On April 13, I attended a panel discussion on “Arts and Museum Leadership and the Making of a Modern City.” This event, sponsored by the Jepson School for Leadership Studies, was hosted by Walter Witschey, the director of the Science Museum of Virginia and the 2006-2007 Jepson Leader-in-Residence. The three guests included David Fisk, director of the Richmond Symphony, Bob Mooney, past director of the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation, and Randy Wyckoff, the president and CEO of the Children’s Museum of Richmond. Each panelist spoke about his role in the organization and the issues that are most important to leadership in Richmond’s cultural organizations. The most interesting part of the event was the question and answer session. Many of the people who attended were leaders of or involved with arts organizations. The questions from the audience centered on the topic of increasing diversity in those who frequent the museums and cultural events. Mooney spoke of the idea to offer a free or low-cost “sampler performance” to show brief scenes of upcoming events that might give people a better idea of what would interest them the most. Wyckoff spoke of popular advertising, such as adopting SpongeBob SquarePants as an icon to engage children. When asked about their views on price as a barrier to generating a diverse audience, I was interested to learn that most research says these barriers are cultural rather than financial. Therefore, people fear the embarrassment of bringing kids that misbehave or not wearing the right kind of clothes to an event or museum. The last question was “Why is Richmond poorly marketed for historical museums?” as opposed to Charleston. The response was very intriguing, because the panelists agreed that Richmond was ashamed of its historical connection to the Civil War. Wyckoff further commented on this lack of dialogue, saying that the city has not yet learned how to communicate this part of its history. Another thing that Richmond lacks in comparison to Charleston is collaboration between different aspects of tourism. For example, visiting Charleston involves a combination of culinary, historical, and entertainment experiences. These self-esteem issues and the lack of collaboration between organizations that want to attract tourism is holding Richmond back, and until these issues are resolved, attendance at Richmond arts events and museums will suffer.
May 5, 2007
Arts and Museum Leadership Panel Discussion
Posted by darsena21 under Business and Economic Development, Diversity and Difference, Richmond and Its History, Uncategorized1 Comment
May 7, 2007 at 2:58 am
That is interesting that the cultural barrier and our history was brought up in this panel discussion. At the event I attended about the 8th and 9th st. capitol buildings and elderly woman stood up and rather than asking a question requested that The Museum of the Confederacy recieve more attention. Although it was off topic it was interesting to see how important the issue was to her and how the young moderate was quick to change the topic.
Fredericksburg was recently selected as the location for a national slavery museumm. Mayor Wilder was Governor at the time of this selection and he supported this location. If there is an issue of respecting those that suffered at the hands of slavery, why did Richmond not lobby harder for this museum? Then both histories would be respected in an equal manner in one place. Museums are meant so that future generations understand the past, whether this past be good or bad. If we consistently destroy the public of knowledge of past mistakes they will not learn from them.