THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409210094
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
The score: museums, 36.6 percent, vs. sporting events, 30.3 percent.
More people go to museums than to professional sporting events, according to a national survey recently released.
Polls and surveys might not be precise but they do show trends.
Of course, those of us who are hung up on the arts would like to see more than 36.6 percent of the public interested in museums. By the same token, those who want more professional sports events in the region would like to see more than 30.3 percent willing to spend their money for professional competition.
But that somewhere around one-third of the population is interested in museums is a plus.
The most interesting statistic from the survey was that 65.2 percent of the respondents had been to a movie theater over the preceding 12 months. Maybe we need to turn the Colony back into a movie theater and get Fred Schoenfeld to run it in tandem with the Commodore. As more and more people from elsewhere have discovered the pleasure of seeing a movie in the Commodore, it has become more and more imperative to plan ahead for weekend showings.
Museums were the second highest attraction followed by professional sports.
Other activities and the percentage of visitors included the following: music concert, 29.3 percent; professional play, 27.7; art show, 18.3; ballet, 5.5; and opera, 4.8.
The percentages seem low on first reading, but not so low when you think of the market.
Take a market of 1 million people - a low figure in this market for special events that would draw from beyond the immediate borders - and that would give you about 50,000 people as a market for an opera or more than 360,000 for a museum.
Of course, statistics are only statistics. They can prove or disprove anything. But even if you can't bank on the numbers, you can see trends in results of random and even unscientific surveys.
If more people surveyed went to a museum in 12 months than went to a ball game, golf tournament or tennis match, that bolsters the Portsmouth decision to continue to support and improve its museums.
Museums in this region certainly have proliferated over the past decade, indicating that the trend definitely is there.
The small, existing Children's Museum is a popular attraction. Almost no day passes that I don't see adults with children walking from the ferry stop down High Street. Often there will be two or three families together. You know immediately where they are headed.
The new Children's Museum of Virginia, scheduled to open at the end of this year in the old Leggett building, will attract even more new people and many who will return to see the new exhibits. Children now ask to make repeat visits to the small museum. They undoubtedly will be more interested in the new one.
Kids and adults like the Portsmouth Lightship too and the city needs to increase promotion of the historical side of its museums at the same time it is promoting the Children's Museum.
Children like the notion of going on a real ship, even if it is moored in concrete. Although the Lightship has suffered from a lack of accessibility and visibility since the Kings Crossing debacle began, it still is one of our most charming attractions - if people know about it.
The city also should think of restoring the cannon and other heavy duty memorabilia to the yard of the Naval Shipyard Museum. Children of a certain age, who might consider themselves too old for the children's museum, frequently are fascinated by the naval equipment.
For the 30 percent of the population most interested in sports, Portsmouth has the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Like the Lightship, it is not properly promoted.
Fortunately, the strength of public opinion killed City Manager V. Wayne Orton's notion of doing away with the art programs of the city, which include excellent exhibits in the 1846 Courthouse and the Arts Center galleries.
The magnitude of the public opposition to eliminating art programs certainly backs up the idea that people are indeed interested in museums of all sorts.
Portsmouth's museums offer something for everybody in the family.
National trends continue to reinforce the belief that they not only are good for the hearts and minds of the people who live here. They also are good for the city's economy. MEMO: Whether you agree or disagree, The Currents would like to hear from you.
Send your thoughts to The Currents, 307 County St., Suite 100,
Portsmouth, Va. 23704-3702 or fax us at 446-2607.
by CNB