Museums, the Building of Wealth Clusters and Soft Power

Abstract

Twelve individual museums or clusters of multiple museums in every U.S. region demonstrate that museums co-locate and often share neighborhoods with parks, zoos, university, and hospital facilities. Areas around the largest multiple heritage attraction clusters in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago have become exclusive areas for wealthy and healthy. In rapidly growing places like Houston and San Diego the pattern is being repeated leading to distress among incumbent groups that do not want to lose their space and their cultural presence. Local government wants the money but in some communities face strong opposition. The threat of displacement is strong in parts of Cleveland, Indianapolis, New Orleans, and other less affluent neighborhoods. The reality is that museums are on top of the ladder as heritage attractions, and they have considerable support from private and government supporters to help build soft power which allows local and business to attract more business, jobs, and taxes to their communities. Without strong support and even with support, communities face a near impossible task trying to slow down the building wealth and health clusters around museums and other heritage attractions.