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Museums in the Neighborhood: evaluating the socio-economic impact of museums. Stephen Sheppard, Williams College and C 3 D American Association of Museums Denver, Colorado April 30, 2008. Museums can be powerful sources …. Of economic development
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Museums in the Neighborhood: evaluating the socio-economic impact of museums Stephen Sheppard, Williams College and C3DAmerican Association of MuseumsDenver, ColoradoApril 30, 2008
Museums can be powerful sources … • Of economic development • Productive organizations that produce goods and services • Bring visitors to community who make purchases from other firms and organizations • Generate employment that helps support the neighborhood • Of community development • Create pride in community and wider awareness of neighborhood • Generate contacts with other communities and neighborhoods • Build networks of interactions or potential interactions between community organizations • Of quality of life • Improving educational opportunity and providing amenities to neighborhood • Providing social space and open space for public use • How to document and evaluate these impacts?
Income, employment, social network, quality of life • Income and employment • Attracting visitors and residents, purchasing inputs from local economy • Comparing museums with similarly sized establishments in other sectors • Museums often generate MORE income and employment than manufacturing or business services • Museums generally among the top 10 sectors • Communities don’t generally have to choose one or the other • Social Network • Museums provide social space • Museums forge partnerships in community • Weaving the fabric of social network • Quality of Life • When quality of life improves, demand for neighborhood increases • Directly measured in additional value • Relative to other neighborhoods in the urban area • Relative to time before museum opened or expanded
Seeing the network of community partners Forging links between affluent and poor neighborhoods
Improved QOL increases demand for neighborhood Larger impacts for neighborhoods closest to museum
Conclusions • While the exact amounts vary, all of the museums we have studied show: • Positive local economic impacts for income and employment • Impacts that compare favorably to other economic sectors for comparable organizations • Powerful abilities to forge social networks between different groups and different neighborhoods • Positive impacts on local quality of life that increase the demand for residence in the neighborhood • Contributions to wealth creation in the community • These findings have important implications for museums • Motivation for local financial support for museum • Socio-Economic health of community can be an important part of museum mission