As baby boomers reach retirement age their love of Australia’s cultural institutions remains steadfast. What can younger generations expect and is this necessarily a bad thing?
Baby boomers seem to have it all. They were born in the post war golden era, bought houses cheap, got to see great music live and they have huge amounts of disposable income. As they reach retirement age they also have the most precious resource of all – time. And a lot of this time is being used to go see art.
Their tastes are a little different to the retirees we’ve been used to. This isn’t the sea of grey haired ladies lining up for their Wednesday matinee armed with boiled lollies, neatly rolled hair and a healthy dose of political incorrectness. Not at all.
These guys have seen The Beatles, they’ve participated in a sexual revolution and just like they did when they traversed new ground and rattled the cages of the conservative generations above them, they’ll be taking on their twilight years in a fashion that the world has not seen before.
It will certainly be an interesting few years and the impact upon our arts and cultural institutions is likely to be felt.
What happens when Baby Boomers retire and are able to attend almost every session at a film or comedy festival? They can make up the majority of weekday attendees at exhibitions. They can afford to buy art and they don’t have to worry about getting the kids to bed early, so weeknight theatre sessions get the green light as well.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the youngest of the Baby Boomer generation will turn 65 in 2031; by then the percentage of the population aged over 65 is estimated to reach approximately 22%. That is one fifth of the population that could be driving programmers with dollar signs in their eyes.
They say the world belongs to the young, but in this case it seems that the older generations have it all.
The Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series is a good example of the success that exhibitions that appeal to the aging set can have. But the gallery has been clever, careful to draw in the older crowds but not excluding the younger ones. Monet’s Garden for example, which opens this weekend, combines two things that the over 50s love: The Impressionists and gardening. Yet the Winter Masterpieces series has offset that with Hollywood Costumes, which through its combination of old style Hollywood glamour and modern day popular culture manages to capture the attention of all ages.
Where our cultural institutions need to be careful is not to alienate the younger generations, because while their numbers are smaller it is crucial that they are engaged in arts and culture from a young age and that exhibitions catered to them are still included in programming. Most galleries are aware of this and are but there is pressure to be predictable and to appeal to the biggest audience.
Nevertheless, the generation gap between the Baby Boomers and the rest of us is less than that encountered during the 60s and 70s, so perhaps it might be an easier job for programmers to select something that everyone can enjoy. No one could argue with the mass appeal of artists like The Beatles or Andy Warhol.
Perhaps Art Gallery of WA, the Art Gallery of NSW and QAGOMA and the Art Gallery of SA and other major cultural institutions are starting to alter the way they think about the types of exhibitions they will hold over the next decade or so. Certainly stalwarts like the Winter Masterpieces will remain and so will Wednesday matinees, but with free time comes new opportunity, so maybe we’ll even see a few take up creative producing themselves.
