Abstract

Research informs us that one of the statistically verified determinants of the competitiveness of a city is the vitality of its cultural institutions. This is in part because cultural institutions enhance the image of a city and because highly skilled and educated workers will not move to a city that lacks them. This not just for the enjoyment of the workers but also because they insist that their children be exposed to high quality music, art, theater and dance. Our empirical study of the vitality of cultural institutions in 35 cities in the US, EU, and, as a special case, in Italy, has made it clear that the vitality of these cultural facilities is strongly dependent upon the participation of seniors – those individuals who are 50-80 years of age. Audiences are in excess of 60 percent seniors and financial sponsors are usually 75 per cent or more composed of seniors. Seniors of the decades to come will be healthier, wealthier, better educated and more mobile than has ever been the case. In our presentation we will examine the experiences of cultural facilities in cities with their senior populations, identify “best practices”, and offer a set of policies that can be implemented by the directors of cultural facilities to assure their future financial and audience vitality.