Rosita Gallasch’s report on Saul Eslake’s address to museum people on Monday is right on the money. He’s no ordinary economic commentator and he does know how to join dots.
When he says that cultural institutions such as museums and art galleries are going to find public funding “tight” it’s true. He’s talking about the tip of that ominous iceberg called ‘fiscal accountability’.
Otherworldly ‘Ivory Towers’ that once held out in splendid isolation to muse upon the world are beginning to crumble. Almost noiselessly, the winds of change are disturbing the dust and tumble weed in troublesome ways for elitist musers.
Saul Eslake’s “personal” intuitions might well be much more informed than he dare give himself credit for. Musingplaces actually do offer real dividends and are not in competition with “schools, hospitals and the police”. Not by necessity anyway!
Catchwords like ‘interfacing technologies’, ‘social networking’, ‘efficiency and productivity dividends’, ‘crowdsourcing’, ‘crowdfunding’, ‘citizen curator’ etc. are increasingly coming together to deliver much more for much less in musingplaces.
All this is going on well below the tip of that fiscal iceberg Saul Eslake is reporting on. Nonetheless, he does seem to be suggesting, musingplaces need to get busy joining some dots … and smartish!
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