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- Are museums still relevant?
- Haunted Beijing: Getting acquainted with the city's spooky side
- Back to the USSR: Soviet tourism posters on show
| Posted: 21 Aug 2013 08:02 PM PDT Ford W. Bell, president, American Alliance of Museums, answers our questions about the roles of museums and the challenges they face today 
Ford W. Bell, president, American Alliance of Museums, answers our questions about the roles of museums and their relevance today. CNN: What roles should museums today fulfill? Bell: At their core, museums are educational institutions, as essential to our communities as schools, libraries and utilities. Museums annually invest more than $2 billion in education programs each year, serving "pre-K-through-life," as we like to say. Museums in this country welcome some 90 million schoolchildren each year, and these students are not on the field trip as you and I understand them. Today, these field trips are extensions of the classroom. Museums have adapted to the strictures of No Child Left Behind, and in fact in some states museums are taking the lead in writing the state standards for education. All told, American museums provide 18 million instructional hours to K-12 students in America, and are invaluable to homeschooled children. Museums are also economic engines for communities large and small. One statistic I never tire of citing has been cited by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. They say that, for every $1 a municipality invests in cultural organizations, including museums, $7 are returned to the public coffers. That's a return that would make Warren Buffett swoon. Museums are also a big part of the cultural tourism industry in this country -- a $192 billion industry. And studies show that cultural tourists spend more and stay longer than other tourists. Three exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last fall and spring generated more than $700 million in economic activity for the city. That's astounding. But today museums are doing much, much more. Museums are committed to public service, and many museums are filling the social service gaps created by the recent economic downturn. Museums of various types are providing programs to children on the autism spectrum, to Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers, to veterans with traumatic injuries. Museums also offer English as a Second Language courses for new arrivals, free computer training to those needing to upgrade their job skills, and some truly visionary museums connect with underserved communities, working with families caught up in the juvenile justice system, and providing parenting classes to young mothers. Museums view this as keeping with their shared mantra of public service. CNN: How best do you think museums should achieve those aims? Bell: Museums need to become part of the social fabric of the community. They need to become community assets, and most are doing so, through innovative efforts like those described above. CNN: What is the risk that museums today are simply acting as 'collectors of stuff' -- and how can it be avoided? Bell: Obviously, museums are much more than mere collectors. For instance, many museums are leading research institutions. And those with living collections zoos, aquariums, gardens are leading the way in conservation efforts and conservation research. But do not underestimate the value of collecting things. Museums hold more than 1 billion objects, and together these constitute our shared heritages cultural, historic, scientific, natural. As the keepers, protectors, interpreters and exhibitors of these heritages, museums play an essential role.
In recent years, museums are playing perhaps an even more essential role, but one that is less tangible. In an increasingly virtual world, museums are among the last bastions of authenticity. All of us -- particularly the young -- are awash in all things virtual. But studies show that all of us -- again, especially the young -- crave the authentic. That is priceless. CNN: Do you think there is a conservatism within American museums that stops them extending their roles into new areas? Bell: As I've mentioned, I think museums are already extending their roles. The only element of conservatism comes from financial prudence. Since the Great Recession, our studies show that fully two-thirds of museums have reported financial stress. Many have been forced to cut staff, hours and programs. At the height of the downturn, even the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty -- arguably the two richest museums in the country -- cut their staffs. Further, museums stepping into the social service gap comes at a time when government support for museums is declining, from all levels of government. CNN: How many people are visiting museums these days and how has that changed over the last few years? Bell: Our studies over the last four years show museum attendance has been increasing. This is common when times get tough. When times are difficult, people return to their museums. For instance, we saw a big spike in attendance after 9/11. People want to re-connect with what they value. The Alliance and the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services estimate that there are 850 million annual museum visits in the US that's more than the attendance at all major league sporting events combined. The Smithsonian alone attracts more than 30 million visitors annually. This is a question of value. Not only are museums an educational, enlightening experience, but they are affordable. The median price of admission to a US museum is just $7; compare that to a baseball game or theme park ticket. And 37% of US museums are free, while 92% have free days. CNN: Which are the most popular or successful museums in America, and what do they do that allows them to succeed? Bell: Science centers and children's museums are immensely popular, and organizations like the San Diego Zoo and the National Aquarium in Baltimore really connect with visitors. But many small to mid-size museums also succeed to forging those community bonds that make their communities no more likely to entertain the museum going away as they would doing away with their schools.      |
| Haunted Beijing: Getting acquainted with the city's spooky side Posted: 21 Aug 2013 03:00 PM PDT Tortured souls and dates with the afterlife. New tour offers bloody insight into eerie Beijing 
At ground level, the city completely lacks mystery. Old buildings and streets are continuously bulldozed to make way for dramatic steel and glass skyscrapers. But despite the lack of abandoned cobblestone streets or creaky, haunted cathedrals, China's capital has a rich history of spooky stories -- mostly involving imperial intrigue and traditional superstitions. China-based Newman Tours explores some of these tales with its recently launched Beijing Ghosts tour, the only English-language excursion for people wanting to explore the city's eerie side. "We introduce [tourists] to all of the local ghost stories and folklore and try to scare them a bit while we're at it," says Daniel Newman, managing director of Newman Tours. Guide Christopher Pegg starts the evening tour from the Beihai metro station, leading visitors through two dozen stops in the winding hutongs –- narrow, maze-like alleys -– near Houhai Lake and around Prince Gong's Mansion for two hours of fright and fun. Traditional hutong homes and the stunning, enormous Prince Gong's Mansion provide the perfect backdrop for bone-chilling tales. The restored historic site may look cheery during the day with its gardens and bright colors, but it has a dark back story, says Pegg. Death from a thousand cutsHeshen, a renowned official during the Qing Dynasty, built Prince Gong's Mansion in 1777. "The Qianlong emperor at the time greatly favored Heshen and allowed him to get away with whatever he wanted," says Pegg. "Heshen loved to increase people's taxes and take the extra for himself; he was rumored to have millions of ounces of silver – a percentage of the national income.
