Study Says Museum of Modern Art Boosts Economy – and Possibly Tourism, Too

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The New York Sun

Its $20 admissions fee may leave you a bit cash poor, but the Museum of Modern Art is making the city rich. That, at least, was the argument that MoMA presented in a press conference yesterday. Museum officials announced the results of an economic impact study conducted by the marketing firm Audience Research & Analysis, and touted a public artwork the museum has commissioned from the conceptual artist Doug Aitken.

The economic impact study estimated that MoMA will directly or indirectly produce $2 billion in spending, and $50 million in tax revenues for New York City between fiscal year 2005, when the museum reopened, and fiscal year 2007.

ARA used a variety of measures to estimate the museum’s economic impact, including the self-reported spending of museum visitors who described MoMA as their primary reason for traveling to New York, and the museum’s own spending, on everything from salaries to employees who are city residents, to spending on goods or services from New York individuals or firms.

A New York University economist and the director of the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, William Baumol, said that one should always consider such studies with some skepticism. “By and large, economic impact studies are primarily designed as fundraising propaganda,” he said. Cultural institutions “are all trying to show — understandably, since they are all desperate for funding — that they are a good things to invest in.”

But while the particular calculations of any study can be questioned, Mr. Baumol said, the general point about the impact of cultural institutions remains true. “Taken together, the cultural institutions, from Broadway theater to modern dance companies and opera companies, are really the key attraction of visitors to the city,” Mr. Baumol said. “There is no question they, together with the financial center, are among the primary ingredients in the city’s prosperity.”

In addition to the financial report, the museum announced plans for Mr. Aitken’s work, which will consist of five 15- to 20-minute films, depicting the stories of fictional New Yorkers. The images will be projected on MoMA’s exterior facades every evening between January 16 and February 12, 2007. Mr. Aitken described the work as “exploded cinema” and said he hoped to make the skyscrapers of Midtown “communicate with each other and become flesh and blood, pulsing and breathing.” MoMA commissioned the work jointly with CreativeTime, a public art presenter.

In his remarks, Mayor Bloomberg — who hailed MoMA and other cultural institutions for their contributions to New York’s economy — expressed hope that Mr. Aitken’s work would attract visitors to the city during the winter, typically the slowest time for the tourism industry. “Great art brings people out of hibernation,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

The president of the city’s tourism and marketing arm, NYC & Company, Cristyne Nicholas, said hotel occupancy generally declines by 10% and attendance to cultural and tourist attractions by 50% during January and February from their holiday highs. “Doug Aitken can help reverse that trend,” Ms. Nicholas said, adding that NYC & Company will be promoting his work, and other reasons to visit New York City in winter, around the world.

Whether Mr. Aitken can fulfill these hopes, in terms of attracting tourists, remains to be seen. He is certainly a respected contemporary artist, who has participated in both the Whitney and the Venice Biennales. But he is hardly a household name like Christo, whose “The Gates” brought about 4 million visitors to the city and generated $254 million in spending during its installation in Central Park in February 2005.


The New York Sun

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