Deagan Urbatsch

From the outside looking in, one could argue that millennials aren’t investing in themselves. They are renters, constantly shuffling from one apartment to the next looking for the cheapest monthly fee to go along with their myriad of streaming service subscriptions, care packages and meals-by-mail delivery services that sustain their nomadic lifestyle. They give no thought to the future because the future of the planet is uncertain, perhaps the least certain it has been in a century. So, how can the baby boomers expect them to care about the past when they give no thought to the future?

A museum is an archaic thing by nature. The baby boomer generation tended to “age into” an appreciation for art, a process that museum owners are hoping that their millennial successors will do as well. This sets unrealistic expectations for young adults that are not based on reliable data. In contrast, concrete data was provided by qualified museum trends researcher Colleen Dilenschneider which revealed millennials do not visit cultural institutions at the same rate as other generational cohorts during early adulthood and may never “age into” arts in the same way. The survey was created and implemented by her marketing company, IMPACTS, and was carried out from June 13 – June 17, 2017.

Silvia Fillipini-Fantoni, author of “To Charge or Not to Charge – Museums and the Admission Dilemma,” feels like the future of museums is murky. “We do not have any proof yet that the new generation of millennials is really going to fulfill the same role and be as engaged in our institution,” she said. “We have a hard enough time getting them to come in the first place, so how do we know they will sustain us in the future.” A millennial college student, who is at the tail end of the generation, is particularly preoccupied by technology and is resistant to institutions that do not accommodate their preference for it.

The American Alliance of Museums has come to terms with these preferences. “Millennials are the first generation of digital natives, and they expect their museum visits to seamlessly conform to their digital lifestyle.” A college student spends 17.8 hours a day on some sort of media, according to Ipsos MORI. 4 billion people use technology daily, which is more than half of the world’s population. Every museum must adapt or lose this audience forever.

Works Cited

“Arts and Culture Remain Less Important to Younger Generations,” Know Your Own Bone, https://www.colleendilen.com/2017/07/12/arts-culture-remain-less-important-younger-generations-data/

“Millenials: Myths and Realities,” Ipsos, https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/millennial-myths-and-realities

“The Millennial Museum,” American Alliance of Museums, October 28, 2016, http://labs.aam-us.org/buildingculturalaudiences/the-millennial-museum/

“To Charge or Not to Charge – Museums and the Admission Dillemma,” MuseumNext! Dublin, 2016