The idea of a boutique museum pass came to me a few years ago when I realized how many great small museums there are in New York and that tourists, especially, limited their visits to the majors. I knew from my own travels that each time I returned to a city – be it Montreal, London, or Paris – I would seek out new and different destinations, digging deeper into the cultural firmament.
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 from NYC & Company’s Information Center at 810 Seventh Avenue at 53rd Street. The Museum Discovery Pass is good from March 1 until May 31, 2010, a great time to get out and visit museums representing different international cultures.
Audience Research & Analysis is pleased to report the completion of its decennial census count of visitors to Prospect Park in Brooklyn for a 12-month period ending in June 2009. ARA counted 8.41 million people entering the Park through 23 gates. Adding 454,000 supplemental visitors who came to special events, the total visitor count was 8.86 million.
Prospect Park Alliance, for whom the study was conducted in conjuntion with City of New York Parks & Recreation, reported that a prior study between April 1997 and April 1998 reported approximately 5.6 million visitors to the Park. In 1987, the estimated count was 4.1 million.
ARA staff counted visitors entering the Park from dawn to dusk in three seasons (Peak – June, July, August, September; Shoulder – April, May, October, November; and Off-Peak – December, January, February, March). The final report was submitted and accepted by the Alliance in November 2009.
George Wachtel
In a new report, demograhpics expert Peter Francese forecasts that Census 2010 will show that New York City will have added about 500,000 people since 2000. And which age group is the fastest-growing? That would be New Yorkers between 55 and 64 years. So while many arts audiences are aging, at least the baby-boomer generation will continue to make a sizable contribution for a while. (Go to www.crainsnewyork.com/white-paper for information on purchasing the full report.)
This is good news for arts marketers who convened this past weekend in Providence, RI for a conference. With the Guggenheim Foundation and Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, TX), ARA presented a panel on Expanding Audience in Challenging Economic Times. Email us at info@audinenceresearch.com if you would like PowerPoint copies of the presentation.
George Wachtel
I was startled recently by three very different reviews of the New York Philharmonic’s season opening concert conducted by its new music director, Alan Gilbert. Many arts attendees look to reviews for a guidance, inspiration and information. But what are we to think when critics sound like they have attended different concerts? The New York Times said: “The music, and music making, were fresh and dynamic.” While The Washington Post (on its blog) complained: “All the ingredients were there. All that was missing was excitement.” The Los Angeles Times fell somewhere in between, stating that “he [Gilbert} makes sense of the music he conducts."
There were three pieces on the program - a new work, "Expo," written for the occasion by the Philharmonic's composer in residence, Magnus Lindberg, an early vocal work by Messiaen, "Poems Pour Mi," and Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique." For starters, Anthony Tommasini of the NY Times found "Expo" to be "urgent and inventive." But Mark Swed of the LA Times "wondered if many found this music to take home with them." Regarding the Messiaen, Mr. Tommasini declared that "Ms. Fleming is perfect for this demanding work, and she sang it splendidly. [She] shaped each phrase with sensitivity to the words and a keen feeling for nuance and color.” But Anne Midgette of the Post said “it felt too big for the soprano Renée Fleming, who emoted with a will, perhaps too much. The songs didn’t sit in a part of Fleming’s voice that helped set off either them or her to absolutely best advantage.”
Things really got interesting in the Berlioz. Tommasini described Gilbert’s account of the Symphonie Fantastique as “rhythmically exacting and coolly incisive, providing a context that allowed the wildness of this radical 1830 symphony to come through.” He added that it was “refreshing to hear this staple conducted with such attentiveness to detail and textural clarity.” The “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” had “plenty of heat and power.” Midgette, however, was crestfallen and really disappointed stating: “I felt I was hearing notes, executed carefully, or not so carefully …. but whether it was actually moving was another matter.” Somewhere in between again was Swed, who thought Gilbert was relatively “carefree” in the Berlioz and showed “expressive freedom.”
I listened carefully to this performance, especially the Berlioz. I could hear the exacting rhythms Tommasini praised as well as why Midgette did not feel moved. It was all in there, as was my chance to hear a fresh approach. My own favorite conductor in this symphony is Colin Davis who provides an emotional roller-coaster ride without ever falling off the tracks. But would I want to hear each performance exactly the same? My advice is, go listen. Every time I hear a piece live, I find something new that makes re-listening to my recordings more exciting. Critics should advise and inform rather than burden us with personal taste.
George Wachtel
Broadway producer and theatre owner, Rocco Landesman, has been nominated by President Obama to be the nation’s next Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Rocco’s experience in both the non-profit and commercial art worlds will enable him to see the merit of supporting unfettered long-term artistic development while recognizing the importance of the arts as an economic engine and urban development franchise. He will take over an agency that has drifted in a sea of political storms that have all but shipwrecked this once potent cultural force.
In 1996, The President’s Committee on the Art and Humanities commissioned me to conduct a study of the interplay of non-profit and commercial theatre. The resulting paper, “The Relationship Among National Endowment for the Arts Funding, the Not-for-Profit Theatre and Broadway with Regard to New Play Production,” is represented in the Committee’s Report to the President, “Creative America.” The report, published in 1997, stated that “over the past twenty years, 44 percent of the new plays produced on Broadway originated in the non-profit sector.” It continued by pointing out that “the peak period of play production in the non-profit sector coincided with the high point of grantmaking activity by the National Endowment to regional theatres.”
Rocco has the opportunity to restore the NEA in a way that will encourage artists and reward Americans on many levels. When President Kennedy spoke in 1963 in honor of poet Robert Frost, who had died earlier that year, he stated that “art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” He concluded: “ I look forward to an America that will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.”
I wish this honest, intelligent, and bold leader all the best.
George Wachtel
According to a The New York Times article April 25, 2009, NPR will lay off 13 employees (in addition to the 64 laid off last December), eliminate contributions to retirement accounts and impose furloughs for all employees. While many arts organizations are suffering similar fates, public radio plays a special role in building and retaining audiences for museums and performing arts. In ARA audience research studies, we found that public radio stations are usually the most listened to both in local markets and among visitors from other cities nationwide.
Perhaps it is time for arts organizations to think about mobilizing its vast constituency of members, subscribers, visitors and audience members to support their local station either with contributions or through contact with their political representatives. As the circulations of newspapers in print declines and network television and commercial radio gives the arts almost no coverage, it is important to remember one of the hands that feeds us.
George Wachtel