size was robust with 13,581 alumni from 154 institutions responding to the online survey.  The 2010 wave is the most recent in what has become an annual survey.

Among the top overseas countries, the largest year-to-date percentage increases came from South Korea, Brazil, Australia, and Japan, while the UK registered a small decline.  The greatest increase among European nations was France, which had a 12 percent increase year-to-date and a 25 percent hike this past November compared to November 2009.

The increase from France in consistent with results ARA has been observing at recent visitor surveys at New York museums.  At the International Center of Photography, for example, which welcomed about one-third of its visitors from other countries, France was the best-represented other nation in 2010.  As a result ARA conducted its recent intercept interviews in both English and French.