Hi, I want you to indulge me for just a moment and I want you
to close your eyes and relax.
Sit in your chairs.
And I want you to think
about your earliest memories of an art museum.
What are the things that come to your mind?
Is it the building?
Is it the architecture?
Is it the people that you were with?
Is it the objects?
So I want you to keep that in the back of your mind
as I talk with you today because we'll come back to it.
But for now, open your eyes.
I first fell in love with art museums
when I was a little girl.
And my father would take my twin brother and I
to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri,
on the family free days.
And I remember going through the plaza,
sitting in the back of the car.
And he would drive us through
and I would see the sculpture garden.
And I would get so excited
because I knew what was about to happen.
And we would go and as he would try to find a place to park,
the excitement would well up in me.
And I would see Rodin's "The Thinker" sitting outside of the museum
with his hand underneath his chin,
his body tense in concentration, his elbow on his knee.
And we would walk by him
and go underneath these beautiful columns
and these front doors that just beckoned me in.
And we must have been there quite a bit.
We must have spent some time there
because I remember becoming very familiar
and finding these really beautiful things
that I connected with including Jan van Huysum's floral still life.
It's a memento mori called "Vase of Flowers".
And I remember thinking that if I could stand there long enough,
I could hear the buzzing of the bees
or I could touch the softness of the petals
or I might even be able to, you know,
smell the flowers themselves.
I also remember the exquisite beauty of a Caravaggio painting
of St John the Baptist.
And I remember his soft skin and his hair and his red cloak.
And I remember the cake of dirt underneath his toenails.
Like these are the things I remember?
And I just think back and can't believe it because I thought
that they had put all of these things here just for me.
I was a six year old kid
and they had put them there just for me.
And now, I've spent twenty years working in art museums
creating opportunities for people
to engage with one another and with art and with culture.
And I've thought a lot about the reasons
that people love to go to art museums.
And I've also thought an awful lot about the reasons
that people don't like to go.
And I'm really interested to see what will happen
with art museums in the twenty first century.
Now I have a quiz for you.
Museums in the United States are often compared
to two other kinds of institutions;
can anybody guess what they are?
Just shout it out.
Audience: Banks.
Dana Kletchka: Banks, okay, well that makes sense, anything else?
Audience: Libraries.
DK: Libraries, okay we have churches and libraries.
And this makes a lot of sense.
All three of them are repositories of culture.
They all have very specific locations.
They all have inspiration and knowledge that we're seeking.
They represent the richness of our culture intellectually,
spiritually, and creatively.
But for an awful lot of people, they are places of boredom
and stillness and quiet, right?
We all know the rules.
No talking.
No touching.
No food or drink.
No photography.
I could go on, but I won't.
And these rules are there for a reason, right?
To keep things safe, you know,
you've got to have things all ready to go.
However, they also tend to alienate people
and that also makes sense.
Even in the United States, art museums are the repositories
of culture that are descended from kings and queens.
They are housed in these intellectual spaces
and in these incredible architectural buildings.
They represent experiences that most of us can only dream of.
They are representative of the power of community
and of countries even.
So it's no wonder to me that a lot of people find museums
to be boring and elitist and perhaps even unnecessary.
But I'm here to argue that art museums cannot exist without you
in their current iteration.
And I would say that because we live in a world
where people are driven to seek new experiences,
to find out new information, and to connect with one another,
that you cannot exist without art museums.
Now, the National Endowment for the Arts
came out with a study a few years ago.
And it basically said that participation in the arts
is down dramatically over the last twenty years,
whether it's ballets
or orchestra concerts or exhibitions.
People are not walking and getting their behinds in seats
and they're not walking through the galleries.
And on one hand that's really distressing.
But on the other hand, we kind of know why.
There are people who have said
that even though they aren't going to these kinds
of cultural things they would otherwise like to go
and they gave three big reasons.
And the first one is time.
We don't have enough time to do the things that we need to do
much less the things that we want to do.
And there are some people that even more it's difficult
for them to find the transportation to get there
or find a way to get there.
A second thing - and if you have young kids you know
what I'm talking about.
If you have kids under the age of six, it is very difficult
for you to find the time to get your kids, get them ready,
put them in the car, schlep them over there,
and then once you get there there's nothing for them to do.
And I know that as a parent I am not going to go through that
because I don't want to hear the whining once we get there, right?
And the third reason that people are who would otherwise
want to engage with culture, the reason that they're not
is because of social experiences and the lack thereof.
And for me this is the most poignant reason.
They don't want to go to these things alone.
Even in situations where money is a difficulty,
that's something that can be overcome.
But the social part of not being with anybody
is not something people want to overcome.
So I'm not going to do that yet.
Okay so the National Endowment for the Arts
also had another study that came out,
so this is really paradoxical.
They actually said that people are engaging with culture just
as much as they did before.
And I know you're probably sitting there thinking
"Dana you just told me that people aren't going
to art museums, so what's up?"
And what's up is technology.
People are interfacing with technology.
They are downloading podcasts.
They are watching videos of concerts.
They are pulling up Google Art.
They are looking at exhibitions online.
And they are engaging with culture in a way
that makes the most sense to them in terms of time,
in terms of space, in terms of safety, and in terms of cost.
Now, I think that the problem with this
is that it doesn't give people the kind of experience
that you can get if you go to a rich, social, interesting place.
There is no replacement for actually going to a space
and being with other people and having a relationship with them
and the discussions that can happen.
Art museums occupy a rich space in our culture
and there's a reason for that.
You can go there and you can see things
that you've never seen before.
You can learn about times and places and other people
that are otherwise unimaginable.
Museums inspire us.
They help us to think and they help us to consider our place
in the world, in a world
that I would argue right now needs a lot of that.
However, you have to go.
You have to be there in order to experience this.
The NEA study that I initially told you about actually said
that the main reason people go to museums is because they want
to spend time with friends and family and they want
to learn something new but you can't do it unless you go.
Right now you can look up anything you want online.
There is no shortage of the information that you can find
on artists and paintings and sculptures and exhibitions.
But you can't experience it unless you are there physically
in person.
I want to make sure that everybody knows
that I'm not a luddite.
I am just as addicted to my iPhone as everybody else in this room -
and I know some of you in this room, so you know what I'm talking about.
And I really think that there are some amazing things
that museums are doing with technology right now in terms
of educational engagement.
It's working.
However, I want you to go back to your original thought
about being in a museum that I asked you
to conjure earlier today.
I am willing to bet that that thought does not include
interfacing with a screen.
Right now, art museums are doing a million different things
to bring you in, whether it's K-12 tours
or university experiences,
whether it's musical performances or poetry readings.
Sometimes we have little kids coming in with Pre-K groups
and reading groups and visits.
And all of these require you.
Your thoughts, your ideas, your understandings of the world,
your friends and your family all belong in an art museum.
And if a six year old girl from Kansas can be so inspired to go
into this grand museum and the things that I see can inspire me
to want to work in an art museum for the rest of my life,
just think about the experiences
that you can have in an art museum.
Thank you.
(Applause)