"When Qianlong was very young, he went to play a trick on one of the concubines. He pulled on her hair, and she spun around and she smacked the little child. "But you're never allowed to hit the prince, so she was promptly beaten and demoted and, because she was shamed by all of this, she decided to kill herself." Emperor Qianlong was mortified by her death. "He was so distraught that he bit his thumb and left a bloody mark on the girl's neck because he wanted to be able to identify her in the next life," says Pegg. "Heshen was born the same year the concubine died and he looked a lot like the concubine -- he even had a red birthmark on his neck. "They say Heshen had Qianlong's favor because he was a reincarnation of the concubine. Of course, eventually Emperor Qianlong died and Heshen was not so popular any more and they promptly decided to execute him by slow slicing -- death by a thousand cuts." According to the legend, afterward bloody footprints were later outside Heshen's home -- he'd supposedly returned to look for his silver. Heshen's gruesome end sets the tone for the tour, as visitors weave through paths around the apparently haunted home of this poor soul. Getting hitched with a ghostTourists also learn about the twisted past of the Ming Dynasty's most notorious and murderous ruler, Emperor Yongle, and other horror stories from Imperial China's ruthless leaders. The most intriguing part of the tour is the chance to interact with Beijing's spirits -- and even marry them if desired. Pegg conducts ghost weddings, a tradition in China that allows unmarried spirits to tie the knot with the living. Brave participants can join a ghost in holy matrimony in a traditional Chinese ceremony.
"The main ceremony is honoring ancestors," Pegg says. "The head ancestor in heaven is the Jade Emperor; we have a picture of him so people can bow to him and it's great fun when people bring their parents -- you're supposed to honor them, as well." Sometimes a scarecrow is used as a stand-in for the ghost, but Pegg says often local ghosts are summoned, usually spirits called Mr. and Mrs. E. "'E' means hungry in Chinese," says Pegg. "The hungry ghost is a type of Buddhist ghost with a mouth that's pencil-thin so they can't eat anything in the afterlife -- we invite these starving ghosts to the wedding." Other activities on the tour include burning paper offerings, including money or paper clothes, for ancestors to use in the afterlife. Pegg also shows participants an example of traditional Chinese medicine for cuts, known for its popularity with headless ghosts who bang on pharmacy doors asking for medicine for their wounds. Beijing Ghosts: +86 (0)138 1777 0229; tours every Saturday-Sunday, 7-9 p.m.; 260RMB ($42) per person; email info@newmantours.com    |
| Back to the USSR: Soviet tourism posters on show Posted: 21 Aug 2013 05:41 AM PDT Hell hole? Hell no! Soviet tourism posters on display at a London exhibition paint a picture of an earthly paradise A holiday? In the Soviet Union? A healthy spell wielding a plow on a collective farm, perhaps? Or maybe a not-so-short stay in a gulag? All vicious propaganda if you believed tourism chiefs in the 1930s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. A fascinating exhibition in London of early Soviet tourism posters -- the inaugural show at the Gallery for Russian Arts and Design (GRAD) -- reveals a land apparently close to the earthly paradise promised by communism's pioneers. Bold, bright art deco designs by some of the most talented Soviet artists and designers show off health resorts, romantic forests, soaring mountain drives and golden beaches -- complete with gushing oil pylons off-shore -- within Russia and her loyal socialist republics. The exhibition startlingly refutes any lingering impression you might have had that Russia under Stalin, in the early decades at least, was a forbidding place that sought to keep away foreigners' prying eyes. On the contrary: through Intourist, the Soviet tourism agency, communist propagandists sought to promote the USSR as a superior civilization -- or getting there, anyway -- to which other countries might aspire. Foreigners on a recce -- presumably as long as they avoided those gulags -- were more than welcome. More prosaically, in those post-revolutionary years, the Soviet Union desperately needed hard foreign cash for industrialization. Then, as now, in developing countries, tourism could help pave the way to a better future. Through tourism, too, these often beautiful posters paint a picture of an optimistic age (assuredly this wasn't the case for the early victims of Stalin's repression) that would soon come crashing to an end. Such bustling, cheerful, often paradisiacal scenes would have been far harder to conjure after the horrors of World War II. The task of representing Russia as a tourism destination now, with its flashy billionaire class on the one hand and political crackdowns on the other, surely remains a work in progress. "See USSR" is on display at the Grad Gallery (3-4a Little Portland St., London; +44 (0)20 7693 1000) until the end of August.
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