Good story on the New York Time concerning the problems museums in many American cities are facing. They write that:
But times and fortunes — we all know the story — changed. Depression, recession and politics brought powerful cities to their knees. Populations shifted. Whites left as blacks and new immigrants came; a once predominantly European culture became African, Asian, Latino.
Through all of this the old museums held on. Some were content to be dinosaurs, artifacts, and that worked for a while. But for most, passivity is no longer an option. Savings disintegrate; benefactors die or look elsewhere; people forget that museums are there and what they are for. Reality issues an order: do or die.
It’s really too bad that when the economy takes a downturn museums are some of the first to suffer. If only all of the money that Americans spent going to see movies like “My Bloody Valentine – 3D” went toward museums and libraries.
Link via Art – In Do or Die Times, Museums Look Inward for Survival – NYTimes.com.