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Monday, July 30, 2012
Chasing Audiences: Too Much Emphasis On Youth?
artsjournal.com: It’s pretty obvious that museums — and most other places as well — chase the young. They see gray hair in their galleries and fear that no one will rpelace them if they don’t do something about it NOW.
3 comments:
Emily Potter
said...
I think that an obsession with youth is not isolated to museums, nor is it isolated to the recent past. In the very far past (think medieval times) peoples would actually put poisonous powders on their faces to appear youthful. The obsession has definitely gotten more noticeable with campaigns trying to advertise an edgy youthful look to get hip to the kids. The worst it is is annoying, and it might drive away the people who really like going to the museum.
I understand why museums' target audience is the youth, and to see a tour of children through museums is not an uncommon sight. To say that we as humans emphasize too much on the youth, is probably true also, and I feel that we should...to an extent. This is because older people are the ones who go to museums and to leave them out would just be stupid.
While I agree that in some cases society has become too concerned with what young people think, I do think in general this is a valid demographic to target overall. As mentioned in the article, if a business or attraction targets youth as opposed to older people, they are investing in their future. Many businesses, especially so in entertainment, are feeling the burden to keep making money after their previous audience is gone. For example, classical music is not generally popular with people of my generation, so even places like the Cleveland Orchestra, which is one of the best orchestras in the entire world, are having a difficult time making money, and having to create programs to get young people interested in the music. This is also not an isolated case. Business all over are feeling the same push, and thus turning to young people as the solution.
3 comments:
I think that an obsession with youth is not isolated to museums, nor is it isolated to the recent past. In the very far past (think medieval times) peoples would actually put poisonous powders on their faces to appear youthful. The obsession has definitely gotten more noticeable with campaigns trying to advertise an edgy youthful look to get hip to the kids. The worst it is is annoying, and it might drive away the people who really like going to the museum.
I understand why museums' target audience is the youth, and to see a tour of children through museums is not an uncommon sight. To say that we as humans emphasize too much on the youth, is probably true also, and I feel that we should...to an extent. This is because older people are the ones who go to museums and to leave them out would just be stupid.
While I agree that in some cases society has become too concerned with what young people think, I do think in general this is a valid demographic to target overall. As mentioned in the article, if a business or attraction targets youth as opposed to older people, they are investing in their future. Many businesses, especially so in entertainment, are feeling the burden to keep making money after their previous audience is gone. For example, classical music is not generally popular with people of my generation, so even places like the Cleveland Orchestra, which is one of the best orchestras in the entire world, are having a difficult time making money, and having to create programs to get young people interested in the music. This is also not an isolated case. Business all over are feeling the same push, and thus turning to young people as the solution.
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