Crystal Bridges Museum Will Attract New Breed of Tourist

An entire industry is built upon valuating, buying and selling master works of art that fetch prices in the millions, but the museum aspect of the art world offers something priceless – the experience.

The opportunity to see a work up close and personal that one might’ve only seen in books will be the primary draw to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art when it opens on Nov. 11. There’s no doubt Northwest Arkansas will benefit from that draw, introducing a new concept to the state called cultural tourism.

The Washington D.C. group, Americans for the Arts, estimates the national arts and culture industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity every year.

But it will be a while before Northwest Arkansas knows how much of that pot will eventually find its way into the local economy. Much of it depends on the number of people from out of area who travel here to view the collection and, some say, the level of amenities available to more expectant clientele. 

Don Bacigalupi, executive director of Crystal Bridges, is reluctant to peg a number of total expected visitors, but did say the museum is “making plans to accommodate between 150,000 and 300,000” visitors per year, which includes local and repeat visitors. 

Bacigalupi’s predecessor, Bob Workman, told the Business Journal in 2007 that expected attendance was about 250,000. That number hasn’t been officially updated but is still used by many as a general, hopeful guide. It also included local and repeat business.

Tom Ginn, vice president of economic development with Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, cited a study by the American Association of Museums that says the typical cultural traveler spends “$994 a trip, versus $611 for other leisure travelers…”

Ginn thinks that number might be high. He and Kalene Griffith, president and CEO of the Bentonville Advertising and Promotion Commission, came up with a more conservative but realistic scenario of $500 per visitor, per visit.

“So if you conservatively figure 5,000 [visitors] per month and multiply, that comes to a $2.5 million direct impact,” he said, “or a $30 million direct impact on an annual basis.”

Ginn’s visitor estimate is about a quarter of the 250,000 number bandied about.

Crystal Bridges will employ about 100 people, Bacigalupi said, not including security staff. It’s premature to cite an operating budget for the museum because the building’s not even complete, but it’s projected to be about $10 million, he said.

According to the museum’s 2009 form 990, the most recent available, it had $109.38 million in total assets.

Total procurement expenses that year were $17.29 million.

 

Pop Culture

In January the Northwest Arkansas Council unveiled a strategic plan to help create jobs and boost the local economy.

Part of the plan, which was developed by Market Street Services of Atlanta, contained a “target cluster analysis,” or an assessment of Northwest Arkansas’ most likely future employment sectors.

There were eight clusters. Three were historical – retail and supplier, food processing and transportation – and five diversification segments.  One of those was titled “arts, entertainment and tourism.”

“Many occupations in this target are low-wage and allow unskilled labor pools to get started in the world of work,” the report reads. “However, there are many quality career tracks in the greater tourism sector … Further, tourism benefits the region as an export-oriented sector, drawing dollars from outside the region and has the potential to create a positive perception of the region. Every visitor is a potential investor, worker, or resident.”

Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business & Economic Research and the area’s chief economist, recently said to a crowd gathered for the annual economic forecast luncheon, “We need to seize the now moment.”

At least part of that statement referred to the Council’s study and the forthcoming Crystal Bridges.

“When you think about Northwest Arkansas and you look at enplanements at XNA, [people] weren’t here to vacation,” Deck said. Crystal Bridges will give the area an attraction of “magnitude,” she said.

“In order to leverage Crystal Bridges, we have to develop other attractions,” Deck said.

Benton County has about 3,000 hotel rooms, but there may be a need for more upscale amenities and restaurants.

Steve Wilson and his wife Laura Lee Brown will break ground on a 130-room hotel called the 21c Museum Hotel in downtown Bentonville soon. The hotel, slated for a 2012 open date, is valued at $28 million and could result in as many as 160 permanent full-time jobs.

 

Art History

There is at least some evidence for visitation in the 250,000-range. Leigh Hamer, media relations officer with the St. Louis Art Museum, said it had 304,804 visitors in 2010, down significantly from nearly 410,000 in 2009. She attributes the drop to an expansion project that started in January of 2010. In 2008, the museum had 376,000 visitors.

The St. Louis Art Museum does not charge admission, which can be a factor, especially in large cities, so it does not capture “tourism” data.

Crystal Bridges is still working through the process of how much it will charge and even if it will charge at all, spokeswoman Sandra Edwards said.

Mark Zimmerman, director of administration for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, said his museum had more than 359,000 visitors in 2010, up about 11,000 from 2009.

He attributed the rise to the excitement around a re-launch of a permanent exhibit.

“We’re budgeting for about 350,000 visitors per year,” Zimmerman said.

Though its annual budget is $24 million, Nelson-Atkins also is a free admission museum. Unlike St. Louis, however, Zimmerman knows its demographics because he recently worked with a marketing firm to see who was coming. Based on focus groups, phone surveys and on-site surveys, and excluding the 60,000 or so schoolchildren brought for field trips, about half of the visitors are from out of town.

The museum’s sphere of attraction is from Oklahoma City to Des Moines, he said.

“Is it a good number? Yes,” Zimmerman said. “It represents a higher percentage of participation than others in the region.

“Do we think the number can be impacted and developed? Yes.”

Nelson-Atkins spends little on advertising, but does what it can to leverage good public relations when, he said.

Crystal Bridges has “a very strategic plan” to draw patrons, Bacigalupi said, speaking about out-of-towners. Public relations and targeted advertising will play heavily.

The museum wants to draw from the rest of the world, but it also will serve the community, he said.

As for the collection? He said the 50 to 60 pieces that have been announced are a “fraction” of the total but that the majority will be on display soon after the November opening.

“We’re not collecting for storage,” Bacigalupi said.

He reflected on how upon seeing a Jackson Pollock painting in person was the impetus for him to drop out of pre-med and eventually earn his Ph.D. in art history.

“It will be a huge impact on many peoples’ lives,” said Guinn of the Bentonville Chamber. “Not just by the dollars, but some person is going to go in there and say ‘Golly! I can do that.’ and they may go to school.

“Those kinds of impacts,” he said, “you can’t measure those.”