Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 15, 1991 TAG: 9104130420
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Alberta Sebolt George, executive vice president of Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, cited 1990 census projections that indicate one-person households will outnumber family households by the year 2000. In addition, by the middle of the next century, whites will be outnumbered by other racial and ethnic population groups.
The wise museum director will take such trends into consideration when planning programs and building work forces, George said. "We need to explore what cultural diversity means to us."
George was in Roanoke as keynote speaker for the 1991 annual conference of the Virginia Association of Museums, held this week.
She said the audience for museums, already just one fragment of the leisure market, will break down further into "particle" markets such as singles, "empty-nesters," step-families, fitness enthusiasts and "fun-seekers, people who want to come and have a good time and know we aren't going to kill them with knowledge."
George's remarks were eagerly awaited by Virginia's museum professionals, many of whom are contending with a dramatic drop in financial support from government, corporate and private sources. She is known for having sucessfully steered Old Sturbridge Village, a preserved colonial community, through several years of fiscal crisis in Massachusetts.
"Don't feel you're alone," she told her audience at the Tanglewood Holiday Inn. And don't expect fiscal circumstances to improve quickly, she added, because the economy is likely to remain unsettled as the United States continues its change into a post-industrial society.
George said the country is coming off a "culture boom" in which arts and humanities institutions grew in number and size but "the people numbers" failed to keep pace. While audience growth flattened out, costs continued to rise, with the result that cultural institutions turned increasingly for support to government and corporate sources. Those sources have sometimes let them down since the recession has arrived.
The Virginia Association of Museums conference opened Thursday and concludes today, with about 175 registered participants. Delegates attended daytime workshops on subjects such as collaboration and fund-raising, visited exhibits on products as diverse as museum windows and video services, and socialized in the evenings at impressively catered parties in Studios on the Square and the city's museums.
by CNB